Yahoo! and Microsoft join forces to create powerful search
Yahoo! and Microsoft have been granted permission to shake up the search market and have teamed up to create a ‘competitive choice in search for advertisers and consumers.’
The initiative has been created to improve the search user experience by speeding the search process up and making the service much easier to use according to the Yahoo! Search Blog.
So what’s changing? It would appear from initial comments that Microsoft will now provide the basic search listings and ads for Yahoo! users, while Yahoo! continues to enhance search results listings.
Perhaps the most interesting observation coming from this is the rumour that Microsoft AdCenter will form the backbone of the new combined entity, as the advertising interface for Yahoo! and its partners. Microsoft AdCenter has only been around for a couple of years and is relatively new in comparison with the former technology used to power advertising on Yahoo! which has existed for over a decade.
The Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance will utilise the combined audience of nearly 577 million, which is obviously appealing to advertisers. Not to worry though, the transition is said to be as seamless as possible and will not be taking place until late 2010/early 2011.
More information can be found on the Search Alliance website.
