Posted On 05/30/05
Contributed by Frances

Wow! Hasn't this been an incredible last couple of weeks in the search engine world? Is it only me or does it seem like the entry of MSN (Microsoft Network) into the PPC market and Google's new Desktop feature have set off a mad rush among the top three to outdo each other in any possible fashion?

Now you can personalize your Google search page to include a variety of subjects, challenging the 8-year reign of Yahoo! as the portal of choice for personalized search. MSN’s entry into PPC brings them back into contention for a personalized desktop too.

Since then, it’s been a constant stream of announcements of new enhancements, new features, beta features going live, new beta products … Google Desktop Search leading to MSN’s release of a revised desktop search and toolbar combination, Google under fire for its library project, MSN’s satellite mapping option vs. Google’s satellite maps, a beta update of a revised Google toolbar (with spellcheck and autolink, which is bound to upset a lot of advertisers if it stays as it currently is, especially with ISBN numbers for books taking you directly to Google network partner Amazon.com. Yahoo! offers a music subscription service, Google disables Web Accelerator just about a week after releasing it, Yahoo! announces a beta photo sharing service to compete with Google’s Picasa. I could go on with more, but you might be wondering what the heck some of this has to do with pay-per-click advertising? After all, if you want to place a PPC ad, do you care if consumers like to share photos using Yahoo! better than Google? It seems like such a small thing.

The point is, though, that as enhancements continue to be added as quickly as possible by each of the three search engine leaders now involved (MSN is a latecomer to the PPC table certainly, but its moves to revamp its search engine combined with PPC options makes this a three-way competition), searchers are going to be trying out the new features and maybe visiting Yahoo! or MSN to see what all the fuss is about, when before they were a diehard Google fan. At least Google still has it personalized search desktop as an option (so far LOL).

When users start personalizing their Google, and go to the other two to check out the differences, it’s going to affect PPC advertisers where it hurts – the amount they have to spend to keep their visibility as high as they want, plus there is little doubt some users are going to change their minds about which their favorite search engine is. As a PPC advertiser, targeting your audience is key to your success, and although it’s early days yet, if this type of competitive helter-skelter addition of competing features continues at this pace, as the saying goes, “something’s gotta give”! Has Google started something they’re going to be sorry about later? Stay tuned … I will be.



*My apologies to Abbott and Costello, but it’s still a classic that’s hard to resist quoting