Yahoo Capitulates to Google? - Internet Marketing Australia

Yahoo has decided to run a pilot program whereby it will display Google ads in its own search results. Does that mean that Yahoo! is giving up the fight and capitulating at the throne of the Big G? Does it mean that search engine rankings and search engine results will now deteriorate as it seems like there will be fewer players in the field?

I am very surprised by Yahoo!'s move. I understand that a combined Yahoosoft, or is it MicroYahoo, or MicroHoo, may not be big and/or good enough to compete against Google, but seriously a Yahoogle may not be the best option either. I wonder what this pilot program will do to the cost of adwords? What I think it ultimately means is that SEO work and the ability to get good search engine results for free by optimizing on and off page content etc. will become even more valuable.

There could be yet a different motive behind this move by Yahoo!. It could just be a simple case of espionage. Have you ever noticed that sometimes the Yahoo! ads aren't quite as on target as the Google ads. Perhaps Yahoo! is just trying to see how the Big G does things so they can emulate them. Sort of the way that Microsoft does a lot of their product development. Hmm... Maybe Yahoo! and Microsoft have more in common than I originally thought.

Back to the search engine results question. I think that regardless of how things shake down, as a consumer, I will need to become savvier about how I search for information. As a content producer, which is my other hat, I feel that staying knowledgeable about search engine optimization and search engine marketing tools will pay off with either preserved rankings or with increased rankings. Fewer players in the search engine game just means that being good at search engine optimization, keyword research, etc. will become an even more valuable skill.

What do you think?