The internet search engine rivals Microsoft and Yahoo! have this morning announced a collaborative deal to challenge the dominance of search engine giant Google.

After the collapse of a bold $47 Billion attempt by Microsoft to take over Yahoo! last year failed many industry commentators had expected the relationship between the two rivals to become hostile after Yahoo! rejected Microsoft’s mega deal offer. However last year’s fall-out appears to have been put to one side as the two technology giants reached agreement with a clear distinction of duties which plays to each of their strengths. An attempt by Google to strike a deal with Yahoo! also failed last November, when in the face of stiff opposition by the US Department of Justice, Google withdrew from negotiations.

Early indications suggest that under the new deal, Microsoft will provide search technology to power Yahoo!’s web sites. Interestingly this comes just months after Microsoft unveiled its new ‘Bing’ platform which has received widespread acclaim from industry pundits who have time and again given short shrift to the many previous attempts Microsoft have made to play catch-up with the market leading Google. As Bing continues to tweak its technology and make improvements to its algorithm many believe that it will eventual be able to establish itself as a serious rival to Google.

New management within Yahoo!, headed up by Carol bantz their new Chief Executive are said to have championed the deal which sees the company benefiting from 88% of the ad revenue generated from the ten year agreement.

This deal sees the duo commanding up to 28% of the American market and slightly less in the UK. Annual revenues are said to be worth circa $12 Billion in the US alone, of which Google dominates a massive two thirds of the market.

Online marketers are likely to be cheered by the alliance which will provide a more credible platform with bigger market share, thus slightly eroding the powerhouse Google’s monopoly as the world’s largest advertising vendor. In the past marketers have overlooked both Yahoo! and Microsoft because the pairs’ market share was considered too small to bother with. Now, effectively three times the size, advertisers will be lining up to negotiate with the enlarged player.

"This deal will make for an interesting new element of competition in the paid search space as advertisers recognise that a sizeable chunk of the search market is now controlled by a third party", commented Fuse Optimisation Ltd’s, Head of Search, Mike Page.

Labels: bing, Google, Microsoft, search engines, yahoo

Hundreds of news sources and the worldwide blogosphere is currently alive with speculation about Microsoft's drive to launch a new search initiative that will try to be a Google killer and potentially change the world of search engine optimisation (SEO).

Will it do the job? we're not holding our breath here at Fuse Optimisation. Many commentators seem to think not. What seems to be expected is a weak copy of Google, partly blamed on a penny-pinching approach by Microsoft which, over time, becomes a 'hope it will work out' philosophy. Contrast that with the apparent dynamism and innovativeness people associate more with Google, and therein lies the rub.

Still, we (you, me and the various SEO consultancy firms) won't know much more until the new search project - apparently now codenamed Bing - is launched in the next few hours... Let's wait and see.

Labels: consultancy, Fuse Optimisation, Google, Microsoft, search engine optimisation (SEO)

Labels: Google, search engine optimisation (SEO)

According to WebProNews Google is about to make an algorithm change to stop malicious sites appearing in the Google results. (See our earlier post from April for more details on last month's attacks.)

This is good news for search engine optimisation companies who should see most of their client's websites rise in the rankings by a place or two.

Labels: Google, search engine optimisation (SEO)

Get hold of a Google site map study, a 10-page PDF covering all you need to know for search engine optimisation (SEO). You can read a summary of the site map study report on search engine land blog.

Labels: Google, search engine optimisation (SEO), site maps

PandaLabs recently highlighted a sophisticated attack by spammers who targeted hundreds of keyword phrases relating to Ford cars using over a million links from trusted sites. Their aim is to flood the Google rankings with malicious sites so users searching for a phrase such as “Ford Uk” are presented with a list of sites which look authentic except for telltale URLs which consist of random numbers and letters and a “.pl” Polish domain.

When a user clicks on one of the results, malicious software is installed and the user is prompted to pay money to buy ‘security’ software to remove it.

The whole episode illustrates how Google has changed their algorithm from the ‘Florida Update’ era, where a sudden influx of incoming links raised a red flag. With the advent of social networking, social bookmarking and sites built around user-generated content, Google now needs to trust these sudden bursts of new links, but it isn’t always good at spotting where the algorithm is being fooled by spammers manipulating these trusted sites.

For search engine optimisation companies, this highlights the importance not only of links from user-generated content sites, but more specifically that sudden increases in link volumes from trusted sites with ‘fresh’ content no longer incurs the wrath of Google and now does the exact opposite. Even for blackhat SEO’ers and spammers.

Labels: algorithm, Google, search engine optimisation (SEO), social media, spammers

A recent post on the Google news blog has finally laid to rest a number of SEO myths about how to rank well in Google's news search.

Google confirmed that:

• Updating a news item once it has been published can create problems.
• Articles which contain only images or video won't be included.
• Redesigning your site may affect coverage in Google News.

Common myths include:

• Timing the publication of the article improves ranking.
• Having adsense on your site impoves rankings.
• Having an image next to your article impoves rankings.

Labels: content, Google, news, search engine optimisation (SEO)