Google to power AOL search - Part 1

A multi-year deal....

[john316]

"Through Google's advanced search technology, tens of millions of users of America Online's brands will have access to Google's wide index of billions of documents."

[google.com...]

[skibum]

Maybe AOL will put the Google directory as the primary results - that would give it a different spin and make it so the same search results don't appear everywhere.

Anyway, this friggin' ROCKS! Go Google!

Almost like we are going back to the old days - Netscape browser and free (but more relevant) search results.

[Jill]

I read the article but I didn't see it. (<- needs more coffee) when is all of this supposed to take place? Especially the Google results showing up on AOL searches.

[Macguru]

>Also I was wondering the same thing for the regular search results.

Sorry for the missunderstanding JeremyL,

I am seeing sponsered adult terms on Google wich do not appear on AOL right now.

[papabaer]

Yes! This is great news! Though in some ways a bit frightening... We are moving towards a "one search engine world."

[dwedeking]

Agerhart,

Agree 100% that if anybody I would rather have google. I rank our clients sites well there and they are the most relevant (IMHO). Just don't like relying on just one :)

Just waiting for the other foot to drop as nothing is ever simple in the SEO world :)

[Macguru]

when is all of this supposed to take place?

Reading all financial articles on AOL here:
[finance.yahoo.com...]

The most accurate date I could find is "next several weeks". So I think they have legal and technical issues to iron out before it actually happend and don't know the exact answer themselves.

[Baraucs]

>>>>Now I can stop paying Ink!

>>Not unless you don't want be in MSN or want to pay L$.

Well I'd LIKE to be everywhere, but AOL is by far my favorite group for conversions! :)

[brotherhood of LAN]

SE's aside, I think this is a great stride forward by google and the "ethical web". No more garbage, just good clean google results :)

[agerhart]

Overture Conference Call Webcast [corporate-ir.net]

A little bit about Overture, AOL, and Google.

[Stickymaster]

I will give Google this - It doesn't stand still does it!

It's not shy either.

Maybe other SE's could take a lesson from Google - who are consistantly trying to improve.

On the downside to this, is Google too dominant?

Cheers,

Stickymaster.

[chiyo]

Hi sticky, great point.

Google were far sighted enough to realise that there was a sustainable long term market for people wanting fast relevant results. All the others left that market segment to them in the past 2 to 3 years in desparate moves to monetise by PPC and Portalization. google was criticised for having "no business model" in the heat generated by so called "lessons from the dot com crash". Quietly however, they took a non-conformist strategy, and backed it with quality.

things change fast, but right now Google is setting the standards not just for search, but for web delivery as a whole. Their major assumption? People ain't stupid

[celerityfm]

I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but this is amazing! Way to go Google!

Trying not to get caught up in the hype,

CelerityFM

[egomaniac]

This is way cool!

The Google press release makes it very clear that AOL will be all Google - both the regular search and the adwords. AOL gave the boot to both INK and Goverture.

AOL obviously saw this as a strategic move to keep their users on the AOL.com home page. Gives users less reason to go to another site, or change their home page to Google or Yahoo or My Yahoo.

MSN will take notice of this most definitely. Gates and company are not stupid.

[caine]

mad,

i wonder if anyone other SE is going to come and drink at the fountain of Google. I wonder how Yahoo will react, to AOL/Google partnership ?

[JeremyL]

Anyone think that Overture saw this coming and that is why they filed a suit against Google?

Also what url are people seeing the adword results already, i can't find any.

[agerhart]

If anyone listened to that conference call in the link above you will see that there are two sides to the story. Overture seems to think that they will remain to be the provider of PPC results to AOL and that Google will only be the search results.

[jeremy goodrich]

Wow...all I can say is wow. Traffic I'm sure, will bump for everybody.

Maybe now other engines will realize that Google had the right idea? Do it right, do it fast, and market share/revenue will follow...

[john316]

>>Overture seems to think that they will remain to be the provider of PPC results to AOL<<

Overture also "thinks" they are a search engine..hehe

[Macguru]

>>Also what url are people seeing the adword results already, i can't find any.

[biz.yahoo.com...]

If not in US, disable refferer login or go trough a proxy to see it live.

[Macguru]

OOps! Nor here too.

It's on and off or I am due for another coffee?

[defanjos]

Good and bad.

- If you are well positioned on google results --> Excellent

- If you pay for Adwords --> not so good. Prices of keywords and phrases will skyrocket. Pretty soon, it will be as expensive as Overture. Bottom line, the little guy will lose.

Some of my ads (Adwords) are already on Aol.com.
No overture results are being shown.

[NFFC]

L$ [smartmoney.com]$ and Ink [smartmoney.com] stock is hurting too.

[buckworks]

I really have mixed feelings about this, It will be great when things are going well, but Google has a habit of hiccuping and knocking sites out of its index for no discernible reason. Now when that happens we can lose three-quarters of our traffic in one swoop instead of just half.

[defanjos]

I have a feeling AOL will buy Google
What do you think?
How much is Google worth? 200, 300 ,400 Million?

[richlowe]

I have mixed feelings about this. I'm seeing way too many webmasters censoring their sites "to get high rankings in google", and I find it mildly alarming that this will now become even more important. It looks like Google is going to own the market, so webmasters will have to tailor their sites to be "google friendly" if they want traffic. That's not good for surfers, as the google algorithm stinks. Popular goes not equal good or best by any means. Way too many good, quality sites don't get listed well just because the search engine's silly, dumb robot does not like something about them.

On the other hand, google sure is better than what AOL had (still has for a few month months, I guess). I just think it would have been better for everyone if AOL could have gotten their act together and created a good search platform instead of the path they have chosen.

[chiyo]

Good point defanjos. Our google minimums are higher than overture on Adwords, but if AOL incoporate our google main index results eventually it will well and truly make up for it. Our Adwords hits are neglible anyway.

Maybe AOL will list main Google database results only if you pay an indexing fee, then Google and AOL share the revenue! ;) (eternal pessimist!) I dont know why they would replace a system where they are getting revenue (Ink), with one where thet are not, unless they think the quality of search can result in AOL people staying longer on AOL properties (mentioned before),and buying more as a consequence, or some other customized use of results.

[Brett_Tabke]

defanjos (welcome to the board)
Google Worth? [webmasterworld.com].

Now THAT would be a scary thought if AOL were to buy Google. 'course, they have the pockets.

[victor]

chiyo:
> I dunno. I still have to be 100% convinced
> that they will be using google's main listings.

We can't tell, of course. But one useful bit of evidence is that AOL's Usenet search has simply been a thin front end to standard Google Groups' search for quite a while.

[defanjos]

In my opinion AOL should have the results show as follows:

Sponsored Links:
Adwords
Adwords
Adwords
Adwords

Matching Sites:
Google #1
Inktomi #1
Google #2
Inktomi #2
Google #3
Inktomi #3
.......and so on

Everybody would be happy, especially people that paid for Inktomi's inclusion (like me :))

[martinibuster]

Hi Chiyo,
As for why AOL would forsake Ink money: I theorize that since AOL's stock has been tanking, their position would have been even worse it MSN had jumped first on Google. In other words, it's a smart move to head off a worse fate. That's only an opinion...