MySpace Seeks Cozy Partnership with Google or MSN
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Written By Reprise Media | May 23, 2006 | Share This
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Is mammoth teen hangout MySpace courting search suitors? That’s the gist of this Financial Times story, which says that the News Corp-owned social network is talking separately to Google and MSN about powering the site’s web search. If either engine is able to strike a deal, they’d earn the right to serve their search ads to MySpace’s millions-strong membership.
Although Yahoo! currently provides the sponsored listings for MySpace’s search, for this race they strangely don’t appear to be in the running. FT says they’re “believed to be less interested” in such a deal than MSN or Google. While Loren Baker speculates this could be because to two parties view each other as “long term competition,” Danny Sullivan says Yahoo! might just be saying good riddance to low-converting traffic, as much of it as there might be.
Whatever’s causing Yahoo!’s case of MySpace ennui, MSN and Google don’t appear to be phased by it. FT likens this “rivalry” to last winter’s melee over AOL, in which Google triumphed and ended up trading a billion bucks for a five percent stake in the company.
But this could be exactly the wrong time to sink a bunch of cash into MySpace - at least if you believe some recent press. In the last couple of weeks it’s suddenly become fashionable to diss MySpace in the news, with several stories quoting teenagers who say the site’s become too commercial and filled with disingenuous online friend collectors - Techdirt rounds up several. Either the backlash is overhyped, or MySpace itself is - and Google and MSN would do well to keep in mind the fickle behavior of teens before tying themselves to what might turn into a lead balloon.
Topics: Social Media |