Virtually all mature markets have at least two strong, if not dominant, competitors.  Right now, Internet search has only one, named Google.  While Google is clearly the 800lb gorilla, competitors like Yahoo and MSN are always working on their algorithms, tools, and partnerships in an effort to take some of Google’s market share.

Now, Google may have yet another competitor. Former employees of the Mountain View, CA firm have launched Cuil (pronounced “cool”), a new search portal. They say it delivers more relevant results than any other search engine (yeah, I know, we’ve heard that before…). Will it be as good as or better than Google? Will it deliver the results that surfers and affiliate marketers are looking for? It’s way too early to tell.

Putting a dent in Google’s search dominance has proven to be a very tall task. Is this finally the one to watch? We’ll all stay tuned to see if “cool” lives up to its name.

Businessweek has an interesting story this week about the different Web uses – one on the “big” screens of laptops and desktops and the small screens of PDAs like BlackBerry and the iPhone – and the difference between weekday and weekend usages.

The stats show that people’s habits change away from Google and Yahoo! when they are searching for information on a portable device. The story reports that “The fastest-growing mobile-Web categories relate to weather, entertainment, games, and music.”

Clearly, for product publishers and affiliates, this presents a business opportunity – what is the next generation of products and offerings that will appeal to people on the smaller format?

If you are an internet marketer, I’m sure you are watching the merger (takeover?) talks between Microsoft and Yahoo with the same level of interest that we are.

We don’t have a dog in that fight, but it still has far-reaching implications for our industry. A lot of successful affiliates are successful because they’ve figured Google out – among other things. Google is a verb for a reason. They are the 800lb gorilla. But what if the merger goes through?

If there is a merger, Google won’t be displaced overnight. Recent market research shows that Microsoft and Yahoo would still have a long way to go in trying to dethrone Google. Maybe the combined search engines wouldn’t have an impact on the search marketing industry at all, in the short term. Combining the number two and three search sites together, though, might change some of the rules of the game, bring a new twist to the paid search marketplace, and make Google sweat a little. Who knows how that would impact searches – or pricing for keywords?

Even if this merger doesn’t end up happening or takes a different form than the original takeover plan, it’s an important reminder that the online world is never stable. Just when we think we have it mastered, a new player comes along that changes the rules, like Google did for search, YouTube did for online video and MySpace did for what we now call social media.

The rules that have applied to our brick and mortar friends for years apply to the online marketplace as well – the people that stay in business the longest are the ones that quickly adapt to changes in the marketplace. That’s why we’re always innovating at ClickBank, and we’ve seen that the most successful affiliates are always ready to innovate, too.

Would a Microsoft-Yahoo merger change the way you operate as an affiliate? If so, tell us how by leaving a comment.