An article in Forbes - Yahoo!'s Growth Prospects 'Superior' To Google's - notes that Merrill Lynch has upgraded earnings estimates for Yahoo! while lowering estimates for Google. The primary source for this shift appears to be Yahoo!'s market diversity and ability to generate revenue from multiple sources. Google has an exceptionally strong brand, but does not have much room for growth in revenue and share in its current market. Perhaps this explains Google's recent rampage of expansion into other areas.

This investor news may not seem particularly pertinent to SEOs, but it's important to read between the lines. Merrill Lynches analysts have access to far greater amounts of information on each of the companies than the general public, and their reticience to back Google indicates that the company is not likely to take share away from MSN, Yahoo! or AskJeeves in the search engine wars. This makes it more imperative than ever that SEOs remain diversified in their own optimization efforts, as backlash away from Google in the future could costs traffic if one is not prepared to pick up the slack with other engines.