Consolidation of search engines…good, bad or ugly?

Lorrie Thomas

February 9th, 2009
by Lorrie Thomas

Recently, Google backed away from a shared advertising agreement with Yahoo.  I “got in the ring” with Miguel Salcido of eVisibility in today’s DM News Gloves Off Debate to give my raw opinion (me, opinionated?  nooooo?!!)  on how consolidation would affect search marketing.

I think that consolidation of search advertising would eliminate competition, ultimately increasing ad costs and devastating ROI efforts for most adver­tisers.   Salcido welcomes consolidation, saying it could result in a competitive price war and lower ad costs, as well as a possible race to develop better technology.

I can understand his point on better technology potential, but I still think that lack of competition will diminish desire to perform to the best of search marketing capacity (monopoly is rarely a good thing).

But I want to know what you think – read the opposing views on search consolidation, post your comments…let the ring debate begin….ding!


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Comments:

  1. Pamela Sherman

    Pamela Sherman
    (February 10th, 2009 at 1:50 pm)

    “Lorrie-Balboa is a Contendah!”

    “Lorrie, Lorrie, Lorrie” (applause building)

    Very well-stated opinion you shared! You Rock!

  2. Keith T.
    (February 10th, 2009 at 1:59 pm)

    I read this “Web Marketing Smackdown” and I tend to agree with the web marketing she-geek on this topic.

    Yes, combining two search engine powerhouses could provide a technological improvement in theory. But often mergers result in sacrificing some of things that made the two individual entities unique (and better) because it’s unrealistic to maintain all the features from both providers.

    I feel true competition is usually a bigger driver for technological (and other) advances. Without competition, what motivation does a business have to improve their product? Pretty much none. Who ends up suffering? Everyone who liked having a choice. Maybe this is why I’m not digging the idea of gov’t running healthcare :)

  3. Miguel Salcido
    (July 29th, 2009 at 6:06 pm)

    Hi Lorrie,

    That was a fun piece to write. Have you heard the recent rumors of a Bing/Yahoo integration?

    I think that the argument over consolidation hurting the advertiser by holding back technological innovation is dead. The reason being that no one is even close to Google’s ad platform, no where even close.

    The same could be said of prices going up as a result of consolidation. And for the same reason, no one is even close to Google in the amount of search advertising they can deliver. No one is remotely close the the volume of search and market share Google has, as well as brand recognition which is why MSFT has committed to spending millions in advertising on Bing.

    No one says, “I’m going to Bing it!” And I have a feeling that they never will. :-(

    Anyways, love the site and keep up the great work.

  4. Lorrie Thomas

    Lorrie Thomas
    (August 3rd, 2009 at 12:26 am)

    Hey Miguel!
    It was fun to write for DM News and I loved being in the ring with you! :-)

    I have not heard about the Bing/Yahoo integration but I loooove good gossip, share what you hear ANYTIME!

    It is so funny about how we “google” things these days…I would love to see some healthy search competition, Bing is not rocking my world yet, but I stay open to being converted. I hope another engine can step up someday to Google’s godliness.

    Thanks for your posts – we love what you do. The wild web women all think it’s great having you as a search savvy smart cyber-ally!
    Hugs,
    L

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