Microsoft Buys Shopping Site Jellyfish
Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it had acquired shopping site Jellyfish, according to WebmasterWorld members.
Is the the beginning of a new Microsoft search engine? After all, Microsoft unveiled some new features on Live.com last week. Moderator pageoneresults wonders if that's the case:
With the upcoming change in Live and how commercial results are being served, is Microsoft becoming more of a "Commercial Shopping Portal" as opposed to just a regular search engine?
Skeptics think that maybe Microsoft is just trying to show something new. Personally, I've been an early subscriber to Jellyfish after it was featured in TechCrunch, especially with regards to the Jellyfish Smack feature. It would be nice to see some lower prices and cooler deals out of the acquisition, but I may be holding my breath. ;)
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.
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Tamar Weinberg in Microsoft MSN Search at October 3, 2007 9:26 AM
Comments (1)
Comments
I've been reading comments along the lines of "It's not a game changer" and this is off-base. It relies on things not changing much in terms of how the Web gets monetized. Even Google understands what's coming next -- a slow-down in pay-per-click ad model spending.
Proof's in the puddin: Look no further than Google's:
1) Launching a cost-per-action ("pay-per-action") ad model
2) Launching a tool allowing advertisers to manage (automate placement of) pay-per-click ads against a pre-defined cost-per-action
Google understands the game is about to change and is moving. Is anyone paying attention? MSFT is and they're locking up intellectual property in this move -- one that combines multiple, successful and innovative digital shopping models.
Jellyfish takes a best of breed approach and "mashes them up" to the amusement of consumers: Ebates + Woot.com and on the advertiser-side, eBay's Shopping.com + Google's AdWords auction environment + Commission Junction's (VCLK) performance-based cost model (cost-per-action) with a twist of Google (auctioning off ads).
It all ads up to valuable IP that Google, in theory, cannot access.
Posted by Jeff Molander at October 3, 2007 11:30