I spoke with Dan Thies (author of today’s feature article) earlier today about Microsoft Search and he shared a great observation: Microsoft’s strategy is about squashing competition, not competing with it.
What are your predictions for Microsoft Search?
That’s why their upcoming entrance into the search industry is so interesting. It’s like watching Kasparov walk into the world checkers championship – you have no idea how he’ll play, but you know he’s going to make some serious jumps.
I asked our resident SEO experts what their predictions were for Microsoft in 2004.
No MSN Search in 2004. MSN will not roll out their own search engine in 2004. They’ll continue to use Inktomi and Overture, both of which generate revenue. Microsoft’s “focus on search technology” will first manifest itself in enterprise search products, and possibly not until the release of their next operating system, the “Longhorn” OS. They will recognize that the big problem isn’t searching the web, it’s searching your own network. When they do roll out their own search engine, it will be part of their master plan to have Microsoft Office replace HTML.
Dan Thies
http://www.seoresearchlabs.com
MSN Search By July, 2004. Expect nothing in the first six months for web search, and expect a lot at year end. Microsoft has patience, and they can wait as long as it takes.
Bruce Clay
http://www.BruceClay.com
MSN To Settle Paid Inclusion vs. Algorithmic Results. Paid inclusion will become a battleground in 2004. In January 2004, Yahoo is expected to replace Google with Inktomi to power its main search results. Inktomi has a paid inclusion program, which is being combined with the paid inclusion programs of AltaVista and FAST and will be sold by Overture through resellers like Marketleap and Position Technologies. In 2004, this will fuel an ongoing debate between Google, which does not support paid inclusion philosophically, and Yahoo, which does.
Google will argue, “Our search results represent our editorial integrity, and we have no plans to alter our automated process, which works very well in gathering information and delivering highly relevant results.” Yahoo will argue, “Paid inclusion maximizes your reach by including pages that otherwise might not be crawled.”
The debate will become heated and watched closely by Microsoft, which plans to build its own crawler-based search engine. The winner will be determined when Microsoft announces which approach it believes provides the most relevant results. This won’t happen until late 2004 or early 2005.
Greg Jarboe
http://www.seo-pr.com
MSN Follows Google’s Lead. MSN officially launches MSN search based on their own technology (mid to late 2004). After some AskJeeves-like attempts to show paid results for the majority of the SERP screen real estate, they realize nobody trusts this model and decide to go to a Google-like spare screen with only Overture results on the right and two paid results clearly labled at the top of the page.
Since dropping Looksmart paid results in January, they announce they’ve been developing their own PPC engine and will spend 6 billion dollars in developing it over the next ten years, incorporating search into the Longhorn operating system – delayed again year-end to make security upgrades.
Mike Banks Valentine
http://SearchEngineOptimism.com
Should Google be scared? Post your thoughts in the forum!
Breaking News. It’s official: Google chose Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs to manage their IPO. The estimated market value right now is 12 billion, with sales expected to start in April.
Many Google advertisers believe they’re losing some ROI because they can’t bid separately for placement in the Google search listings and Google AdSense listings. Are you a Google advertiser? Read More Here.
More “official” talk of Yahoo’s imminent Google dump. Some predict the shift will happen within the month, and it’s no surprise that Yahoo broke the news in the Wall Street Journal, at the same time that Google announced their choice of IPO brokers. The true search wars are just now starting.
Best Wishes,
Garrett French + The Murdok Team
Garrett French is the editor of Murdok’s eBusiness channel. You can talk to him directly at WebProWorld, the eBusiness Community Forum.
