Yahoo Search Coming Back?
For the past few years Yahoo! has outsourced its search capabilities to Bing. Now, it looks like Yahoo Search might come back. Microsoft’s Bing currently powers Yahoo!, and their deal is set to run out in March. Many people wonder if the deal will be renewed. This would leave Yahoo! with a gigantic need for search engine capabilities.
To combat this, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, previously long time Google exec and spokesperson, has “reportedly spearheaded two projects, code-named Fast Break and Curveball, in order to take back Yahoo’s organic and paid search in-house.” Along with the top executives, Yahoo! aims to be up and running in 3-4 months.
Unfortunately, that will put them past March and into unknown territory. Microsoft handles Yahoo’s international search and Yahoo’s pay-per-click system. That complicates things. Perhaps what points most to Yahoo’s impending doom is that the Microsoft deal currently counts for 31% of their revenue, and leaving them could cause shareholders to second guess these actions.
Will Yahoo Search Return?
To be successful and stay the course, Yahoo! must not only match Google, but find ways to do what they cannot. The issue is that Yahoo! has a very small history utilizing its own search technology, opting to outsource that part of the business to other companies, such as Microsoft or even Google in the early 2000s.
The effects this has on the SEO world will be minimal at best. For Yahoo! on the other hand could change completely, they could fail horribly, or nothing happens and Yahoo! continues on its path to separating itself from the herd… slowly.
We will have to wait and see, at the end of March, hopefully we will get more insight and understanding as to what Yahoo! will do in the remainder of the year.
Red Pill or Blue Pill Yahoo! wake up and nothing happened or continue down the rabbit hole.