The Next Google?
Posted by: Bob Dunlap, Director of Marketing
If you are an internet marketer, I’m sure you are watching the merger (takeover?) talks between Microsoft and Yahoo with the same level of interest that we are.
We don’t have a dog in that fight, but it still has far-reaching implications for our industry. A lot of successful affiliates are successful because they’ve figured Google out – among other things. Google is a verb for a reason. They are the 800lb gorilla. But what if the merger goes through?
If there is a merger, Google won’t be displaced overnight. Recent market research shows that Microsoft and Yahoo would still have a long way to go in trying to dethrone Google. Maybe the combined search engines wouldn’t have an impact on the search marketing industry at all, in the short term. Combining the number two and three search sites together, though, might change some of the rules of the game, bring a new twist to the paid search marketplace, and make Google sweat a little. Who knows how that would impact searches – or pricing for keywords?
Even if this merger doesn’t end up happening or takes a different form than the original takeover plan, it’s an important reminder that the online world is never stable. Just when we think we have it mastered, a new player comes along that changes the rules, like Google did for search, YouTube did for online video and MySpace did for what we now call social media.
The rules that have applied to our brick and mortar friends for years apply to the online marketplace as well – the people that stay in business the longest are the ones that quickly adapt to changes in the marketplace. That’s why we’re always innovating at ClickBank, and we’ve seen that the most successful affiliates are always ready to innovate, too.
Would a Microsoft-Yahoo merger change the way you operate as an affiliate? If so, tell us how by leaving a comment.
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Microsoft is trying their best to take over the world but they simply cannot do it. Their ideas are not innovative, conservative I would say.
They could buy Yahoo and every other search engine on the World Wide but they will never come close to what Google is. Google has been around for a little too long and is growing a little too fast for those folks at Microsoft.
Microsoft failed with PC’s, portable music and many other things – their “SUPER” search engine project is just another big fail.
A merger between Microsoft and Yahoo would be very interesting! It would totally spin around the current game, and would open new doors for newcomer affiliates and publishers such as myself! I’m all for it, and whether it’s a Yahoo Microsoft or Google Yahoo deal, I can’t wait to see what happens.
I’m fairly new at this but I agree with them both. Even I knew Microsoft was a giant before ever touching a keyboard. But are their motives as dastardly as world domination? Call me blind but I don’t see that. Maybe they worked and made things happen. The earth lets us live here. We live by the fruit of our labors.
hasn’t microsoft been around a lot longer than google?
I think that it might be a good thing. Because at first there might be a sort of battle between Microsoft and Google.
Microsoft will try and steal Google’s adword customer by undercutting the cpc which is a good thing for us.
At the end of the day I don’t think people would use Microsoft as much as Google. Most people I talk to don’t like Microsoft and Bill Gates for some reason
Anyhow we can all probably look forward to the future and the main search engine being MicGoogle.
Max
will this new merger be called web 2.0? If no do you know anything about this web 2.0?
Tonda,
The Microsoft/Yahoo merger doesn’t actually relate to Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is more of an idea about how to use the web, how to design websites, and more. If you’re looking for more information on the topic, which can be pretty confusing, check out this description on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
I hope that helps a bit!