Yahoo And Bing: To The Pain

We are now in Q2 of 2010 and the hype has died down, people got used to the merger and the key focus seems to be on Bing market share relative to Google. The irony is that slashing two engines into one was deemed the best strategy to give Google a run for its market share. Currently, market share figures for the US look as follows:

According to results published by Experian Hitwise on March 10, 2010 Bings share of search increased for a 3^rd straight month, with share of search sitting at 9.7% compared to Googles 70.95%.

Looking at market share data is fairly rudimentary and no less painful than when there were three major search engines in the ring. What many of us may have forgotten or chosen to block out is the fact that there are far more tangible implications of this merger awaiting us. Bing and Yahoo have 24-months to make the merger complete.

According to the Yahoo website, the split of services will be as follows:

Microsoft will be the provider of web, video and image results to Yahoo!, and the basic list of results provided will be the same as those displayed on Microsofts Bing engine. Microsoft will provide the search advertising platform (adCenter) that will be used by both companies, and will manage the search advertising marketplace.

Ultimately this means that Bing has 2 years to roll Yahoos Search Marketing program into its own, making Yahoos Paid Search obsolete.

Whoa, No More Yahoo Search?

A reality that all advertisers will have to face is that Yahoo Search will merge into Microsoft adCenter. What this means for both advertisers and agencies is that more focus should be placed on Bing to begin understanding the interface better, increase budgets and develop a more advanced Microsoft adCenter strategy.

Currently, the reality for many advertisers is that Microsoft adCenter gets the left over budget, while Google and Yahoo receive the bulk " this will need to change when Bing becomes the 2^nd major paid search marketing platform after Google.

Expecting More from Bing

There are a number of reasons that advertisers and agencies alike may feel a sense of trepidation about the implications of this merger and Bing certainly should consider doing something about it in the near future. Otherwise Google AdWords may simply take the lions share of Yahoo Searchs previous budget allocation.

• Search Volume: Getting volume out of Bing is sometimes like pulling teeth.

• Poorer User Interface: The user interface is not intuitive, nor is it user friendly. In fact, between the big three, it is quite possibly the worst user experience.

• adCenter Desktop Tool: The tool does exist but a number of technical issues plague it thus often rendering it useless. This is incredibly frustrating as it becomes virtually impossible to work on large accounts with the possibility of doing bulk uploads. A Microsoft tool riddled with bugs what a surprise!

• Customer Service: Getting anything organized with Bing requires the utmost patience because turnaround times are incredibly long. If it is billing associated, dont hold your breath.