Recent Developments
There have been some “big” developments in the SEO (search engine optimization) world over the past few months but unlike most developments it is still unclear as to how they will affect site promotion. The big new is that Google and overture have gone on a buying spree, purchasing up other web entities. Some makes sense, others, not so much.
Google Bought…
Google has recently purchased blogger.com. According to blogger.com A blog (weblog) is “a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically–like a what’s new page or a journal. The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly–from links and commentary about other web sites, to news about a company/person/idea, to diaries, photos, poetry, mini-essays, project updates, even fiction.” If this is news to you, don’t feel bad I had to look it up myself!
Why Google would buy blogger.com is probably as simple as revenue. Google now has an additional outlet for their adwords PPC (pay-per-click) listings to be posted. This means more potential exposure for anyone with an adwords account and more revenue for Google from their advertisers.
Of course there may be additional reasons for this purchase but many find it strange that, for the first time, Google has strayed away from their “search only” premise. Remember back when all the search engines were creating portals and the like? Google deliberately shied away from creating a portal because they wanted to focus all of their attention on creating the best search tools possible. Blogger.com doesn’t exactly fit this model, and brings Google into an arena outside the realm of searching altogether.
Overture Bought…
You might have also heard that Overture has bought both AltaVista and AlltheWeb (Fast) back to back. It is assumed that AltaVista provides Overture with a one-stop-shop. While they currently dominate the PPC market and have partnerships with several search engines to display their PPC ads, AltaVista gives overture a place of their own to place their ads outside of Overture.com which receives relatively few searches as its own entity.
To be fair, AltaVista, the one-time dominant search engine, is also on the lower end of most-used search engines as they have strayed from the directive of providing relevant search results. Overture indicates that they will use AltaVista as a testing ground for new technology. Whether this means PPC technology or search technology we are unsure.
On the surface, Overture’s purchase of Fast (alltheweb.com) appears to be an odd choice. They just bought AltaVista, which is more of a name-brand, so why do they need TWO search engines? It might have something to do with the search technology developed at Fast. While not known to produce more accurate search results than Google, Fast’s search relevancy is something to take notice of. With AltaVista, Overture purchased a name-brand, with fast, they purchased better technology. Perhaps the two will be combined in some way to provide Overture an outlet that will give Google a run for its money… and its searches!