Yahoo! Unveils “Open Search”

To encourage more third party development of its search engine results, Yahoo! is set to enable webmasters to more directly influence the way their content is displayed in the Yahoo! search engine. Instead of a simple text link with a short description, Yahoo! wants web developers to be able to publish feeds directly to the search engine results pages in the hopes that more robust results will result in a better user experience.

According to Vish Makhijani, senior vice president and general manager of Yahoo Search, “Our intent is clear — present users with richer, more useful search results so that they can complete their tasks more efficiently and get from ‘to-do’ to ‘done.’” The move is brilliant from the perspective of Yahoo!, because they do not have to worry about enriching their own search results. Instead, they allow the webmasters to add their own content and do the work for them. While other search engines are working to create improved search results, Yahoo! simply asks its users to do it for them.

This move brings the search giant Yahoo! one step closer to competing with Google for the top spot. A little known fact is that Google has allowed users to customize their own search engine results since 2006 with their Subscribed Links feature. This feature has existed in relative obscurity in part because it’s not all that useful to the average webmaster, but it is a useful tool.

Microsoft and Yahoo

We’ve all read countless articles about the potential takeover of Yahoo by the giant Microsoft Corporation, but just in case you haven’t, here’s the gist: Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo for much more than they are worth, making it nearly impossible for Yahoo to turn down Microsoft. Google (who would be the hardest hit by the merger of the two giants) cries foul and points to antitrust laws at the same time they are talking with Yahoo executives behind the scenes about how to fend off the merger.

I hope that Microsoft is able to buy Yahoo, because I think it would be better for internet users on the whole, and here’s why:

1. Microsoft’s search technology (www.live.com), which now holds roughly 6% of the market share, is actually much better than Yahoo’s search technology. Not only does Live Search consistently return more relevant results, they are less influenced by SEO web spam. You can basically buy your way into the top pages on Yahoo using their “submit express” service. A merger of the two giants would result in better search technology made available to more people.

2. Despite the antitrust jabber that has been going around, a merger would probably result in reduced prices for CPC marketing on the internet (especially with Google). Contending with a single major player as opposed to a pair of search engines would mean that more users would take their CPC campaigns away from Google and over to the new system created by Microsoft. I could be wrong about this, but it seems to me that a merger of Yahoo and Microsoft would actually create more competition for Google (if not in quantity then in quality).

I really doubt the merger will go through, because there are many large companies that stand to lose some major cash from the merger. Many of Yahoo’s top 10 investors also own stock in Microsoft (and of the investors who own stock in both companies, none of them own more stock in Yahoo than they do in Microsoft). Investors usually don’t like to pay 40% more than market value for stock in a company that they already play a major role in. This deal will probably crumble from the inside.