I just found out Yahoo will start using Bing’s search algorithm either next month (August) or September.


I suspect they will just show Bing’s listings.

If you’re ranking well in Bing right now then you’ll see a surge of new traffic. If you don’t your Yahoo traffic will disappear and you’ll probably have a lot of SEO work to do.

I’ll keep you updated as I find out more information.

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What is MLM Marketing

Multi-level marketing (MLM), (also called network marketing, direct selling, and referral marketing) is a term that describes a marketing structure used by some companies as part of their overall marketing strategy. The structure is designed to create a marketing and sales force by compensating promoters of company products not only for sales they personally generate, but also for the sales of other promoters they introduce to the company, creating a downline of distributors and a hierarchy of multiple levels of compensation.


The products and company are usually marketed directly to consumers and potential business partners by means of relationship referrals and word of mouth marketing.

Multi-level Marketing Criticized

MLM companies have been a frequent subject of controversy as well as the target of lawsuits. Criticism has focused on their similarity to illegal pyramid schemes, price-fixing of products, high initial start-up costs, emphasis on recruitment of lower-tiered salespeople over actual sales, encouraging if not requiring salespeople to purchase and use the company’s products, potential exploitation of personal relationships which are used as new sales and recruiting targets, complex and sometimes exaggerated compensation schemes, and cult-like techniques which some groups use to enhance their members’ enthusiasm and devotion. Not all MLM companies operate the same way, and MLM groups have persistently denied that their techniques are anything but legitimate business practices.

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Facebook has acquired a travel recommendation start-up called NextStop–but as has been the pattern with the massive social network’s history of small purchases, it will be shutting the NextStop product down. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We’ll be joining Facebook and…Facebook has bought most of our assets,” a message on NextStop’s home page read, adding that NextStop will be shutting down on September 1 and that current members are being offered a number of tools for exporting their travel guides. “In the next few weeks we will be releasing the NextStop database of places and recommendations under a Creative Commons license in a format suitable for easy importing. Our aim is make it possible for other products–whether they already exist or are yet to be created–to harness the collective knowledge of the NextStop community, which includes information on nearly 100,000 recommendations for places around the world.”


It’s unclear whether any of the NextStop assets will be worked into Facebook. Representatives from Facebook weren’t immediately available for comment about the NextStop team’s transition into the company.

When Facebook buys companies, for the most part, it’s for the engineering talent: the company seems to prefer building products in-house or letting third parties contribute to the Facebook experience by accessing its application programming interface. Most recently, Facebook acquired a photo-sharing service called Divvyshot in April and shut it down six weeks later; a 2007 acquisition, Parakey, brought the former creators of the Firefox browser to Facebook’s employee ranks.

The acquisition of FriendFeed from last summer was a significantly bigger one, and the FriendFeed product remains intact. Its former CEO, Bret Taylor, is now Facebook’s chief technology officer.

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Google’s getting into the travel business: it announced plans Thursday to acquire ITA Software, a company that provides travel information to various Web sites, for $700 million.

The deal had been rumored in recent days but was met with skepticism by some who believed it would prompt a swift inquiry from government regulators leery of Google’s control of such information, which is widely used by travel sites and other search engines, such as Microsoft’s Bing. Google said it plans to use ITA’s software in Web search to help users find flight information.

ITA, based in Cambridge, Mass., is the brainchild of MIT graduates who figured out a way to use algorithms and technology to change the way people booked flights online and searched for cheaper fares. It has relationships with major airlines all over the world, and it also provides services to travel agencies and search engines, as described above.
Jeremy Wertheimer, president, CEO, and co-founder of ITA, said his 500-person company basically takes information distributed by airlines regarding flight schedules, prices, and seat availability, and publishes that to its partners. Those partners include major travel search sites such as Hotwire, Kayak, Orbitz, and start-up Rearden Commerce, all of which will face a more difficult competitive position, if this deal goes through: it’s not clear whether Google will continue to provide ITA’s services to those partners.


Google said it plans to use ITA’s technology in its Web search tools and to allow potential passengers to shop for tickets right from Google. Travel search makes up a huge portion of Google searches, but it’s a complicated type of search to express in a query box, Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search products and user experience, said on a conference call following the announcement of the deal.

“Google has already come up with new ways to organize hard-to-find information like images, newspaper archives, scholarly papers, books, and geographic data. Once we’ve completed our acquisition of ITA, we’ll work on creating new flight search tools that will make it easier for you to search for flights, compare flight options and prices, and get you quickly to a site where you can buy your ticket,” Mayer said in a blog post accompanying the announcement.

As it did subsequent to acquiring AdMob, Google prepared a Web site highlighting the benefits of the deal for users and downplaying any anticompetitive effects. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said he expects “a significant review” from federal regulators, who tend to take a closer look at just about anything Google does these days, and who are unlikely to miss this chance to exert some pressure on Google, following the Federal Trade Commission’s decision to let the $750 million AdMob deal go through.

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