May 12, 2006 | In Technology |
Yahoo CEO, Terry Semel, recently rejected an attempt from Microsoft to buy a share of the company’s search business.
Semel didn’t say exactly what form the offer took, but did confirm that Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft had expressed an interest in buying part of Yahoo’s search engine enterprise.
Predictably enough, the world’s #2 search giant rejected the offer saying that it made no sense to sell out at this point, but the fact that Microsoft even posed such a request suggests that it is frustrated with the progress of its in-house MSN Search solution.
MSN still ranks a distant third in the internet search market, behind Google and Yahoo. Microsoft originally had lofty ambitions for its search technology, but MSN has ultimately fallen short of the gold standard set by Google, and demanded by web surfers.
With no other major competitors to buy out, the old trick of throwing money around won’t work in this case. The only way MSN can ever rival Google, or even Yahoo, is to make great strides with the quality and accuracy of its search results, while gradually appealing to users to build sustainable market share.
Semel of Yahoo has expressed serious doubts about Microsoft’s ability to make it on its own in the search market. “My impartial advice to Microsoft is that you have no chance. The search business has been formed,” he commented.
Ultimately there is little question that the Redmond giant has a long a difficult road ahead to become more than an afterthought for web searchers. But with a well established brand name behind it, there’s always a chance that MSN could surprise us all and force the Yahoo CEO to eat his words.
