Online Media Daily reports MSN will start offering its search engine users the chance to win millions of dollars in prizes just for using MSN search. This comes a few days after Yahoo! has openly started to consider using incentives to get searchers to use Yahoo! search.

The moves by both companies seem like a desperate attempt to shortcut their way to better search usage.

Unfortunately, Yahoo! and MSN seem to be missing the point. The reason that Google does so well is based on the quality (whether real or perceived) of their search results.

No company should have to bribe anyone to use their search engine, as long as the search quality is there. But MSN and Yahoo! still have relatively simple search algorithms - and because they are so easy to manipulate, the search quality is lower.

Surprisingly, I do not think that MSN is really giving their all when it comes to search quality.

Myself and a few of our affiliates had an informal conversation with an MSN search employee at the Webmaster World conference, and it sounds like MSN is not really throwing all of the resources it can at their search product. The employee stated that the search department was pretty small, and eluded to the fact that they are understaffed. I am not sure if this has changed since the conversation in November - but if not, it explains a lot.

I am not really sure how hard Yahoo! works to improve their search either. I do know that they put a lot of focus on their paid search products like Search Submit - which is basically a good old fashioned “paid inclusion” program. Technically, the Search Submit program is not supposed to interfere with the natural rankings, but I have had affiliates tell me that their rank improved after entering the program. So to me, it sounds like their search quality will always have that paid manipulation factor.

Google, on the other hand, has gained a following over the years based on their search quality. Quite simply, when people search for something on Google, they feel like they find what they are looking for. This was key to driving the original word-of-mouth that made Google so popular today. Google users use Google because it works. And in the long run, having a search product that works will be a heck of a lot more popular than free music downloads, a chance to win a bike, or a free mouse pad.

So will Yahoo! and MSN profit from these new search bribery techniques?

Yes.

Will they get more searches, more clicks and a few more regular users?

Yes.

But will MSN and Yahoo! be able to gain substantial market share and beat Google out of first place in the search market through search bribes?

Unequivically, no.

[Updated] I forgot to include my favorite quote from the Online Media Daily article -

“Is it hard to catch Google? Yeah. Nothings been successful so far, but this is the lowest level. Its not something that a valued brand would do.” — Gary Stein, Search Expert

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