Search Engine Guide's Jennifer Laycock on Search
We continue our look at the search engine industry with Search Engine Guide's editor, Jennifer Laycock sharing her thoughts.

Q1. What search engine industry development/announcement has surprised you the most over the past 12 months?

I probably shouldn't have been surprised by it, but Yahoo!'s introduction of their own algorithmic search engine caught me off guard. Having watched them aquire so many engines (AlltheWeb, Alta Vista, Inktomi) that had the potential to compete head to head with Google if simply given the chance to grow, I honestly didn't expect them to pull a little bit from each and come up with something completely new. In retrospect, it was a good move and really served as the first step toward the next round of search engine wars. Having a serious competitor to challenge the likes of Google, and to inspire Microsoft to get moving can only serve to improve the search landscape somewhere down the road.

Q2. What do you think will be the most significant development over the next 12 months?

I honestly think this one is going to be a tie. The official launch of Microsoft's new search engine and the impact Google's IPO on Google itself are going to radically change the search landscape over the next 12 months. I think that the addition of a third major player to the search marketspace is going to really change both the way search engine marketing companies and online businesses view the marketplace. Microsoft is such a household name and has such marketing power behind it, I expect that we'll see them do more to spread the word about the difference in search experience than Yahoo or Google could have done on their own. At this point in time, simply raising awareness among Internet users about the quality of search and how it can vary by engine will go a long way toward impacting how people search, and therefore, how people market.

As for Google, I think that the changes that take place in how they operate once they go public will also have a significant impact on how search and search engine marketing works. Google has spent several years having to answer to no one but themselves which allowed them to be far more innovative and take far more risks than they may have if they'd had shareholders to answer to. I'm not convinced that going public will destroy that creative atmosphere, but I do expect to see things get reigned in a bit and I wonder if Google will be able to test and launch such innovative products when they have to seriously consider the bottom line.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |