Yahoo and MSN merge search – it’s official : Search Engine Snark

The deal that was soooo close to happening so many times and never came through, well, finally came throughwith a lot less lead-up and fanfare than anytime it was rumored to be happening. I think this will be a good opportunity for Yahoo to spend time working on its content even more, and to help it rank better on Google, which is where I think more people will ultimately be searching as a result of this move.

I always had a soft spot for Yahoo and wanted them to pull through. They were and still are my home page because they’re an awesome information portal, and I even used their search functions more often than Google. That is, up until late last year when they started making massive changes to their algorithm that rendered them a distant #2 in relevance rather than a close #2. And if Yahoo right now is a distant #2, MSN / Bing / Binghoo / whatever they’ll call it is a distant #3, voted Most Likely to be Dripping With Spam of the big three engines. I hope the math of this deal doesn’t count on huge growth in search, because without some significant cleanup of the MSN / Bing algorithm, both Yahoo and MSN might be able to continue driving profits from their display media but they’ll ultimately lose more searchers to the much more relevant Google.

Another thing at risk due to this deal: Diversity of options. A lot of people on the search side and the business world are applauding this as serious competition for Google. I see it as a serious cutback in search options for consumers. We’re now down to two primary options for search, and one of them is mostly useful if you’d like to click on affiliate links as a result of your search. At least with three major players there was the hope that someone else could present solid search competition to Google. I’m a red in tooth and claw capitalist, and I’m not saying this should be stopped in the interest of the consumer, but the everyday individual isn’t going to be better off with fewer options to choose from. Still, it opens the door for someone to step up, figure out search and quietly step into a #3 position as a welcome alternative.

Eh. With all the Googlers involved with the current administration, this deal may be pretty far from being done anyway. Everyone be prepared to hear a company that owns 75% of the real estate in the search market use the word ‘antitrust’ and ‘anticompetitive’ with regards to its competitors.

So, with that out of my system I’m gonna go pick some daisies or something to get me in a cheerier mood!

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