Search engines derive huge amounts of their budget from advertising and advertisers thrive on quantitative data. Search engines that effectively mine data from their log files are at a major competitive advantage. Problem is, this kind of major competitive advantage poses an equal threat to privacy laws.

Yahoo’s move, however, shows the other side of this relationship. As internet users become more concerned with their privacy and security, they will (hopefully) be drawn to those search engines that take the greatest steps to protect their personal information. Since online advertising revenues are directly related to search volumes, major search engines are going to have to find the best balance between privacy and marketing.

As a search marketer, I cannot wait to see how this battle between privacy and utility plays out.

Thank you again for this resource!