I don’t know about Google, but both Microsoft and Yahoo are very excited to make this deal! Microsoft will empower Yahoo’s search as it couldn’t buy Yahoo’s search engine. Although this was originally the intention of Microsoft, the deal didn’t turn out to be a buy-and-sell deal. It’s about a 10-year contract to grant Microsoft an exclusive license to Yahoo’s core search technologies.

Search Market: Google (64%), Microsoft + Yahoo (26%)

How Do They Feel?

Looking at the company behind Bing search engine, Microsoft, you will see that they’re quite happy to be able to increase their share of the search market so quickly after the start of their search engine and become a #2 search engine in the global market. This is quite evident at their Blog Community.

Yahoo, on the other hand, is satisfied and somehow relieved from single-handedly competing the #1 search giant, Google. This will also help Yahoo get its resources more focused on other fields that Yahoo, as a portal, has been known for. Obviously, such feeling of satisfaction is seen at Yahoo’s Press Room. They’re happy to become the worldwide exclusive relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.

But, what about Google? How do people at Google feel about this deal? Well, I don’t expect them to react and say anything about it so soon as it’s seen at their official Blog. In such cases, Google’s top engineer, Matt Cutts, shows some reaction. So, looking at his blog, you won’t see much comment on what he thinks about it. Instead, he has setup an opinion poll to see what others (millions of web searchers) think! This is a heavy silence at this stage.

So, What’s in It for Search Engine Users?

A lot! They’re competing to prove that better search experience is being provided for their users. Day after day, you’ll see more and more options to help you find the exact stuff you’re looking for online. They have to put lots of their resources on this project. According to Nielsen Wire, Google still holds the first position with 64% share of the search market, while Bing-Yahoo have become the second power with 26% share.

How come Bing managed to get this deal so quickly after its appearance on the web? Well, take a look at the options it offers to the searchers and you’ll see. Google, on the other hand, has provided a series of options to help you narrow down your queries to carefully find what you’re looking for. Both have incorporated other information that are likely to be interesting to you. Wait and you’ll see more coming.

What Should Website Owners Do?

The importance of keywords, rich relevant unique fresh abundant content, backlinks, etc will not fade out. It’s not possible to think of optimizing a website for human users without quality web content. SO, SEO copywriting remains an essential factor.

In organic search engine optimization world, there are general rules that could never change. For instance, a website should be created in such a way that provides maximum ease of usability and usefulness. It must satisfy the quench of web searchers who are looking for the type of information you offer. Web developers and content creators should keep these facts in mind forever. They’re not going to change and if you stick to them, you won’t lose rankings. On the contrary, you would have good organic SEO ranking too.

But, what should be done differently from now on? This is something that SEO experts should tell us later.

Now, What Shall SEO Service Providers Do?

This deal shows how important the search market is. In spite of all the noise these days about social media, this has indicated that search engines are struggling hard to obtain more share of this market. You know why? Because people still do a lot of search everyday.

Main SEO factors seem very unlikely to change. For instance, quality content remains a vital factor no matter what changes occur in the search market share. Therefore, as long as you stick to the firm skeleton of SEO, things shouldn’t change much. From one perspective, one may think that compliance to two search engines is easier than three. From another, you may wonder what if those two have very different standards? How can an SEO service provider optimize a site to satisfy both engines?

These are some questions from many other ones that may cross your minds. Go ahead and share your ideas. Let’s know what concerns you have.