Ganging Up On Google

Miscellaneous

from the we-try-harder dept

It seems like it’s the week to go after Google. Just yesterday, Ask Jeeves launched a self service direct ad sales engine that was supposed to complement its existing Google AdWords links. Well, it must have been one hell of a launch since Ask Jeeves is planning to reduce the number of AdWords links from its pages tomorrow. Users who click on organic search results are more likely to return, so Ask Jeeves has been itching to reduce the number of Google links in their results for awhile. However, they were caught in a pickle between a better user experience and short term revenue goals. With its acquisition by IAC, Ask Jeeves is more able to focus on long term goals that may take longer to pay off. Tomorrow is working out to be a big day for anti-Google efforts; Yahoo is set to launch its own self serve ad service for publishers. Yahoo and Google already compete on one side of the self serve ad arena with Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) and AdWords. With this new system, Yahoo has Google AdSense firmly within its sights. The key differentiator of the Yahoo system is that it will use humans to editorially select ads for the pages, whereas Google uses technology. Hmm. Didn’t Yahoo try this approach with search with its human surfers? Google’s dominance is far from secure with companies taking direct aim at its revenue sweet spots. Granted, none of these efforts are really that innovative. Being a fast follower only works to a certain point — either you never catch the leader, or at some point all of these fast followers will need to start coming up with some ideas of their own.