Michael Arrington doesn’t get search

Posted by Michael Martinez on April 10, 2008 in General

Michael Arrington seems to feel that it would be better for the Web if Microsoft absorbs Yahoo!.

As I have pointed out before, Microsoft cannot possibly build a unified brand quickly enough to retain combined market share with Yahoo! Nor will Microsoft allow the Yahoo! brand to co-exist on an equal level with the Microsoft brand. Steve Ballmer doesn’t believe his technology team will overtake Google’s technology team, so he wants to join forces with Yahoo!’s technology team.

Eliminating Yahoo!’s management team (who are better at competing in search than Microsoft’s management) will basically clear the field for Google.

IAC doesn’t get search so it saddled Ask on the sidelines rather than leveraging the Ask search tools across the IAC network. Hence, despite $100 million in television advertising Ask was unable to move its superior search technology into a truly competitive market share.

Microsoft doesn’t get search and it continues to lose market share because its stale and quirky results are neither comprehensive enough nor fresh enough to provide incentive for people to switch away from Yahoo! or Google.

Yahoo! barely gets search but is coming off of a multi-year dance with media and entertainment. Yahoo! at least bought up other search companies several years ago and incorporated experienced search design teams into its staff. It’s the braintrust not the brand that Microsoft wants to acquire from Yahoo!.

Google is forgetting what search is all about, creating opportunities for Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Ask to innovate and launch new initiatives. Unfortunately, IAC has given up on search and Microsoft has dragged Yahoo! into a wholely unnecessary battle for corporate assets that Microsoft cannot leverage into a capable search platform.

Microsoft will undoubtedly increase its advertising network’s reach if it takes control over Yahoo!’s advertising network and it may be that Steve Ballmer really only cares about the advertising revenues. Microsoft’s threat to sue Yahoo! if they join advertising forces with Google seems to indicate that Microsoft’s deeper concern here is about money. After all, there is no money in search without the advertising and it would behoove Microsoft to have its own ads served across the Yahoo! network.

The search industry is probably about to drop into a long dark age dominated by the squalor of Google’s Web Apartheid. People who have been able to count on traffic from Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Ask when Google closes them out will see their search alternatives shrivel and wither like farms in the Great Depression of the 1930s. The psychological impact of a Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo! will send repercussions across the Internet.

People will wake up and remember why they have long hated Microsoft. Maybe our only hope will be the European Union, who seem to have no love for Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Google. Keeping all three brands alive and separate will serve every market’s interests better than allowing any two of them to merge.. Search thrives on diversity not homogeneity.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer, associates, or other interested parties.

2 Comments on Michael Arrington doesn’t get search

By wibbler on April 14, 2008 at 3:09 pm

“The search industry is probably about to drop into a long dark age dominated” - by google.
MM - I feel that a drop into the dark ages occurred years ago.
“People who have been able to count on traffic from Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Ask when Google closes them out”
When you say “closes them out” - what do you mean? Am I interpreting your comment there correctly by assuming you mean literally that by “closes them out” you mean a combination of things like deranking affiliate sites, putting good content into the supplemental index hardly ever to be seen?
Is there a way you could possibly expand on “closes them out” to paint a picture of how you feel google “hurts” websites - and perhaps the kind of websites which are indeed being “closed out”.?

Thanks - yes - I am for one pretty worried that left with only google as an option I may have to close up shop.
Wibbler.

By Michael Martinez on April 15, 2008 at 10:38 am

Compete, comScore, Hitwise, and Nielsen all still use bogus statistics to measure search market share. Right now, Google probably controls about 40% of real search market share. If Yahoo! and Microsoft merge you can expect to see Google capture about 10% additional real market share.

If they acquire more than 80% of real market share, they’ll be an effective search monopoly.

What people don’t see is that Google has — through its Google Appliance program — moved into Enterprise Search in a big way. There was a time when Enterprise Search was where the real money was. It’s still a big market. If end up in a world where 90% of all Web and Enterprise searches are performed on Google technologies, you can expect to see some significant government scrutiny (far more than we have now).

It would not be unreasonable for people to ask for a Google breakup (the way AT & T was broken up years ago).

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Michael Martinez is the Director of Search Strategies for Visible Technologies, Inc. A former moderator at SEO forums such as JimWorld an Spider-food, Michael has been active in search engine optimization since 1998 and Web site design and promotion since 1996. Michael was a regular contributor to Suite101 (1998-2003) and SEOmoz (2006).

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