The Search Market Heats Up
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | June 4, 2007 | Share This
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The competition is starting to heat up for Google - this weekend, Yahoo, Microsoft and Baidu each made some interesting proclamations about the future of search:
Microsoft’s Secret Search Engine
According to TechCrunch, Microsoft is amassing superstars from the development community to work on a secret new search engine. TechCrunch writes, “We have few details on their approach to the product, other than hearing that it is definitely a “horizontal” engine (so, it’s not limited to a specific vertical like images), and is “very cool.””
Assuming that the rumors are true (a big assumption, given TechCrunch’s lack of detail), one has to wonder how the new search engine might contribute to Microsoft’s competitive strategy. Between MSN.com, Live.com, and now [insert secret engine].com, my only thought is that Microsoft is running some kind of guerrilla-branding attack on search. No Domain Left Behind?
Yahoo Opens Panama API and Applauds Personalization
Today Yahoo announced that it will provide open access to its Panama search advertising API. From the press release,
“The program provides free access to Yahoo! Search Marketing’s robust and scalable APIs, and offers growing businesses optional fee-based services to accommodate their wide ranging needs. These services can be customized to include significant technical support, product roadmap visibility and co-marketing services to provide open, reliable partnership support to companies creating and selling commercial advertising applications.”
In the meantime, Yahoo has proclaimed that search is being phased out in favor of personalization. Over the weekend, Yahoo VP Tapan Bhat announced, “The future of the web is about personalization. Where search was dominant, now the web is about ‘me.’ It’s about weaving the web together in a way that is smart and personalized.” As Read/Write Web points out, metrics surrounding ‘attention’ rather than merely page views reveal a lot about how personalization adds value to a website. Myspace, Yahoo and Ebay are the top three websites ranked by Compete.com’s consumer attention metric - suggesting that websites delivering personal services, not search results, attract the most “engaged” users.
Baidu Coming To a Continent Near You
China’s #1 search engine may be expanding to Europe sometime later this month. As the Telegraph reports,
“Buoyed by its success in beating off western rivals in its home market, Baidu is keen to make its presence felt internationally. Having taken its first step outside China this year by launching a Japanese site, Baidu has generated a massive non-English language following and is now the world’s fifth largest search engine.”
Baidu’s key competitive difference is that they tailor results to a younger demographic. Though they’ve done extremely well in China, most people remain dubious about how Baidu will perform internationally.
Update: On Friday, June 8th, Baidu publicly denied plans for European expansion. InfoWorld has the story.
Topics: Google, Microsoft, SEM: Paid Search, Search: Innovations, Search: News, Technology, Yahoo! |
Looking forward to the marching of Baidu to International arena!
Baidu in China is like Google in the US. Keywords advertisement on Baidu in China has been proven to be as effective as keyword advertisement on Google in the US. If you had to choose
one search engine to advertise in China, you should choose Baidu AmeriChinaB2B Inc, which runs the most visited US-China business to business (B2B) web platforms, now offers services to enable US businesses to advertise on Baidu.com. These services will help US businesses export to China, the world’s fastest growing market. For more information, please check: http://www.acb2b.com and http://www.acb2b.cn