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The fallout from Microsoft's failed attempt to acquire Yahoo looks like continuing for some time, with Microsoft and other challengers to Google looking for new ways to win market share. In June Microsoft struck a deal with HP that will see its search service installed as the default on all PCs sold by HP in Canada and the United States.
This arrangement replaces a deal that HP previously had with Yahoo, so it looks like Microsoft could steal some market share from Yahoo, if not from Google itself. Microsoft's argument is that 40 per cent of new computer buyers using the internet never replace the default search engine that comes installed with a new PC.
Is this really a quality approach? Hoping that increasingly sophisticated internet users won't switch to Google smacks a little of desperation, though no doubt it will have a short-term effect on Microsoft's share of the search market. And let's not forget that Google are not above striking such deals themselves.
So what should be the approach of companies attempting to challenge Google's search engine dominance? We'd always put quality first. Google is great, and that is the reason why most people use it: it delivers more relevant results.
But Google isn't perfect. We see anomalies and poor results every day. For instance, global searches on keyword phrases which return less results (by some margin) than UK only searches. The whole area of global vs local searches is still under-developed and in need of massive improvement. This is where Microsoft, Yahoo and any other search engine competitors should be working - on making things better.
What does this all mean for your business? The answer is simple: Google is not the only player, and things change on the internet quickly. Optimising for multiple search engines for high placement of your keyword phrases in organic search engine results is where it's at. Taking a Google-only approach is blinkered.
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