Yahoo! Buys, Shakes Up Search Market

Dotcom mergers and acquisitions are happening again - Yahoo! this week announced plans to acquire Overture for $1.63 billion. The purchase will give Yahoo! its own sponsored search technology, a much-discussed growth area in online advertising.

Data from online search measurement specialist comScore qSearch, based on searches by US Internet users, shows that the four biggest players in all searches are Yahoo! and Google plus the two portal / browser providers, AOL and Microsoft / MSN.

% Share of Searches Submitted by U.S. Internet Users, May 2003
Source: comScore qSearch

Google Sites	32
Yahoo! Sites	25
AOL Time Warner	19
MSN-Microsoft Sites	15
Ask Jeeves	3

Further consolidation is expected in the booming paid search and paid inclusion sectors of the Web search market. Yahoo! paid $279.5 million for Inktomi earlier this year and two other leading alternatives, Alta Vista and FAST, have recently been acquired by Overture. Yahoo!'s move puts the ball firmly in the court of its main competitor, Microsoft subsidiary MSN, according to analysts - speculation centres around a possible Microsoft bid for major player LookSmart, which already has a close business relationship with the software giant.

In terms of affiliate networks, the market is divided between Google and Overture:

% of U.S. Searches Served by Paid Search Affiliate Network, May 2003
Source: comScore qSearch

Google Network	54
Overture Network	45

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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