A quiet announcement which could have large ramifications for the search industry was made
yesterday when Yahoo said they had partnered with contact management software maker Plaxo to build in Yahoo Search to
version 2.0 of Plaxo's software, due out this month.
Plaxo's software, which has seen its share of controversy, is a free download which integrates directly into Microsoft's Outlook and Outlook Express clients, providing an easy way for users of these programs to update their contact lists. The Yahoo Search window will be directly embedded in the Plaxo toolbar inside Outlook.
"Email and search are the two most popular activities online and we are pleased to team up with Yahoo! to bring these together in a single place — Plaxo 2.0," said Todd Masonis, co-founder and vice president of products, Plaxo Inc. "The most valuable Internet real-estate is not just in the Web-browser and desktop, but also in email, where users spend the majority of their time."
The take home from this is that Yahoo, through this partnership, has opened a door which could take traffic away from Google and other search engines by keeping people from leaving Outlook and going into their browsers until after they have already hit the Yahoo search button.
I wouldn't be surprised in the future if Yahoo made a play to buy Plaxo at some point as a way to further integrate themselves into the desktop.
1. This morning I received an email from someone who I don't know, have never corresponded with asking me to confirm my details with him. This email came courtesy of Plaxo.
I had to then follow through and opt out using all all my email addresses this unknown character had on me even though I had never set eyes on Plaxo before today
I've just spent some time reading up on Plaxo and I don't like what I read.
As far as I'm concerned this has to fall in the category of spyware and I shall be keeping a close watch on this in the future..
Yours
D.A.Butler
Posted at 5:43AM on Dec 19th 2005 by David Butler