The last six months of 2003 were turbulent times in the Search engine Industry and search engine optimization business, and the first few of 2004 aren't much different except free search just got more expensive!

Changes to the landscape of search have been enormous - Yahoo's mergers and acquisitions frenzy of 2003 has resulted in their ownership of basically every other search engine apart from Google, MSN and ASK. This massive industry consolidation largely left those searching unaffected until very recently.

Yahoo dropped Google results last month in favor of their own Inktomi results contributing to Google's diminishing dominance of the market over the last six months from 76% to 48%. A steady erosion of the quality of Google results has caused a severe loss of mind share and as a result market share for the once 'peoples Champion' of the search Engines.

Combine this with Yahoo's new focus on being a search engine again, its new now 'more relevant than Google' index and its leveraging of acquired properties in the form of Inktomi, Altavista , All the web and the pay per click money magnate Overture and one would have thought that the heydays at the GooglePlex (Google's Mountain View California home) were over.

But, in a valiant attempt to snatch defeat from the jaws of almost imminent victory, and regaining their previously held crown of industry dominance Yahoo! has moved the goal posts spelling the end of free search to all, as we know it. Where once upon a time the results were not paid for in any way by the website publisher, unless they chose sponsored listings, preciously displayed separately, Overture will now enter the standard search business as a pay per performance search engine as well as pay per click on yahoo’s behalf and the paid or sponsored averts will be mixed in with standard results.

Certainly this is the year of Pay per Click searching; with search engine users becoming ever more savvy and web marketers more canny, the fight to dominate the real estate of the search results page in order attract buying eyeballs becomes ever more intense. Google's response has been and purportedly will continue to be avoidance of paid inclusion and a clearly segregated presence of Sponsored, Pay per click adverts, Adwords, on results pages. It’s more recent move to move this advertising mediums presence to other non search engine publisher’s websites in the form of contextual adverts, Adsense, has met with positive reactions from website owners and users alike – far more than their current natural results.

As the new Yahoo! hones its revenue models, the new found relevancy will no doubt suffer as will the user and website publisher alike. Will Google regain its mind share by once again being the most relevant, and hold its current views on free search with sponsored on the side? With the new revenue models pushing paid search results to over 50% of the public, are we looking at a "two tiered" Internet in which the original values of the web’s founding fathers ideals of a free flow of information are diffused by moves to make finding websites more expensive for the website owner?

Written By:
Conor D, O’Connor is the Director of Group information Systems of Interealty , Spain’s premier estate agency and the Founder of Sane Internet Spain’s largest search marketing firm.

Yahoo Paid
Caption: The new Yahoo interface without sponsored listing, but paid results.

Google Sponsored
Caption: The new Google interface with sponsored listing, and free results.

Adsense In Action
Caption: Google’s contextual advertising –Adsense in action.