Yahoo!

Google’s dominance is something that rival search engines have sought to try and topple, but have had little success on their own. Google has recently been reported as the most visible brand in the UK so it is little surprise that competitors are struggling to keep up.

One way that two of Google’s biggest rivals have sought to try and get a foothold in the market that Google appears to have cornered is actually joining forces in the name of one common interest: halting Google’s supremacy online.

Microsoft and Yahoo! are coming together in the hope that their combined expertise will give them a greater chance of standing up to Google. Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, will now act as the major processing mechanism behind Yahoo! search, but the joint effort will only be available to users in the US and Canada.

The agreement is initially for ten years and the companies are planning to move into markets outside North America over the course of the decade. This will include plans for multi-lingual search platforms.

Google has so far come out on top in the race for internet domination, but Microsoft and Yahoo! hope that together they will put up more of a fight.

Google is still way out in front in terms of US search engine market share, but Yahoo! did make slight inroads last month.

Google had 65.8 per cent of the market, according to comScore figures, which represented a 0.4 per cent drop compared to June. Yahoo! which is in second place, seems to have taken that sliver, as it was up by the same amount to 17.1 per cent.

Bing remains in third place and retains the same percentage of searchers – 11 per cent. In June, Bing had seen greater growth. It went from 12.1 per cent of the market in May to 12.7 per cent in June.

Experian Hitwise figures show a similar overall picture. They have Google with 71.43 per cent, Yahoo! with 14.43 per cent and Bing with 9.86 per cent.

The Experian Hitwise figures are further broken down into different categories and the most interesting figure is perhaps the rise in shopping-related searches on Bing, which has seen an 84 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

Yahoo! has begun its Barclays Premier League football highlights service. The web giant has signed a deal to show online highlights for the next three seasons and with the football season now underway, has swung into action.

Yahoo! has already attracted a range of high profile advertisers via this new offering, with Adidas, Heineken, BT and Sony Pictures already on board.

Highlights are slightly delayed compared to much of the footage that is available on TV. Weekend matches will be featured from midnight on Monday morning and midweek games from midnight the following day. Yahoo! also has syndication rights as part of the deal and can therefore deal with third parties.

Yahoo! has claimed the rights from Virgin, which had held them for the previous three seasons. The chief executive of the Premier League, Richard Scudamore, describes the online highlights as being an ‘important medium’ for those trying to keep up to speed with developments in English football’s top flight.

A judge in Pakistan has asked the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to block user access to three of the most significant sites on the net – Google, Yahoo! and YouTube.

The order has been passed due to the sites featuring material which the judge deemed to be ‘against the fundamental principles of Islam’.

Access to Facebook was blocked for a fortnight for Pakistani users last month after a page asked people to draw Muhammad. Other sites have also been blocked due to blasphemy.

However, the PTA has yet to receive the order, saying:

“We have not yet received any directives from the ministry of information technology. The ministry is the decision-making authority.”

The Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan reacted angrily to the judgement:

“If implemented, the decision will choke internet users. It will seriously impact millions of Internet users in Pakistan who use search engines for email, education, business and other productive purposes.”

The Pakistan daily newspaper, Dawn, was equally unimpressed, pointing out that search engines cannot be held responsible for all the information they present to users. They point out that anyone finding offensive content via Google, Yahoo! or Bing was most likely looking for it.

Yahoo! has announced that Ben Stiller will be producing a programme which will appear on its site. The current affairs show will feature Stiller’s parents and each episode will be 10 minutes long. It is not yet known how many episodes will be made, but it will only appear on Yahoo!

Yahoo!’s chief marketing officer, Elisa Steele, said:

“Ben is directing and producing a web-only show with his parents commenting on current news items. Ben had a great idea, he started to talk to us and it was a good fit with Yahoo! We intend to launch the show before the end of the year.”

Stiller’s parents are both well-known actors. Jerry Stiller, his father, appeared as George Costanza’s father, Frank, in Seinfeld and also had a major role in the Ben Stiller film Zoolander, as the lead character’s agent. His mother, Anne Meara, has appeared in many films and major TV series, including a small part in Night At The Museum, which starred Ben.

The new venture emphasises Yahoo!’s recent commitment to have 20 per cent of its content being original programmes.