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Overture deal raises stakes for Google, MSN
New York, July 15: Yahoo Inc.`s YHOO.O decision to buy online advertising services provider Overture Services Inc. has again raised the stakes in the ever-changing Internet search market, analysts said.
New York, July 15: Yahoo Inc.'s YHOO.O decision to buy online advertising services provider Overture Services Inc. has again raised the stakes in the ever-changing Internet search market, analysts said.
The move positions Yahoo to compete directly with No. 1 search engine Google Inc. and is expected to pressure MSN, Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT.O Internet service, to more forcibly assert its independence in the search market.
Meanwhile, shares of small search technology and services providers such as LookSmart Ltd. LOOK.O , FindWhat.com FWHT.O , Ask Jeeves Inc. ASKJ.O and InfoSpace Inc. INSP.O rose sharply on the prospect of further consolidation.
"Search is the front door to the Internet. Everybody's come to realize that," said Steve Berkowitz, president of Web properties at Ask Jeeves, who like others said the sector's consolidation would open up new business prospects.
The industry has been the subject of heightened interest as search-based Internet advertising defied the dot-com bust to emerge as a robust source of new customers for advertisers and new revenues for portals like Yahoo and MSN.
Particularly lucrative are the highly targeted paid-listing -- or paid-search -- services that respond to key-word Web searches with text ads that appear under headings like "sponsored links." Advertisers pay when Internet users click on the ads and services providers like Google and Overture OVER.O share those revenues with key traffic providers, including Yahoo, MSN and AOL AOL.N
Bureau Report
The move positions Yahoo to compete directly with No. 1 search engine Google Inc. and is expected to pressure MSN, Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT.O Internet service, to more forcibly assert its independence in the search market.
Meanwhile, shares of small search technology and services providers such as LookSmart Ltd. LOOK.O , FindWhat.com FWHT.O , Ask Jeeves Inc. ASKJ.O and InfoSpace Inc. INSP.O rose sharply on the prospect of further consolidation.
"Search is the front door to the Internet. Everybody's come to realize that," said Steve Berkowitz, president of Web properties at Ask Jeeves, who like others said the sector's consolidation would open up new business prospects.
The industry has been the subject of heightened interest as search-based Internet advertising defied the dot-com bust to emerge as a robust source of new customers for advertisers and new revenues for portals like Yahoo and MSN.
Particularly lucrative are the highly targeted paid-listing -- or paid-search -- services that respond to key-word Web searches with text ads that appear under headings like "sponsored links." Advertisers pay when Internet users click on the ads and services providers like Google and Overture OVER.O share those revenues with key traffic providers, including Yahoo, MSN and AOL AOL.N
Bureau Report