There are many players in the battle for search engine supremacy. Google, Yahoo, and MSN are the biggest, with each company seeking a dominant position in an industry that is considered to be one of the fastest growing ever.
For a long period of time, the leader of the search engine war was, and still is Google, although recently, Google’s firm grasp on the search industry has loosened. Challengers to Google’s position are indeed present.
Two of the bigger companies prepared to unseat Google are Yahoo and MSN. Another search engine, called Nutch, is stepping up to the challenge as well. Nutch is currently in the design stages and is going to be an open source engine.
Michael Cafarella, creator of Nutch, believes that programmers having access to the algorithms and codes used will spearhead a new form of search engine innovation.
While Google’s lead is still acknowledged, a report in Reuters stated that “an estimated 60 percent of search queries do not yield the results users were after.” This emphasizes user desire for search result relevance.
To strengthen it’s challenge, Yahoo launched a local search service recently that integrates its map service with local business listings. Not to be outdone, Google also launched it’s own form of local search this month.
As Google’s oft-rumored IPO approaches, the challengers become bigger players. MSN and Yahoo continue to tweak and add new services to their respective search engines, as does Google. MSN is currently altering the way it’s paid search ads appear in a hope to increase revenue and search relevance.
While exact numbers are not known as of yet, the expected initial offering from Google stands to place the value of the company at or around the $15-20 billion neighborhood.
Murdok | Breaking eBusiness News
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