I would say this might put googles back up against the wall. If Microsoft lands this deal it will cost google 100s of millions. 11% of their profits is a lot for a company like google to lose right now and could also cause their stock to take a dive.
Wow, very interesting. I'm amazed that G got 11% of their profit from AOL the first half of this year. I wouldn't have guessed that AOL had that large of a % of the search market. I assume that AOL's traffic is included in Google's current search engine market share? I wonder what % it makes up.
It is bound to happen sooner or later, I am sure other big players are not going to sit back and watch Google keep going.
This is HUGE NEWS! If AOL start using MSN Search and you rank well at MSN now you can expect a noticeable rise in traffic ... and revenue!
I rank very well in Google for some very competitive keywords and I still get very little traffic from AOL.
I think the thing with AOL is that 'AOLers' spend. They convert well. I have noticed from my ecommerce stores that a large percentage of AOL referrals will convert into a sale, which is pretty well known. So even if you get a little extra traffic from AOL you will *hopefully* see an improvement in revenue. Off course, this depends on your niche.
Ditto... It will be good to see google have a bit of competition.. I just hope MSN sort out their SERPs. I got to give it to google they now how to search.
Seeing all this GoMSN shouts I think MSN has too many fans everywhere. They pick up new sites very quickly. And webmasters some times love that. No hassle like google. Yeah Go MSN Go.
Wow! That's big news in the SE industry. 11% of Google's first half revenue from AOL with AOL also generating substantial profit from the contract That of course begs the question and gives a clue to the future: what will replace such a lucrative revenue generating stream for AOL?
More intriguing though will be what happens to AOL as a result and it's pull on the Time/Warner stock. Yes, this will please many webmasters who find it easier to rank on MSN, but IMO it will also cause MSN to tighten the reins on their engine and algos else advertisers will be screaming of poor performance. Just my .02 ... but yes, I'd love to see a more competitive market.
Well I enjoy Google sometimes but seeing Google everywhere is annoying, so seeing Msn replace Google in Aol would have a great effect that will help build new exposure for another search engine Msn. ( It will also allow me to laugh at all the Google groupies that scream foul play because of it lol)
Well if this is the case, that 11% in income that google just lost will hurt. As it has been stated before if MS cant program their way to the top, they sure can buy it. This leads me to believe IMHO that MSN will soon become the SE to hold top serps in. The problem with this is that MSN allows to many black hat type sites to control their results. I will say though that this doesnt surprise me to much because after seeing Billy Bob play low limit poker, he doesnt like to lose to anything or anyone.