In Star Wars Anakin and Luke Skywalker brought balance to the force. In Lord of the Rings it was Frodo. Now for search and display markets balance is being brought back with the formation of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance (sorry there probably won’t be any movies made about this one).

“When the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance is implemented, both companies will continue to have differentiated consumer search experiences. However, Microsoft will manage the technology platforms that deliver the algorithmic (powered by Bing) and paid (powered by adCenter) search results.”

In an email sent out to current Bing and Yahoo advertisers they outlined a few details:

• The program will start in Fall and you will be able to reach over 15 million searchers.
• All accounts will be transferred beginning in late summer and will be ready by the time the holiday season rolls around. If any account has the possibility of missing the holiday season, their transfer will be put off until after the holidays.
• Big budget clients will have customer service by Yahoo and small budget clients by Microsoft.
• Regular communication and tools will be provided to aid in the transition.

What will this mean for advertisers? It means that Google is now going to have some more competition. According to the most recent statistics on search market share, Bing controls 11.7%, Yahoo 16.9%, and Google 65.1%. After the alliance it will be 65.1% VS 28.6% for the big two search engines. The competition will be GREAT for us advertisers. Competition spurs growth, right?

What are your thoughts on the search alliance? Will YaBing! outperform Google? Will market share decrease for the alliance? Keep checking back to the Get Found First blog and we will keep you posted!

-Luke