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Krishnan Thiagarajan

The great `search' war is on. Companies are competing to help the Web surfer find what he wants faster, better. This catch spells big scores.

OPENING yet another flank in the battle for information search, Google recently unveiled a search engine for access to information and images broadcast on television using its popular Internet search technology.

Though initial feedback suggests that this search engine will have limited utility at the moment, its message and impact is far more symbolic: Google's search is making a foray into Television, the world's most popular medium of our time.

And by doing so, Google is planning to expand its power and presence far beyond the reams of information that are confined to Web pages.

Clearly, the innovation engine, at least in the search engine market, is gathering greater momentum with each passing day.

The pace of innovation also shows that this is the market to watch over the next three years.

Slowly, but surely, this market is turning into a three-cornered contest between Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, with Amazon and e-Bay likely to pitch in, in a limited way, to protect their respective strongholds.

The fire of innovation is, obviously, being fuelled by vibrant competition.

Replacing the browser wars of the late nineties, the `information search' market is the holy grail of the Web.

To compete with Google, the search leader, the other three players — Yahoo, Microsoft and Amazon — have either launched or refined their search engines in the past year.

Each one of them has attempted to build some uniqueness in their search engine that they hope will help differentiate and build a loyal user base.

Microsoft has launched a search engine packed with a lot of added features such as the ability to reshuffle search results, throw up more popular search results and the effective user of its Encarta encyclopaedia for factual questions, among others.

Or take Amazon, which has launched its own search product, hoping to leverage its specialisation in books for years.

Second, in order to extend their reach, these players, especially Google, have launched a flurry of new services such as desktop search, e-mail, Netphone facility and photography services over the past few months.

But in almost all these services, these players have been hot on each other's trail, to ensure that the first-mover advantage did not last too long for any of them.

Take for instance, desktop search. Google was the first to introduce this facility, but both Microsoft and Yahoo managed to catch up with Google soon.

Or take Google's search for books that will allow users to access the index of contents for books from different publishers.

This can pose a threat to Amazon that has been offering a similar service for a long time. Besides, Google has also undertaken digitisation of libraries in the US, which will help swell the availability of content to its users.

These path-breaking changes bring us to the crucial question: Why is this fierce battle being fought in the first place, if the dotcom era is anything to go by?

Unlike the unclear revenue model of the dotcom era, it is now being fought primarily for advertising revenues.

A big chunk of the offline advertising is moving steadily to the online marketplace.

Google alone has derived nearly $2 billion in online advertising revenues from several corporate giants in the US, in a market estimated at only five times that size, but growing at a blistering pace.

Since Yahoo is in the same segment, it is eyeing the same set of revenues.

And since search is and will continue to be the gateway for Web-based commerce, say in travel or financial services or insurance, it has put Google and Yahoo in direct competition with each other for a share of the online advertising pie.

Besides, there is a greater chance that once a loyal user is built by a search product, the same set of users will be comfortable using the entire bouquet of services offered by that same player.

All this is expected to really boost the potential for selective and targeted online advertising in future.

Unlike Yahoo, Microsoft has jumped into the fray largely because there is a possibility that the search market may be taken beyond the PC in the none-too distant future.

Sooner or later, a new wave of information appliances, call them PDAs (personal digital assistants) or hand-helds, will make inroads, taking market share away from the PCs.

The success of Apple's iPod in the digital music player market shows that this is possible.

Similarly, it is realistic for Amazon (as Google lands on its turf) and e-Bay (as comparison shopping picks up momentum) also to harbour such fears.

As the new market for `information search' along with the bouquet of innovative services takes shape, it can trigger a bruising battle, akin to the browser wars in the nineties.

maverick@thehindu.co.in

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