My Prediction for Yahoo + Overture

[jhilgeman]

This is solely my opinion of the matter. I believe Overture will end up being another thorn in Yahoo's paw, and that the collaboration will fail within a few years.

Both companies have an extremely greedy attitude towards managing their businesses - I'm surprised they've made any half-moral decisions in the past at all. Their business credibility has died with many people, including myself, and they simply continue to move in the direction of LookSmart. For those new to the situation, LookSmart's service and efficiency is worse than awful - it gives you a feeling similar to paying a mugger to rob you and attach leeches to your body before leaving you in a crumpled mess in the alley.

Frankly, nearly every search engine company has gone downhill save for Google. So in relation to everyone else, Google is simply getting better and better by virtually staying the same.

Getting back to Yahoo and Overture, both companies keep increasing the number and amounts of fees. Overture, by nature of how PPC works, will almost always grow more and more expensive as more people enter the arena. Yahoo doesn't know what good things to do with their money, so it just gets blown on mindless expansions instead of being invested into the core of the business - better search results.

At this point, Google has plenty of things they could do with their money. They seem to keep recycling their income into improved search technology, and it shows. The only thing I could recommend for them is to start doing short TV spots or perhaps consider a deal with Microsoft to make Google.com the default home page on new Windows setups. I don't think MS would agree, but it'd definitely be a good step forward for consumers.

Bottom line: I believe that in the end, money is going to be the ruin of the Yahoo and Overture deal. How ironic.

[mitch1]

I garee with you about the greedy overture & yahoo. I tried looksmart and they have the worst customer service I have ever seen. After submiting and being charged up front the amount of my campaign I was charged $29 to "update" my listings. The updates never appeared or were done. i was told that not all updates are approved. Worst management I've ever encountered. I currently use Overture, Google & findwhat. Does anyone know a better way to manage all these pay per clicks? Or a more cost efficient way? Or which PPC are the best? I am marketing my site
www.onewayfurniture.com

[awall19]

Originally Posted by mitch1

I currently use Overture, Google & findwhat. Does anyone know a better way to manage all these pay per clicks? Or a more cost efficient way? Or which PPC are the best? I am marketing my site
www.onewayfurniture.com

I think it is not just what you use, but how you use it. If you are spending a large sum of money consider optimizing your campaigns.

Yahoo has a large # of search engines right now. If they could combine the best parts of them it would be amazing, but likely they will loose focus and allow all to degrade.

[dmcgill]

It has been interesting watching the changes in the search engine world. This 1.6 Billion dollar purchase though really takes the cake.

I tried looksmart and got burned. I tried overture and did alright but found them very expensive. I tried kanoodle but found that they pull their feed from overture so in order for them to get their cut they have to charge more. Also, I was concerned about the stats. I had way more click throughs with overture. Don't like them though but that is just my personal feeling that could be tainted because I also own a search engine with a growing database.

As far as engines go, I would use as many as I could. Don't go with just one of the big guys, choose some smaller guys too but of all the big guys out there, the one I think I'm sticking with is Google.
dcmgill
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