Editorial

Thursday, 25 February 2010 02:05 Last Updated on Thursday, 25 February 2010 02:08

With the announcement that regulators in both the U.S. and the E.U. are allowing Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo search engines to combine forces, what's in it for you?

Internet search engines are the mechanisms by which people find websites or article pages online that they are searching for. This also applies to people wanting to find online casinos, poker rooms or more importantly, established and trustworthy websites that review and recommend the best of these. So when news breaks that two of the better known search engines are going to join forces, people are interested in knowing how that may affect the integrity of their searches.

The largest and most heavily used Internet search engine is Google, who account for around 65% of all searches worldwide. They have been the market leader for over a decade when they rapidly overtook the top engines relatively soon after their inception in 1998. Combined, Bing and Yahoo account for around 30% of searches worldwide, putting them firmly in second place and representing a serious rival to Google.

But what does all this mean to the gambler who wants to search for a good review site that will help them decide which online casino to choose?

On the surface, it doesn't mean very much as the vast majority of surfers will choose Google, whose search index is relatively accurate in terms of providing the most relevant sites near the top of their search results. However, the term "relevant" is the focus of a lot of arguments as to the true accuracy of any search engine's results. From the point of view of the websites that are jostling for position on the coveted first page, or the top ten results in any search engine, it is a very big deal. That's because it is all about the humble surfer and how they use the search engines. Placement in the index for the most popularly searched on terms within the gambling industry can make the difference between a gambling review website being successful or falling by the wayside through lack of funds. Here is how it works.

Online casino review sites are able to bring the visitor a very good level of casino review for their chosen "top online casinos" as well as up to date news from the industry, editorial articles and a whole host of other helpful services, because they can fund their efforts from advertising and other sources. That funding is generally provided only to the top review sites, simply because by being at or near the top of the search engine index, they attract the most visits from searchers interested in some aspect of online gambling. In the same way that television advertisers get their brand names known by being seen by millions of viewers, Internet advertisers get their brand names known by exposure to high levels of search traffic visiting the websites that they advertise on.

It stands to reason, then that the best paid sites are the ones at the top and so being at the top of Google is the place they all aspire to be, because that's where the vast majority of this traffic is generated from. It is no mistake that Google is also the hardest search engine to achieve the top placement, let alone a top ten spot. In the online gambling niche, competition is fierce because the rewards are high to the successful sites.

So with the news that Yahoo and Bing are to merge their search engine mechanisms to provide a serious rival to Google's, it is of great interest to the online casino review sites that for one reason or another are unable to break into Google's top ten for the biggest search terms. That's because traditionally, these search engines have been easier to rank in the top ten for high traffic search terms simply because all the serious competition is concentrating all its efforts in dominating Google alone.

With an estimated 30% of all search traffic now coming to the joint Yahoo-Bing partnership, it now makes a lot of sense to rank in the top ten for those engines. While traffic will be less than half that generated by Google, it’s a half worth having when you can't even get a portion of the bigger half.

For the average surfer looking for good online casino review sites, it's also good news because it means a wider choice of sites to choose from that occupy high positions in two additional search engines. A better and wider choice means more diverse opinions, advice and recommendations to cross reference. This expanded ability provides the surfer with a much more accurate assessment of those online casinos which are most often and most highly recommended by the largest number of trusted, relevant and knowledgeable review sites that can be found at or near the top of the three most relevant search engines on the planet.

This means that you should care about this merger, because it can only be good for your searching and researching needs.