{Week 2} Yahoo vs. Google Advertising

Since the Internet boom advertisers have been looking for better ways to get at consumers. And what better way than to target the "search engines" that they are using everyday. Yahoo truly believed this and so joined with advertisers. The interesting thing to me was how much time and money Yahoo focused on the advertising and how little time they focused on the programming of the "search engine." From the get-go Yahoo never really seemed interested in the search aspect of the company, which I thought was the main reason that the company came into existance. As well I thought in order to even be able to set up advertisements you would need a great programmer. I suppose I can understand not wanting to be a so-called "technology company" especially with the emerging Microsoft back then. And seeing Netscape be completely crushed by them is a scary thing to see. Yet without the best programmers or code writers Yahoo was not able to keep up with the growth of the Internet. Focus less on advertising and more on what the company is supposed to be, a "search engine."

Google it seemed went in a different direction and focused on being a search engine with only text-based advertising. It is interesting to see the change that Google has taken as far as advertising goes. By buying DoubleClick advertisers can better see how the ads are working and how the ads are targeting consumers.

Yet one thing that both these comanies forget is the consumer and the fact that we have a say in what we see. If I don't want to see an advertisement I turn it off or I ignore it and focus on the text instead. Clutter is all over the Internet and advertisers need to work with search engines to see if they can find a way through the clutter and get the comsumers attention.