What is it about the "Winter Blues" that causes search engines to give up the race with Google?
Yahoo Gives Up
January, 2006 - Yahoo concedes 2nd place:
“We don’t think it’s reasonable to assume we’re going to gain a lot of share from Google,” Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in an interview. “It’s not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share.” (Story)
As it turns out they lost significant market share in 2006 and 2007. Now they're fending off takeover attempts by MSN and others.
Ask.com Gives Up
March, 2008 - Ask.com Abandons Chase
We were excited to see Ask.com abandon the old "Ask Jeeves" look and feel in 2007. They shifted their aim to become a quality all-purpose search engine with relevant results. Their efforts were noticeable in the search engine rankings and we shifted efforts to their engine.
That is no longer the case. Yesterday they announced they have shifted gears. The new target is on "finding answers to basic questions about recipes, hobbies, children's homework, entertainment and health." (CNN.com Story)
We are very disappointed with this turn of events.
Disappointment
Google is a good search engine and we rely on their relevant results. Unfortunately they have a monopoly within the search industry and it has (and will) stifle innovation through competition.
Cost per click rates continue to sky-rocket as competition falls to the way-side.
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