One year ago we made the following prediction in our search engine future preview of life in the world of search in 2015:

“MSN Search aka Windows Live Search is no more. It didn’t have to go that way. When Microsoft bought Yahoo! in 2008, they did actually discuss making Yahoo! a subsite of Windows Live and abandon the Yahoo! search engine technology.

Fortunately, experts convinced them otherwise. The experts pointed out that this would be the same mistake as Yahoo! had done when taking over AlltheWeb and AltaVista in 2003. At that time Yahoo! abandoned the best technology (AlltheWeb) and kept the weakest one (Inktomi). Microsoft decided to keep best search engine (Yahoo!) and discontinue Windows Live Search. The Microsoft team of search engineers became part of the Yahoo! Search team in 2009.”

Now it seems that Microsoft actually will buy Yahoo!, one of the reasons being Microsoft’s failure in developing a real Google killer in the search engine scene. There is another reason as well: branding. Yahoo! continues to be a strong brand. Microsoft MSN Window Live Search or whatever it is called at any given time isn’t.

Our guess is that yahoo.com will be around for a loooong time.

Here are some more search engine headlines from the recent week:

Interview with Eric Hebert on Digital Music Marketing
The distribution and publishing of music has completely changed (SEO by the Sea Jan 28 2008)

The Ultimate Guide to Directory Submissions
Submitting to directories is a great way to build links and increase your search engine rankings. (SiteProNews Jan 30 2008)

How the Microsoft / Yahoo Merger Could Affect Google Socially
Yahoo already owns del.icio.us, the most popular social bookmarking service out there. Google can counter this with Google Reader shared stories and Google Bookmarks, but del.icio.us is more flexible and made for bookmarking purposes. (Google Tutor Feb 1

The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, February
On The Rise of the Vertical Search Engines and more (AltSearchEngines Feb 1 2008)

54 Online Travel Sites to Bookmark Now
Destination guides, travel agencies and more (Washinton Post via Researchbuzz Feb 3 2008)

Roundtable: Four experts dissect the Microsoft bid for Yahoo
BetaNews spoke with four principal experts in the industry, both observers and insiders (Feb 1 2008)

Google Overhauls Korean Search Engine, Adopting Universal Search
Google is attempting to gain significant ground in South Korea, which just happens to be one of the world’s most wired countries. (SE Journal Jan 30 2008)

Google’s Marissa Mayer: Social search is the future
She hints Gmail may be used to identify your friends, using their search history to influence search results for you and those in your social network. (VentureBeat Jan 31 2008)

Yahoo: Terry Semel off the board
The former Yahoo CEO, who left that position last summer but remained as non-executive chairman of the board, is now out of the company altogether. (CNet Jan 31 2008)

Yahoo Deal Is Big, but Is It the Next Big Thing?
Google’s central innovation, Internet search, has confounded Microsoft, despite investing billions in both technology development and numerous smaller acquisitions. (New York Times Feb 3 2008)