Would you believe it! In another shocking announcement today, Overture have agreed to purchase the web search unit of Fast Search And Transfer - (http://www.alltheweb.com)

This considerably changes the landscape - especially the future landscape of search engines even more. More information as this is being discussed at WebmasterWorld. That's some shopping Overture have been doing! This is a major boost to paid inclusion, and also strengthens the impact of trusted feed via Fast. Overture seem to have recognised that PPC bidding will eventually peak and just like banner ads, income will fall. While Overture have the cash, they can buy and promote superior crawler engines and compete in the market with Google.

Both Altavista and Fast can bring up good results. Combined, they can bring up as good, if not better results than Google. With marketing money they can steal market share from Google. With MSN and Yahoo behind Inktomi, the head on battle against Google has commenced. It is a battle that will probably be won by paid inclusion subsidising non-commercial results.

Google's venture capital partners are already looking for a capital gain on their investment and are pressing for an IPO this year. Share holders will insist on boosting revenue through paid inclusion. Our forecast for this time next year? Bye bye freebee commercial results for commercial sites. Did anybody honestly think that getting your site advertised for free would continue forever?

Inktomi extends agreement with MSN until December 2005! (Feb. 21)
Well everyone thought that with the Inktomi/Yahoo merger that MSN would be looking for a new search partner when their Inktomi deal ended in March. Everyone was wrong!

Inktomi have revealed in their latest SEC filing that MSN this month extended the agreement until December 2005. It is rumoured that Overture are somewhat shocked by the announcement.

Futher info at WebmasterWorld and Ihelpyou forums.

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In a suprise move, which certainly wiped the sleep from our eyes when we learnt of it, Overture have agreed to purchase Altavista from CMGI for $140 million in cash and stock. The deal is expected to close in April this year.

Overture is primarily known for its pay per click results which show at the top of major sites such as MSN and Yahoo under 'sponsored listings.' Clients of Overture have to bid an amount per click to appear and the highest bidder appears at the top.

Last year, Overture lost out to Google when AOL and Earthlink in the US switched to an all Google solution, showing Google Adwords as the sponsored links backed up by the normal Google search results. It appears that Overture are now trying to provide a one source solution to partners in the future.

By utilising a spidering search engine which also allows trusted feed and paid inclusion in its results, Overture should now be able to give an offering which allows its portal clients to receive more revenue from a broader range of search results. However, how this is all going to work is anyones guess right now.

With Yahoo's recent takeover of Inktomi and speculation that MSN may change its provider of search results, this is proving to be an interesting year for search engine marketers.

Further Discussion at WebmasterWorld.