Luke Hubbard

The Wall Street Journal speculates that the recent deal between Yahoo and Microsoft gives Google an opportunity to “…refine its technology and craft a counter strategy….”

I absolutely agree.

Google works at the speed of light. Considering that both Yahoo and Microsoft have proven to struggle with fast roll-outs and technology updates, Google will have two solid years to progress and gain market share before Microhoo launches. The partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo will slow down the company’s research and development as their main focus will be on the partnership. Fusing the Microsoft and Yahoo technologies will be quite the project over the next two years.

I expect that the already well oiled Google machine will leave the others so far behind that they will never be able to catch up.

Do I want this to happen? Of course not. While I love Google, I do think competition in the market place is better for consumers and shareholders. I worry that Microsoft + Yahoo will turn into one of the largest messes we’ve seen thus far in the dot com world. I hope instead that the companies work well together and create solid competition for Google.

-Luke Hubbard

Today, I read a great article on the advantages of Microsoft’s new search engine Bing:  Google VS Bing User Centric Eye Tracking Study.

The main advantage that Bing has over Google is its 3 column format. Because the first column on the left contains useful information, users tend to notice the sister column on the right, the ads. Here’s the eye tracking study image, which shows Bing on the left and Google on the right…
 

Specifically, notice the right side of both images. Bing (left) had more users reading the ads than Google (right).

All in all, I think eye tracking studies have limited purpose. Yes, they show the movement of the eyes, but they fail to take into account what the user is actually thinking. For instance, even if users always notice Bing ads, it doesn’t mean that those users will find them helpful. In fact, users may only be noticing the ads because Bing is new and they are trying to figure it all out. If Bing fails to provide a solid user experience and quality search results, then it will not gain any traction against the other search engines.

Microsoft is spending considerable advertising dollars on promoting Bing.com, and they hope it will be a Google killer. Unfortunately, I just don’t see it happening as the search engine doesn’t seem to have any huge advantage over Google or Yahoo. Also, I don’t see any better results than what MSN or Live.com provided.

So far, I see no improvement in Microsoft’s search algorithm. If I want to find information, and find it fast, I will continue to use Google and Yahoo.