Are The Search Engines Really Looking To Get Into SEM?
Google is going to buy DoubleClick, which includes search marketing company Performics. And whilst Yahoo! has also said that it wants to buy an ad-serving company, MSN is apparently going to go exactly the same path as Google and buy an ad management company, 24/7 Real Media which also offers search marketing.
Danny Sullivan does a great job of summing up why this is a terrible idea so I’ll just paraphrase him here.
If any of the search engines also own companies which offer search marketing services, how will anyone ever trust the search results again?
