A Brief Industry Analysis

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When Bill Gross first introduced GoTo -- which became Overture and is now Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM) – no one in the search industry took this business model seriously, except the advertisers. Despite harsh criticism for sullying the unbiased, pristine SERPs, the pay-per-click advertising model gained traction, and within a few years, paid search owned online marketing.

Logically, Yahoo should be leading the pack since it came out first and had more experience. However, Google joined the party reluctantly, ate Yahoo's lunch and continues to dominate the $15 billion paid search industry.

Google's secret weapon is continuous product improvement and fierce customer loyalty. There is no disputing the fact that once Google gained its reputation for relevancy, users have remained tenaciously loyal, despite the fact that relevancy is no longer golden. This monumental branding feat has proven hard to beat. As market share continued to rise, Google dominance became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Now that Panama is fully functional, and adCenter has been established for more than a year, here is how the two platforms compare.

Next: How The Two Platforms Measure Up