search engine competition on the rise - Release the Hounds

search engine competition on the rise Release the Hounds Release the Hounds With search engine competition on the rise, entrepreneurs stand to benefit, as both users and advertisers. Entrepreneur magazine - July 2004 By Mike Hogan Who knew back in 1995 how important the Web would become to our personal and professional lives? Who could even see last year how important Web search engines would become? Search had been a low priority—even a loss leader—for big Web portals like AOL, Microsoft MSN and Yahoo! Now search engines are bubbling over with new functionality and assuming a central role in Web life. They're attracting surfers in droves, making them a promising source of Web sales for entrepreneurs—even entrepreneurs without Web pages (more on that later). Relative newcomer Google deserves total credit. We've had search engines from the get-go—lots of them. But Google found a way to actually return relevant results