Musings on Politics and Search

And then there were two?

This morning’s news about the potential acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft/MSN struck me as remarkably similar to what happened earlier this week in the Presidential Primaries – one drops out to let the other two have at it.

Taking this analogy a little further, it’s actually more like Giuliani (Yahoo) dropping out and throwing his weight for McCain (Microsoft) who, if he does get the nomination, faces the prospect of a Democratic juggernaut (Google) in the general election this fall. Then there’s the potential for an independent like Bloomberg (Ask) to jump into the fray and stir things up even further. Dare I compare the fading Ron Paul to AOL?

Of course, we’ve heard these rumors about Yahoo and MSN before. Isn’t it a little ironic that they resurface on Groundhog Day Eve?

Tired of spin?

The “spin” of politics these days is incessant as everyone tries to cast the best light on their version of things – whether it’s numbers or snubs. That’s one thing we don’t have too much need for here at DBE. Our clients’ traffic is up or it’s not. Their keyword visibility is up or it’s not. (Note: we have never had a client not up over baseline but you get the idea.) And we don’t rely on straw polls or exit polls with margins of error that make the findings meaningless. We have hard, real time data in the form of impressions, clicks, CTRs and conversions. Having come out of the advertising arena where subjectivity and spin often made it second to last on lists for credibility (used car salesmen being the bottom; not sure where politicians fit in), it is refreshing to now be in search marketing where the results speak loudly and clearly for themselves.

PS – You can now cast your votes for our blog by “Digg-ing” it or by submitting your write-in comments.