Microsoft and Yahoo have joined forces in hopes of battling against the biggest of the big giants in search-engine history: Google.
Even with the merger, Microsoft and Yahoo combined only make up 28% of the search market, which, pitted against Google’s 65%, does not look like good odds. They’re not looking at the market they have, though – they’re looking at the market they could get.
One of the reasons for Microsoft and Yahoo having difficulty gaining traction in the market was the lack of advertising. Since a disproportionate number of searchers used Google compared to Microsoft (8.4%) or Yahoo (19.6%), advertisers seeking bang for their buck naturally gravitated toward the search engine provider who could give them the biggest audience.
With a much larger portion of the search market in the combined “Microhoo,” the merger has a shot at being a valuable secondary market for advertisers.
The merger also means more data sharing, which in turn allows both companies to improve the way they perform searches on Yahoo.com and the newly launched Bing.com.
Data sharing could be the key; Microsoft was able to snag an impressive portion of the market in fairly short order by using their own search engine technology to rival Google’s ability to come up with the best matches. Better technology equals better searches, which may tip more of the market to Microhoo’s side.
Google doesn’t seem threatened. Their experience, they say, is that competition brings great things for users. Maybe they’re really not evil, after all.
