One of the biggest changes was the Yahoo-Microsoft search partnership. Although Yahoo still claims to be applying a slightly different algorithm to Bing‘s index, Clay believes that there will be a continual shift toward Bing. Google has steadily been a strong a leader in search, but the combined market share of Yahoo and Bing of approximately 30 percent is a powerful number that could cause some competition for the search giant.

When comparing the search engines to Web browsers, Clay said, “I think things shift, and I think that the leader is subject to change if they do things that the public doesn’t like.”

Another change that recently occurred was Ask’s decision to pull out of the search business. Clay pointed out that because Ask was not able to make an impact on the market, this decision would have a very minimal effect on the industry.

Although Ask is out, there is a new search engine on the scene called Blekko that wants to be part of the game. WebProNews recently spoke with its CEO and Co-founder Rich Skrenta who said that their goal was to the third search engine. While Clay believes Blekko is doing many things right, he doesn’t think that it will be the third search engine.

“You’d be a fool to ignore them. I just don’t know that a person that is a novice searcher is going to particularly know to go there,” he said.

He recommends waiting six months and seeing where it is at that point.

As new search engines emerge and join the battle, who will survive this search engine battle?

To learn more about Bruce Clay’s predictions, watch the full interview.

Ask.com product manager Ryan Massie thinks his company has the formula for success when it comes to the local search market. Massie told attendees at the Kelsey Group’s ‘Drilling Down on Local’ conference, “When someone comes to that search box and we give them exactly what we want–the right result, the right content, take them to the right page–they’re going to come back. That’s success.” Ask launched their local search product, Ask City, earlier this year.

Long running technology journal InfoWorld will come to an end in the world of print. Publisher IDG will focus on InfoWorld’s online version as well as events they will host. InfoWorld.com vice president Virginia Hines said on the site the move would, “remove the distraction of maintaining and fretting over a costly, nearly obsolete distribution channel.” The print version ends in April.

Viacom general counsel Michael Fricklas said YouTube is not protected by the DMCA when it comes to copyright infringement. Fricklas said in a Washington Post op-ed piece that DMCA safe harbor provisions are “not available to someone who ‘derives a financial benefit’ from copyrighted material he stores if he has the “right and ability to control” it.” Viacom is suing YouTube and Google for one billion dollars over infringement.