Search Engine Optimization

Live Search / MSN

Microsoft had many reincarnations of their search product. It was powered by Inktomi and Looksmart for a long time, however when Yahoo purchased Overture it became obvious Microsoft had to enter the game on their own. Before releseasing their own in-house technology, Microsoft used Yahoo! to power MSN. In 2005 they dumped Yahoo and on march 8, 2006 Microsoft rolled out Live Search.

They confused the hell out of everyone by creating a third brand (Microsoft, MSN and Live). To this day users are confused with “Live” brand, and Microsoft would gain userbase by simply killing Live and calling their product Microsoft Search.

Their advertising product – Adcenter competes with Adwords and YSM. Due to little search engine market share they have a small advertiser base, however their platform is very good.

Market Share: ~8%

Links: Advertise | Webmasters

Ask.com

Ask.com was originally named Ask Jeeves and created by Garret Gruener and David Warthen in 1996. It officially launched to the public in 1997. Ask experimented with different technologies, including Direct Hit, which based relevancy on the number of page views. In 2001 Ask aquired Teoma. In 2006 Ask Jeeves was purchased by IAC and they dumped Jeeves.

Ask.com has a small user base and relies on Google for pay per click results. They are very aggressive in promoting paid results, showing 4 ads on top (above search results) and 5-6 at the bottom. Ask.com has its own PPC platform known as Ask sponsored listings, but it has very little advertisers.

Market Share: ~3%

Links: About | Advertising

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