At a Goldman Sachs technology conference in San Francisco, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced that the company has not given up on search. Mayer wants Yahoo to beat Google in the race to formulating a contextual search engine that offers individual, more efficient results to users on the basis of a series of factors, including demographics and previous online behavior.Search engines are not there year, however, despite hundreds of algorithm updates every year and a push toward mobile search strategies. Yahoo has the chance to capitalize on such a breakthrough in a big way.Ken Wisnefski, founder and CEO of WebiMax, a leading Internet marketing agency specializing in search engine optimization (SEO), is as enthusiastic as Mayer about the possibilities of contextual search becoming a reality.According to Wisnefski, Yahoos focus is a step in the right direction if it wants to have a big impact, taking into account that most of Googles revenues come from ads on search engines. He said that if Yahoo wants to compete with Google, it will have to sweeten the pot for companies by offering a unique product like contextual search.Based on the data it has about Internet users, which according to Mayer is the best data, Yahoo is in a position to reap substantial advertising revenues if it manages to nail down contextual search.
