Microsoft Offers to Buy Yahoo! But, Will it Change the SEO Landscape?

Inevitable, isn't it? I mean, anytime someone so completely dominates an industry there will come challengers. Google has seen them come. Goodle has seen them go. And, right now, Microsoft is upping the ante even as Ask.com seems to be losing momentum.

You remember Ask.com, right? Jeeves went away - a permanent vacation - a new and supposed smarter algorithm was created, and Ask.com was going to prove itself the search engine offering the BEST, most relevant, most useful search results pages. Ask.com  

Following an intense TV advertising blitz, Ask.com did see an increase in market share. But, Google continued its dominance. The 4.5 to 6 percent share (depending on the data you look at) was a nice increase for Ask - up from less than 1%. But, whether Ask.com made any headway at all where it matters is open to debate. More than that, it may show why Microsft/Yahoo! are looking at a long, uphill battle.

But none of that matters yet... Microsoft isn't after the search volume with this deal. they're looking at the revenue from delivering contextual advertising, and OF COURSE _ Yahoo!s APPS! _ I just found this at PC World. check it out:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/142152/microsofts_yahoo_bid_is_really_about_biz_apps.html I'll get back to that in a second, but let's finish with why Google is still going to dominate search.

What Matters is Perceived Relevance

"Perceived" relevance?  Yep. Perceived. It doesn't matter who kicks out the most relevant and most useful search results. What does matter is who is perceived to kick out the msot relevant search results. And, clearly, that is Google.

Now, according to Roland Piquepaille, Why do we trust established search engines? (an article published at zdnet) it isn't an issue of relevance but of Branding. I offer that reputation is an enormous factor in branding. And, for a search engine, perceived relevance is a huge factor in reputation.

So, will the SEO landscape be changed by Microsoft's purchase of Yahoo!? (Assuming it goes through). And, the answer is a resounding NO. And, the truth is, this move has more to do with revenue generating streams than it does with who is using which search engine.

News.com published this: http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9863153-36.html article about the Social Networking model being redefined by Microsoft/Yahoo! While everything in the article isn't dead on, and the title is misleading, McCarthy has this much right: Microsoft is after Yahoo!'s delivery streams for advertising.

Microsoft is doing rather well with the ads it serves up for social networking sites. Yahoo serves up sponsored ads with a massive distribution, but hasn't performed well with them.  Microsoft is after Yahoo!'s underperforming revenue streams, not their search traffic. So, for the time being, the landscape wouldn't change for SEO practices.

This from News.com deals with Microsoft/Google dealing with ads on social networking sites:

 http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9862529-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5