Yahoo has announced the pending purchase of paid-placement pioneer Overture in a cash and shares deal valued at $1.6 Billion. By the end of December 2003, Yahoo will be the proud owner of 4 former large players in the search engine industry, Overture, AltaVista, AlltheWeb and Inktomi. The purchase will change the faces of both paid placement and paid inclusion business models, as well as put immense pressure on Google and MSN. This purchase will not effect advertisers at this point though there may be a slight increase in traffic volume once the dust settles and Overture results are incorporated into Yahoo in early January. For search engine users, this round of conglomeration likely means a greater number of top-tier search options, most certainly increasing pressure on Google.

Overture was founded in 1998 and launched as GoTo.Com. In early 2000, Overture began distributing its top 3 listings to several search tools and ISPs including AltaVista, Earthlink, AOL, Netscape and Lycos. The tactic of distributing paid listings became Overture's greatest asset, both to search engine advertisers and to Overture's shareholders. For advertisers, Overture guaranteed listings on the first page of most major search tools for the Top3 bidders under specific keyword phrases. This model made money, a rare feat for search engines back then. Overture also broke the payment barrier for search tools, pioneering a form of the pay for inclusion revenue model that is currently used by many search tools. The bid-per-click revenue model was also adopted by Google in late 2002 when the AdWords program was developed. Since then, Overture has lost several distribution partners to Google and became almost wholey dependant on revenues from MSN and Yahoo. Shareholders sensed Overture's predicament and began bolting from the company, thereby placing the purchase squarely in Yahoo's sights.

Yahoo is the big winner these days, now owning 4 of 16 major players in last year's search engine industry. With the purchase of Inktomi, Yahoo was poised to challenge Google's traditional search engine listings market. The Overture deal now gives Yahoo control of AltaVista and AlltheWeb, as well as the bid-per-click prize, Overture. Yahoo is now covered with good content and plenty of advertisers to pay for their operations.

The big loser in this deal appears to be MSN, which was also looking to purchase Overture. MSN is now entirely dependant on Yahoo for both paid results (from Overture) and traditional results, (from Inktomi). We expect MSN to continue to use results from Overture until the Yahoo acquisition is completed in December. We also expect MSN to continue listing results drawn from the Inktomi database as MSN's own search engine bot is not quite ready to pose a serious challenge to Google-bot. Being dependant on one's rival is rather uncomfortable so we are also predicting MSN will go on a shopping spree in the near future with ASK JEEVES and FINDWHAT being the most likely targets and LookSmart being the long-shot.

For sports and music fans, getting tickets to an out of town event can be as challenging and time consuming as planning a vacation. You need to get the tickets, pay for them, arrange accommodations and figure out how to get to the venue. If you live on an island like we do, getting to events on the mainland is extra challenging. That's where services such as BeAFan.Com come in. BeAFan does all the heavy lifting for you when it comes to planning and arranging sport tickets and accommodation in Seattle, Vancouver and Victoria. With tickets to every Seattle Mariners and Seahawks, Vancouver Canucks and BC Lions games, and most major music events, Be A Fan helps get your tickets and arrange accommodation the night of the event. In some cases they'll also arrange transportation. Check out BeAFan.Com to see if tickets for your favorite team or event are available.

We've been offering tips in this section for over a year now but, until now, we've never even thought to ask our readers what they would like to know. So, let's do it. StepForth staff love answering questions and sharing information. Please send your questions to: advice@stepforth.com.

Don't be afraid to give us your web site details, we always substitute any personal information with fictional info before we publish it, unless you request otherwise!