In mid-2009, the Yahoo-Bing merger became final and a wave of speculation hit the market about what it meant for the search industry, searcher experience, market competition, SEO & PPC implications etc.
We are now in Q2 of 2010 and the hype has died down, people got used to the merger and the key focus seems to be on Bing market share relative to Google. The irony is that slashing two engines into one was deemed the best strategy to give Google a run for its market share. Currently, market share figures for the US look as follows:
According to results published by Experian® Hitwise® on March 10, 2010 Bing’s share of search increased for a 3rd straight month, with share of search sitting at 9.7% compared to Google’s 70.95%.
Looking at market share data is fairly rudimentary and no less painful than when there were three major search engines in the ring. What many of us may have forgotten or chosen to block out is the fact that there are far more tangible implications of this merger awaiting us. Bing and Yahoo have 24-months to make the merger complete.
According to the Yahoo website, the split of services will be as follows:
Microsoft will be the provider of web, video and image results to Yahoo!, and the basic list of results provided will be the same as those displayed on Microsoft’s Bing engine. Microsoft will provide the search advertising platform (adCenter) that will be used by both companies, and will manage the search advertising marketplace.
Ultimately this means that Bing has 2 years to roll Yahoo’s Search Marketing program into its own, making Yahoo’s Paid Search obsolete.
Whoa, No More Yahoo Search?
A reality that all advertisers will have to face is that Yahoo Search will merge into Microsoft adCenter. What this means for both advertisers and agencies is that more focus should be placed on Bing to begin understanding the interface better, increase budgets and develop a more advanced Microsoft adCenter strategy.
Currently, the reality for many advertisers is that Microsoft adCenter gets the left over budget, while Google and Yahoo receive the bulk – this will need to change when Bing becomes the 2nd major paid search marketing platform after Google.
Expecting More from Bing
There are a number of reasons that advertisers and agencies alike may feel a sense of trepidation about the implications of this merger and Bing certainly should consider doing something about it in the near future. Otherwise Google AdWords may simply take the lion’s share of Yahoo Search’s previous budget allocation.
- Search Volume: Getting volume out of Bing is sometimes like pulling teeth.
- Poorer User Interface: The user interface is not intuitive, nor is it user friendly. In fact, between the big three, it is quite possibly the worst user experience.
- adCenter Desktop Tool: The tool does exist but a number of technical issues plague it thus often rendering it useless. This is incredibly frustrating as it becomes virtually impossible to work on large accounts without the possibility of doing bulk uploads. A Microsoft tool riddled with bugs… what a surprise!
- Customer Service: Getting anything organized with Bing requires the utmost patience because turnaround times are incredibly long. If it is billing associated, don’t hold your breath.
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Thanks Mark – that’s a fantastic idea. You’re right, there is a great deal of confusion out there about Yahoo from a consumer perspective.
Cenetergy, perhaps you would like to offer some further insight and reasoning to your comment? There must be some reason for which you do not agree?
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Thanks Mark – that’s a fantastic idea. You’re right, there is a great deal of confusion out there about Yahoo from a consumer perspective.
John, thanks for your input!
Strictly speaking, Yahoo calls it a ‘search alliance’ or as they previously described it last year, a ‘major deal with Microsoft’.
Yes, it is true that Yahoo will at face value still exist, but the search results will be syndicated from Bing and Yahoo Search will be integrated into Microsoft adCenter, which means advertisers will not be able to actively manage a paid search campaign on Yahoo.
So even though some elements will appear to be the same, there is a very real merger which is occurring. We’ve not quite yet witnessed the full implications given it has not been rolled out completely.
Cenetergy, perhaps you would like to offer some further insight and reasoning to your comment? There must be some reason for which you do not agree?
Poorer User Interface…This sounds so untrue.
You should write a follow up on what the alliance means for the search consumer. While the advertiser will have to move their Yahoo campaigns to AdCenter, the consumer will still be able to search on Yahoo.
I think there’s a still a misconception out there that the ability to search on Yahoo is going away. The platform is going away for the advertiser but the ability to search on Yahoo for the consumer is not going away.
This title is misleading. Bing and Yahoo did not merge. At one time Microsoft wanted to buy Yahoo’s search but the deal fell through. This is simply a joint selling arrangement.