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Yahoo and Microsoft Search Alliance

Microsoft and Yahoo are shaking up Pay Per Click advertising and the online Search marketplace. Plans to combine and provide a unified search platform that will be powered by Microsoft Bing have now been accepted in the US and Europe. Microsoft adCenter will manage sponsored listings and ads will therefore be seen on both Yahoo and Microsoft Search engines. This will serve to make more of Yahoo and Microsoft volumes, monetization opportunities and relevance for an all improved marketplace. Both companies are expected to be unified in improving the quality of the user experience by greater scale and therefore ability to expand on value.

So what benefits will this offer to business advertisers, users and Pay Per Click management? According to Yahoo and adCenter, a unified search marketplace will add a 62% search volume to previous Yahoo accounts. In turn Yahoo has vowed to significantly improve the user experience, whilst Microsoft works on improving the quality of natural and paid results. Improved results predict greater search volumes, increased advertiser competition and hopefully better PPC management options. Recently receiving the go-ahead in the US and Europe, the Yahoo and Microsoft Search Alliance could possibly start their US roll in the next few months, and in 2011 for Europe.

Although providing return for some advertisers, the Yahoo and Microsoft advertising channels currently associate less value to many businesses; reflecting in Pay Per Click bids. The new Search Alliance is fundamentally expected to attract search volume, businesses and advertiser competition, therefore increasing bids. This is potentially the biggest challenge to Google and Google AdWords for some time. It will be interesting to see what these changes will mean to both Search and PPC Advertising, once Google and the unified Yahoo and Microsoft Search alliance are publicly on each others tails.