According to Fathom Online's Keyword Price Index (KPI), prices that advertisers had to pay to by keyword advertising dropped an average of 31 cents from April of 2005 led by a large drop in mortgage related keywords. This price drop marks the first decline in keyword advertising prices since August 2004, when the company started monitoring the prices.

Fathom's Keyword Price Index tracks 500 generic keywords across eight categories for the top five ranked positions on selected search engines.

Although Fathom clearly states that their tracking shouldn't be to gauge the financial health of search engines, Wall Street clearly differs in their opinion. Shares of Google shed $13.56 or 4.6 percent to close at $279.56 on Wednesday and shed another $6.75 on Thursday closing at $286.31. Yahoo's stock dropped 81 cents off 2.2 percent to close at $36.63 on Wednesday but gained it all back on Thursday.