• TechCrunch, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 9:15 AM

Should Microsoft and Yahoo throw in the towel and outsource search to Google? TechCrunch's Michael Arrington responds to that question with an emphatic "No," claiming that, "an absolute monopoly in search would be a disaster for the Internet." But more than that, Arrington said it's too early to declare the search wars over, because there are so many new areas that have yet to be conquered. "To think that search has reached its pinnacle today is like saying aircraft were perfected before World War I," he said. For example, semantic search, video search, image search, and niche search still need to be mined. To concede those areas to Google just because it won the text search war would be folly.

It would also stifle innovation. Google wouldn't be forced to innovate as rapidly without Microsoft and Yahoo. The odd startup might come along and present a challenge, but Arrington said this is unlikely due to the high cost of indexing the Web and building a business in such an established market. With no real competitors, Google could simply scoop up any promising startups.

Google is already getting a little too comfortable with its dominant position, Arrington said. Everybody knows the cost-per-click model could be improved upon. Advertisers would especially love to see a cost-per-acquisition model, but Google doesn't need to change anything, because of its comfortable position at the top of the pile. As Arrington said, the current system is good for Google and bad for advertisers-and it's even worse for AdSense publishers. If nothing else, we need Microsoft and Yahoo to keep the likes of Google honest.

Read the whole story at TechCrunch »