Microsoft plans to integrate
e-commerce website Ciao into its search engine to accelerate
its search strategy following
failed talks with Yahoo.
Ciao,
sold
by Greenfield Online for $500 million, is an
online shopping site. It provides
product reviews and price comparisons. It has over 25 million
unique visitors every month.
John Mangelaars, vice-president consumer and online at Microsoft
EMEA, said the company is looking for
ways of improving its Live Search in Europe following
Microsoft's failure to acquire Yahoo.
"Yahoo was a way of accelerating our search strategy. We will
find other ways to accelerate it and this is one example," said
John Mangelaars.
When users search for a product they will receive the names of
suppliers, the most competitive prices and product reviews.
Mangelaars said this is one of three principles behind Microsoft's
search engine strategy.
The other two pillars are medical information and mapping.
Microsoft has already acquired Multimap to provide the mapping
information. Microsoft has built Health Vault to offer medical
related searches. "These are the most interesting for users and
advertisers," said Mangelaars.
He said Microsoft wants to introduce incentives for consumers to
use its search engine. "We believe the whole consumer experience
and commercial model of search will change," he added.
Rather than the supplier of a product online only paying the
search engine provider, the customers will also get a small
discount. "Today a lot goes to the search engine but a little could
go towards reducing prices.