Yahoo and eBay Team Up to Challenge Google and Microsoft
Update to Amazon Dumps Google for MSN
Earlier this month, this site described the offensives being mounted by Yahoo and Microsoft designed to narrow the gap between those two companies and Google, the leading Internet search engine. In that earlier post, we discussed the anticipated debut of adCenter, the search-advertising network by which Microsoft hoped to leverage its database of user information to place online advertisements based, in part, upon demographic information about the user.
Now Yahoo has announced its next move in the increasingly heated battle between the search behemoths: a "strategic alliance" with Internet auction leader eBay, Inc. Though the partnership of Yahoo and eBay will occur on many different levels, it is focused on providing jointly-sponsored services in three main areas:
- Advertising. According to washingtonpost.com, "Yahoo will become the ‘exclusive third-party’ provider of graphical ads throughout the eBay site," effectively making Yahoo the "advertising broker" for eBay. The companies will also partner in the area of "sponsored-search."
- PayPal. Yahoo has agreed to use eBay’s payment system, PayPal, which presently boasts more than 100 million accounts.
- Branded Toolbars. Previously a specialty of competitors Google and Microsoft, washingtonpost.com reports that "Web users who use these toolbars essentially invite the sponsoring company to share their desktops, increasing the chances that they will spend money on some service brokered through that company."
Strategic partnerships like this are absolutely necessary if Yahoo and Microsoft expect to compete with Google in the Internet search industry or any other area impacted by Google’s ever-expanding list of provided services. As always, one can hope that increasing the level of competition between the industry leaders will improve the quality of services provided to consumers. Perhaps it may even provide the motivation necessary to reduce the click fraud problem which appears to plague the Internet search industry.
For more information, see Yahoo, EBay Announce Web Partnership on washingtonpost.com and Yahoo, eBay Partner Up to Fight Google, Microsoft on E-Commerce Times.
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