Business Week On Desktop Search Economics

prostoalex writes "Business Week responds to the recent announcement by Yahoo! to join the ever-competitive desktop search field and asks whether any money will be made in giving away free utilities for desktop search. Apparently, beyond the intangible benefit of brand loyalty (which on the Internet probably doesn't amount to a whole lot), the only way to make money off the desktop search engines, as Business Week sees it, is to show related ads, which is bound to bring up some privacy issues."

Comments

Not regular brand loyalty

[Anonymous Coward]

They've missed the point. Google/Yahoo/whoever produce a good desktop search that you want to install. You install it. Then, when you need the search the web, what's the first place you're going to search with? Well, probably the one that's already running on your desktop. It's there and easy to access. That's how they make the money. You use their search engine and see their ads. No, you're not forced to use them, but most people will because it's what they want or they're lazy.

It's not a question of money.

[Undefined Tag]

It's not a question of money, but of presence. Once you have everyone using your software, you can look at sneaking in profit centers.

Google's a great example. They didn't start with AdSense - they added it once they were king.

Once your app is everywhere, you have all sorts of options. For example, if you don't want to sell ads, write another (commercial) program which expands the functionality of the original.

It's not always about the quick buck. Sometimes, it's about putting yourself in the proper position.