Loading ...Yahoo and Microsoft have finally partnered in a search agreement. A deal has been anticipated ever since Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo for 44.6 billion in early 2008. This current proposed deal however, looks nothing like that original offer. The companies have not disclosed all financial terms of the deal, but it does not appear that Yahoo received any upfront payment.
In summary, Microsoft will power Yahoo Search and Yahoo will become the exclusive search advertising provider for Microsoft’s search engine, Bing. Microsoft’s AdCenter will operate self-service advertising for both companies, but each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force.
In an interview with WebProNews, search industry leader Danny Sullivan summed up his thoughts by saying what the deal meant for each company. He said, “[A] big win for Microsoft, a lot of questions for Yahoo.”
The deal will likely face a close antitrust review from regulators especially regarding Steve Ballmer‘s claim that the partnership would provide a stronger competitor for Google.
It is still early, but nonetheless, there are many unanswered questions associated with the deal. Could Yahoo have bargained a better deal? How will Google respond? Is the deal a good move for Yahoo? How will the partnership influence the future of online advertising? What are the impacts on the SEO industry?
Even Danny Sullivan said it was too early to accurately speculate on what may happen, but he did say he didn’t expect any dramatic changes for SEO.
Provided the deal is granted regulatory approval, Yahoo and Microsoft said they hope to have their partnership finalized by early next year.
Yahmic.com
Took long enough.
Honestly, I don’t think either company by themselves can effect Googles dominance. Even combined I doubt they will be able to compete with G
As much as I think that Google has become too big for its boots and is monopolizing the web, I really can’t see Bing posing a credible threat to its position.
I’m currently managing five websites. All five appear on page 1 or 2 of Google searches for relevant search terms. NONE appears ANYWHERE in Bing searches for searches using these same terms. All five sites are listed on Bing – they just don’t turn up in search results. And two of these sites are major portals that have been around since 1995 and have thousands of backlinks from other websites.
If this is the same for other website owners (and I know of several whose sites do not appear in Bing search results), there will be little support for Bing.
In addition, Bing has zero personality. The site is tacky, and the search results are “all over the place”.
I’d like to see Google getting a run for its money, but if Bing is going to do it it will have to do a lot better than it is doing at the moment, both in terms of its appearance/presentation AND its search results.
Kate, I appreciated reading your post. I have a self-help book that is just coming out and, in anticipation of that, I’d developed several new websites as well as overhauled another. Furthermore, I had once again written articles for other sites. As a result, I had achieved the results I expected from Google. And then, I checked out Bing. Just like you, I was nowhere in sight. I’ve only been at this for about four years, so it shouldn’t be as alarming for me as it is for you. Still, after really trying to do things right, you don’t want to have it all disappear overnight. Furthermore, I’m trying to help people with my PTSD-related book. I have essentially supported myself while I did all of this since the book advance was small. Anyway, I hope people stick to Google since I don’t want to be forced to pay for Bing ads. I’m getting tired of working to make others rich when all I’m trying to do is benefit others. Sure, I’d like to get rich as well, but mostly I’d be content to have people learn about the book and then make enough sales to support me so I can write a foillow-up book–and do so without being forced to buy Bing advertising.
Google God is too big. Even Yahoo and Microsaft together cant’t with fight with Google. I am talking about lot of Asian countries school and college going youngesters~ if you talk them on any topic they always will refer that I searched this and that on Google. In those countries Google is household name. As in this post all comments suggest that how online marketiers are happy with Google. Let us see how Google God will face this Challenge.
Of course this will affect SEO. Right now I can get any keywords to the first page many times #1 overall on Yahoo in about 6 days. The other search engines are not this stupid and are much more difficult to get to the top in such a short time.
this will see some substantial changes to the landscape… While I do not believe it will knock google off its perch, It will definitely make a major dent into its market share… There has already been some hype around bing and this just adds to the marketing train..
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Guess this means some of us are going to have to learn Bing seo. I was getting roughly 20% of my traffic from yahoo and zero from bing. While google has been kind to me can’t take a near 20% hit and not least look into recouping some of it.
I don’t see this deal changing the market share landscape at all. Until Bing or some new search engine comes along and does a noticeablebly better job than google people will just stick with what works and google works. I remember when yahoo was the big kid on the block and their engine would return some really bad results and geeks looked for something better and we google (wasn’t hard we remembered when yahoo results was good and that little powered by google image under the old results). Then geeks told their friends to try google and the shift happened. Til google goes bad or Bing just becomes great it’s Big G in the dominate spot
Let us hope this corporate rivalry brings a new internet search experience.There is a need of rivals in market to check the perfectness & popularity of the brand like Google.Any way Google is always on top because it is so popular among netizens across the world .
Kate, Diane
I also have been around since the mid to early 90′s. My situation is about revers of yours. The domain listed above is only about 6 months old. I place VERY high in both BING and Yahoo and most other search engines. I was like coming out of the sandbox that google puts new web sites in and about 3 4 weeks ago I all but disappeared from google searches. I am indexed, NO errors are reported in webmaster tools. I have posted on the Google webmaster forum for a few weeks and NO ONE can find any problems with my site. So why would my search results for KEY words drop me in google from top 10 to 90th plus on same search terms? I was NOT only in top 10 but usually in top 3.
Only problem I see is I have 4 sitemaps… NOW and then in webmaster tools they can come back with errors. Lots of times when errors are shown it still shows the correct number of links. I re submit the sitemaps 1 to 4 times then they usually come back ok. Sometimes it takes a day or so. I never have CRAWL errors on individual pages. The sitemaps have been re uploaded and saved correctly in UTF-8 format.
Hi Ken,
I’ve often heard people complaining about Google’s “sandbox”, but I must say I’ve never experienced it myself. Every page/site I put online seems to get indexed by Google within a few days (and I don’t ever submit urls to G). So I don’t know what’s going on there. Obviously there is some parameter that Google uses to earmark some websites for the “sandbox” treatment.
Like you, I manage a property website (link above) – as well as several other sites covering diverse topics.
What I have found is that domain name counts for a lot – far more, imo (though others here would and have disagreed) than in-links from other sites. I put one site online just over a year ago with NO inbound links, and it was – and still is – listed at position #1, page #1 of Google search results for most relevant terms. The only possible reason is that the domain name is strong (a generic term for the business concerned).
Looking at your site I would say that you’ve done a good job overall, but I think you could get a lot more Google juice out of your title and description metatags. For a start, you a focusing on the most popular terms in a heavily competitive area, when you could be targeting your search results a bit more accurately, focusing on the services/features you offer that your competitors do not. Also, your description tag is more or less a repeat of your title. I think you could vary that (and add more) to improve your search results. Oh, and if I were you I would also include the “revisit after one day” tag. And one more thing: I didn’t see a link to your privacy policy on your site. Mr. G gives you brownie points for a PP : )
Anyway, that’s just my 2 cents… good luck with your site.
Kate,
Thanks so very much! I will do some of what U suggested. I openly admit I have NEVER really tried to cater a web site just to GOOGLE. I have always done more or less the world wide aspect. Trying to cater to as many search engines as possible. Easily done as most any good web site has multiple pages than can each be done individually…. years back meta files were NO NO for several search engines they would really lower your rating if U used them. So that was simple just do some web pages with good info that did not use them. Today is different as it seems everyone wants meta files of one kind or another.
Yes my description is exact copy of some wording on the page… One of the SEO tools I use gives me 100% for doing this. http://whois.domaintools.com/realestateozarks.com Could this be reason U are having trouble with Bing? Bing, yahoo, altavista, and many others seem to want a exact match. AT least from what I have seen.
OH OH thanks I will look up the PP … never thought of that for this web site.
U have a good looking web site
If U really want to get higher rankings in Bing and Yahoo I would be more than willing to give a hard look at what U have online… if so plz send me email from my web site. Just title it with your name and I will make sure it does NOT hit the spam folder.
Thanks gain
ken
Thanks, Ken, but we actually have good SE positioning on both Google and Yahoo (Yahoo puts us in 2nd position on page 1 for “property in the south of spain”, which is one of the most popular search terms for this business. And were at the top of page 1 of Google searches for most relevant search terms, so no problem there.
The same with the other sites I manage. They’re all at the top of Google and Yahoo. As I said, it’s only Bing that buries us under a mountain of rubbish; and I really can’t see Bing becoming successful – not unless the people who run it tighten up their act. It’s a terrible website, in my opinion, and it looks shabby.
Google has over 75% of the search market (here in Europe it’s over 80%), so really there’s no point bothering about other search engines. I’ll worry about Bing if and when it becomes popular, but for the moment Google is still the only game in town.
Re your description being an exact copy of some wording on the page, that’s not a problem. The problem – or the wasted opportunity, imo – is using the same terms in your title and description. Both could be longer, and both could target a niche market instead of competing head-on with generic search terms being used by thousands of other websites in your category.
Anyway, all the best, and good luck with your website.
Thanks once again Kate!
I have done much of what U suggested… well tweaking wise with description. I understand I am in a competitive market… but here at the Lake if U look around at Realtor web sites they are terrible. It why I place so high in most all other search engines. I was there in Google as well, few weeks back.
U mentioned not ever seeing the sandbox… I can tell U how to do it
I also have 1 page domains that place in top 10 that never hit the sand box. If U want to see it just start a domain under one U currently have like http://www.yourdomain/newdomain... run it for about a month to 6 weeks [do this off of a GOOD domain that is well indexed so U get indexed fast] Build the domain so it has about 4-6 pages… then do everything correctly and move it to its own domain name. Then add about 40 pages in a week or 2. BINGO U have entered the SANDBOX. 
Basically as I see it or have experienced it 2 much 2 fast is NOT good. Google does not want someone to find a nitch exploit it after building it up fast then only to sell it. So the sandbox is there to prevent this. Basically as I under stand it.
In my case I got caught it in because I thought I was doing correctly. 2 start I only intended on doing about 4 web pages and did them under a old established domain that has been around since mid 90′s. Problem was it was or is a .ORG My conscience got to me and I felt selling commercial real estate under a .org was wrong… so I try and do correct and I got the sandbox. LOL
It just makes no sense at all to me to fall from the “common” searches on google that I should show up in… my domain name for one real estate ozarks as a search … Google had me at #1 with this search. I still do place in some searches that I consider off searches on google… I put 4-6 domains I run in the top 10 on 2 searches I know of.
I noticed today that under the google webmaster tools that it no longer shows what web page was most popular over last 3 months… I have heard/read and hope this is the case that when Google ups your PR often people fall temp from searches.
Once again thanks so much for your help!
ken
Google may be good-but Bing is MUCH better when it comes to giving relevant results
A simple look at almost any keyword search will show the difference-Google results will list out of date and even sites that no longer update-and ignore the sites that count today-Bing gets it right much more often.
Now that Yahoo will be influenced by Bing I expect that results will be even more relevant.
Sorry, but I couldn’t disagree more. A couple of the sites I manage have been around since the Internet began; they have thousands of backlinks to them, tons of excellent content, and have been “authority” sites for years. They appear on page one of Google for relevant search terms. They appear NOWHERE on Bing for those same search terms. However, the sites that DO appear on page 1 of Bing include some of the most tacky and dodgy sites in that class – including off-the-shelf template sites that have only been online for a few months and have zero credibility/reputation. In fact several are just plain scam websites that will presumably disappear without trace when the police get on the trail of their owners (unless they’re in Russia).
Just to give one example: http://www.granadaproperties.com is one of the best-known property websites in the south of Spain, and is regarded as *the* property website in the Granada region. A Google search for “property in granada” or “property in the south of spain” puts it at the top of page 1 search results. Bing buries it on page #12, under dozens of minor websites, some with little or no relevance to the terms used in the search (and several which actually pay to advertise on granadaproperties.com!).
Exactly the same thing happens with the other websites I manage (I could mention them, but I don’t want to be accused of spamming). In every case they are established sites which appear on either page 1 or 2 of Google for the most relevant search terms, but NOWHERE in Bing searches, or buried under tons of non-relevant trashy websites.
I’ve spoken to several other webmasters and they report exactly the same thing. The sites they’ve been improving and developing for years either don’t exist on Bing, or are buried beneath hundreds of poor quality sites which contain very little content and have only been online for a short time.
Obviously you are going to be happy with Bing (a terrible name, btw) if it returns your site on page 1 of its search results. All I can tell you is that the five websites I manage (and several others I help to run part-time) are at or near the top of Google (because they have good, relevant content) and at the bottom of the pile on Bing. There has to be something wrong with that.
Oh dear, I’m apparently one of the very few who is quite happy with Bing! I have a couple of dozen sites, most of which get more than 10 percent of their traffic from Bing – and it’s increasing. As for the site linked to: I just checked one of it’s main key phrases and it showed up on Bing’s first page, in position 1 and position 2. You sure won’t hear me complain!
Be well!
Jaap Verduijn.
I agree with you Kate. I’m supper high in Googlerankings and unseen on yahoo which logically means that one of the engines is less relevent and I don’t think it’s Google. But if Bing can’t cut the mustard to compete then we have a problem, because who else can?
Andrew
Australia
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That’s nice agreement from Microsoft and yahoo.Bing will be powerfull Search Engine and Yahoo Search will have powerfull mechine.I hope the Spirit will keep till the end…
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Yahoo was always known for fun and innovation, while Microsoft was staid and boring. I hope it does not spell the end of yahoo creativity.
Generally my concerns would be; What kind of our personal information data will be shared between the networks and how often? If we are not signed into an account with one but we are with the other, is that info now shared with both automatically, considering that now, they are one?
What are some of the new innovations going to do for us as individuals that don’t fall into the consumers, publishers and advertisers category?
What will the benefits be for all of us cell phone users with limited old school WAP browsers in relation to real time with quick and trouble free downloads etc…?
Will it in turn increase our capability’s in the selected industries and hopefully more areas as well??
With profits estimated at $5 million dollars and savings of $2 million dollars well that’s 7 million in profits ,so do we need to ask why?
http://bit.ly/viviti
this will see some substantial changes to the landscape… While I do not believe it will knock google off its perch, It will definitely make a major dent into its market share… There has already been some hype around bing and this just adds to the marketing train..
It is still early, but nonetheless, there are many unanswered questions associated with the deal. Could Yahoo have bargained a better deal? How will Google respond? Is the deal a good move for Yahoo? How will the partnership influence the future of online advertising? What are the impacts on the SEO industry?
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Hello there, I found your blog by way of Google even as searching for a related subject, your website got here up, it looks good. I have bookmarked to my favourites|added to bookmarks.
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