14 DAY TRIAL // With the Microsoft - Yahoo deal getting the go-ahead from the US and the EU, both companies are now looking at the next stage of the process. While the deal still needs approval from some smaller markets, the major hurdles are gone. What this means is that users are going to start seeing the actual effects of the search deal, Bing search results in Yahoo Search. This is still some way off but Yahoo wanted to clear any misconceptions from the get go and explain exactly what would and wouldn't change for the users.
First off, the integration of the Bing search infrastructure is a pretty complex job and it will take until the year's end to complete, and this is just for the US. The merger of the advertising networks is set to take even more. The companies would like to complete it by the end of 2010 too but won't risk disrupting the lucrative holiday season if they're not 100% sure it will work. In fact, getting everything in order is set to take until 2012, so it's definitely a long term process.
For the end users
Anyone using Yahoo Search, quite a few people especially in the US, will likely not see any noticeable changes even after Bing search results go live in Yahoo Search. That's because everything else will still be served by Yahoo and it will have complete freedom on the layout and all the additional features that complete the search experience.
"Most of the things you see on the typical Yahoo! Search results page below will not immediately change as a result of this alliance. What will change is that the basic search listings and ads will be provided by Microsoft instead of our own back-end platform – those are the text and links that you see in the left-hand image," Shashi Seth, Senior VP of Yahoo Search Products, explains.
The image Yahoo provided explains it best. On a typical Yahoo search results page, and this is true for most search engines today, the actual results occupy only a relatively small portion of the page. Besides the regular listings, Yahoo Search provides quick links and searches for places like Yahoo News, related searches and other additional content sprinkled among the results. Of course, the entire left sidebar with tools like Search Pad and Search Scan and also related searches and options to filter the results will remain unchanged.
In the end, Yahoo will now focus purely on the experience, perhaps not such a bad approach. Bing search results are generally accepted as being better than Yahoo's, so the users will get better quality information on top of the additional features already present.
For the developers
This issue is a little less clear cut. Yahoo assures developers that it will try to provide all the tools it currently does even after the Yahoo search engine is dead but doesn't make any promises at all. BOSS users, Yahoo's search API, seem to have it best as the company says it may continue to offer it, though there's no guarantee. Even if it does, it may start introducing a pricing structure.
It gets worse for everyone else. "Yahoo! and Microsoft are sharing ideas for how to advance the SearchMonkey vision of building an ecosystem for developers, publishers, and the semantic web. The landscape is complex, so we’re working hard to determine which path provides the best value for site owners and end users," Yahoo states.
This means that the company has no idea what will happen. The fate of Yahoo Site Explorer is equally unsure and there are plenty of other products, which may be affected by the deal. For now, what all developers can do is wait and hope that Yahoo is as transparent and forthcoming in the process as it says it will be.
