Google and Yahoo 'most important marketing tools'

Search engines such as Google and Yahoo are the most important developments in marketing for the last 10 years, according to a worldwide survey.

Four out of five (79 per cent) IT and industry business leaders and executives highlighted the importance of search engines because of their impact on marketing and corporate communications.

Survey provider Eurocom Worldwide claimed that this shows the continuing importance of search engine technology in presenting large amounts of information for business users as well as consumers.

"[It] shows that corporations and businesses around the world are going through a fundamental shift towards embracing the internet as an engine for marketing," said Eurocom Worldwide's network director Mads Christensen.

"This applies across all sectors, from business-to-consumer (B2C) to business-to-business (B2B)," he added.

Although the search engine was of prime importance, the findings also showed that companies still were slow off the mark when it came to Web 2.0, with blogging down on the list of business priorities.

Nearly half (47 per cent) of respondents did not blog, with one of the main reasons cited being that it is considered time consuming and not of value.

"The jury seems to be out on the merits of corporate blogging as a tool," said Six Degrees managing director Jennifer Janson.

"Corporate blogging requires dedicating time and resource, as well as a commitment to transparency, which may not sit well with many companies."

Of those executives that did blog, 50 per cent said they did it so to improve interaction with customers, while 21 per cent did it so that they could participate in industry debate and issues.

Some also blogged to raise their search engine profile, with 10 per cent doing so to boost their search engine optimisation.