Since I’m just getting Webmetricsguru.com going in it’s new location – I’m pulling in thoughts from The Analytics Guru, where I just wrote a post on

The Russian-Georgia War in the Caucasus – what it means – Paul Krugman

I read all of Paul Krugman’s posts – I usually enjoy them a lot – this Paul Krugman post titled The Great Illusion, just published today, seemed somewhat vague as to what it was getting at – but I think, what it means is that what we think, that war is economically unthinkable, isn’t really so – and that in some ways, our age has a lot in common with the 1920’s.

If so, that is a sobering thought – as what came after wasn’t pretty.

Well, I guess with the US Economy going down the tubes, Search Engines are going to be affected, too.  Well, at least, the very first sign of troubles to come is when Yahoo Asked Employees To Turn In Computers:

"..Yahoo told a group of about 30 or so employees yesterday that their jobs would be terminated in 60 days, and that they could look for other jobs within Yahoo. But could they please turn in their computers by the end of the day today. Other than the engineers, who tend to get quickly sucked into other groups, it is not likely many will find other jobs at Yahoo.

The layoff represents a small reshuffling of employees, with jobs actually moving to Europe. One of the teams affected is the company’s successful Yahoo Answers team, which is split between the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. employees are losing their jobs, and the the team is consolidating in Europe. The same thing is happening for a search technology group that was split between the U.S. and Europe. This part of a bigger reorganization of the search group that’s been going on since at least December. Many of the engineers in the Answers group in the U.S., for instance, will be going to Delicious.

The remainder of the layoffs will come from Yahoo’s Brand Universe project, which was killed in December, a year after it officially launched. Its leader Vince Broady is leaving the company.  Brand Universe was an attempt to make widgetized landing pages for big brands that appealed to advertisers, and is no longer considered a core focus of Yahoo’s renewed consumer-centric strategy."

My point being – Search Engines are not immune to the fallout Sub-Prime Mortgage Meltdown is having on the rest of the economy – Search will be affected, too. 

Looks like more and more people are saying a recession this year is inevitable – with all that goes with it; among the latest list of those saying this is Adotas's article today on The Falling Knife

"…A general recession is on the horizon; it’s not a question of if, but when and how long. The last recession happened just briefly in 2001, but the job loss which resulted from it continued until 2003, and we have just now started to reach the level of employment we saw then. When this recession comes, people will lose their jobs, and as the professor commented but all too seriously, “People in this room will lose their jobs.” It will be painful but it is necessary to get the economy on the right track again."

And the housing crisis with the sub-prime mortgage meltdown really hasn't fully hit yet:

"…In the professor’s opinion, we are entering the worst housing depression in 50 yrs. It started only recently, and it will last for at least two years and as many as four. And, as Barry Ritholtz explained, you can analyze this housing market using the Kubler-Ross Five Stages of Grief, i.e. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. In his opinion, we have barely made it to Stage 3. People think we’ve felt some of the impact, that it can be seen in the stocks, and all should be fine. We’ll know it’s time to buy when we hear people saying, “This stinks. I’m done with it.”

 It's not everyday you hear trade magazines forecasting news that generally will be considered negative – but today Adotas did (at least, the article writer did).

Another view of the future – I'm not sure this is the future, I, for one, would want to see unfold….interesting video though……