I'm a huge Microsoft fan, but this is just silly... Microsoft Search Revenue Plans Basic points are: which sounds desperate, doesn't it. but then this part really cracked me up ... Right! And I'm still waiting for my profit distribution for all those versions of Windows and Office that they've been "keeping" the profits from and I'm sure are now going to "actually share some of it back with the user"
This would be an interesting way for Microsoft to exploit its might. They could start giving publishers 100% of the revenue for a couple of years, and make life more difficult for google. They good do the same thing for ad sales, simply make almost nothing on them, so that everyone wants to use them.
I think we'll see a trend in some type of rev sharing (either money or services) from all the major SE's over the next 3 - 5 years.
Hmm, interesting article Nitin. I've seen this sentiment of "paying for searchers" attributed to Gates a few times, but still haven't seen where he said it, and what the original context was. I'd like to see the actual quote if possible. Does anyone know where/when he said this? It will be interesting how this all unfolds. The search marketing wars are really heating up. I think the competition from MSN and YPN could really hurt Google as I wrote here. Both Yahoo and Microsoft desperately need to get it on the publisher revenue game, and MSN especially needs to gain search market share. This puts the publishers in a very good situation, by my reckoning Like one of those stupid Lending Tree Commercials, "Thanks for your offer Yahoo, but Microsoft is currently paying 110% revenue to publishers, try again next month." Hey, I can dream.