Microsoft and Yahoo! take on Google with search deal
LONDON - Microsoft and Yahoo! have announced a ten-year revenue-share search pact that will create what they hope will be a more credible search competitor to Google.
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Microsoft's Bing will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies' search advertisers.
Microsoft said the agreement will provide Microsoft's search engine, Bing, with the scale necessary to more effectively compete with Google, attracting more users and advertisers, which in turn will lead to more relevant ads and search results.
Microsoft will acquire an exclusive ten-year license to Yahoo!'s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing web search platforms.
Aadvertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft's AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter's automated auction process.
Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force.
Comments
Mark Palmer - 29/07/2009
Sorry i don't understand this. Could someone re-write this or re-o the solution from the perspective of "the benefit will be to....." and then add answers for....the consumer...the advertiser...agency...the Yahoo or MSN brand....and then the shareholders Feels like a compromise to be seen to be doing something vs an idea to a bigger vision. I might be wrong...so welcome any views.
Rob Pierre, Managing Director, Jellyfish - 30/07/2009
This new relationship is an interesting move; one which may be seen as a potential threat by Google. But for brands this link up represents an ultimately more accessible and cost effective opportunity to engage with consumers through PPC search via Yahoo and Mircosoft's sites than previously existed. Competition is a strong driver, so this announcement may well have an impact on pricing levels as Google and Yahoo fight over search budgets; Yahoo benefitting from the shear brute force Microsoft can bring to the table. But even considering the strength a united Yahoo and Microsoft can muster, whether this will help to catch up with Google's lead remains to be seen.