Yahoo-Bing ‘better than expected’

It’s a good end to the year for Microsoft, who announced at an investors’ conference last week that the software/search giant merger is working ‘better than we could have hoped’. The announcement was made by Microsoft’s General Manager of Corporate Strategy, Charles Songhurst.

The two companies merged earlier this year, in a deal which saw Microsoft’s Bing take over the mechanics of the search engine and Yahoo take on the advertising side of search to create a super- engine known as Yahoo-Bing. Initially the move was a compromise after Microsoft failed to buy Yahoo outright, but it may yet prove to have been the best solution all along.

While Yahoo-Bing can’t yet compete with Google in terms of market share, it has shown promising growth in all areas across the year and is now seen as a major player, if not a market leader.  The knock-on effect of this ongoing popularity is both good and bad for SME’s wishing to develop their pay-per-click and other online advertising campaigns through Yahoo-Bing and largely conforms to the old adage – you get what you pay for.

Songhurst’s speech openly stated the company’s belief that the better-than-expected results will ultimately lead to a rise in prices for paid search, as terms become more popular across the search engine, the price charged per click will increase to reflect this.

The flip-side of this is that this movement is driven by an increase in use of Yahoo-Bing, so if you are being charged more for your keywords, it’s because more people are seeing them, and hopefully clicking through to your site.

2011 will be a key year for Yahoo-Bing, demonstrating once and for all whether it’s an also-ran, or the little engine that could in the field of search.