Yahoo! to Drop Google Search Results As Early As First Quarter 2004

Sunnyvale, CA, January 6, 2004 – In a move that may have deep implications for many web-based businesses, The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones are reporting that Yahoo! has announced plans to drop Google search results from Yahoo! web searches as early as the first quarter of 2004.

Google rose to search engine stardom over the last five years in part by powering Yahoo! searches. At one time the companies seemed destined for a cooperative relationship. With this latest revelation, Google and Yahoo! now appear squared off for an intensive search engine showdown.

The news comes as Google prepares to go public – possibly in the first or second quarter of 2004.

Since Yahoo! completed its acquisition of Inktomi in March of 2003, it has seemed invevitable to search engine professionals that Yahoo! would drop Google search results in favor of its own technology. Additionally, the acquisition of pay-for-performance search engine Overture by Yahoo! in July of last year gives the company a direct competitive stance against Google’s AdWords and AdSense paid search advertising. These combined acquisitions carried a price tag of over $2 billion.

According to the Yahoo! web site, the search engine giant had an average of 1.9 billion page views per day as of March 2003 – with a user base of more than 232 million unique users worldwide. The site is distributed in 13 separate languages, and has acquired 22 companies since its inception including HotJobs, Broadcast.com, GeoCities, Inktomi and Overture.