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Microsoft’s Fickleness Will Be Yahoo’s Downfall

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Carol Bartz and Steve Ballmer

Immediately after handing over its entire search business to Microsoft, Yahoo takes a beating on Wall Street. It’s not hard to see why. Instead of the upfront billions Microsoft offered last year, Yahoo is now getting revenue share on search ads.

Sure, it’s a huge revenue share — 88% for five years — but this is Microsoft we’re talking about. Search is only the latest among Redmond’s many fleeting non-software obsessions over the decades. If Ballmer gets tired of Bing within the next five years — which is extremely likely, given Microsoft’s track record — Bing would fall behind Google in search innovation.

Yahoo, being stuck with Bing for the next ten years, would be thoroughly YaScrewed. Carol Bartz just put Yahoo’s fate in very, very fickle hands.

Originally posted on July 29, 2009 @ 4:13 pm

Microsoft Takes Over Yahoo Search

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Microsoft’s long courtship of Yahoo ends with a sad whimper — from Yahoo. Redmond gets a ten-year exclusive license to Sunnyvale’s search technology. Bing becomes the official search engine powering Yahoo. Yahoo is reduced to nothing but a salesforce for Bing’s search ad space. [Read more…]

Originally posted on July 29, 2009 @ 10:36 am

Yahoo launches Search Pad, the research assistant

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Yahoo! Inc. has released Search Pad beta, a search feature that lets people capture, organize, save and share information they find while researching online. Search Pad provides a new search experience that is especially valuable for people conducting extensive research in categories such as academic, health, jobs, travel, or shopping.

Search Pad simplifies the task of capturing information by automatically recognizing when people are conducting research, and allowing them to easily capture information and websites found in their search results. Once activated, Search Pad automatically saves recent items, including links in one integrated notepad that stays with them as they search. People can edit their notes and then print, save, email, or share their Search Pad documents with family, friends, colleagues or anyone else, eliminating the need for others to do the same research.

The new Yahoo! Search Pad feature will be rolling out initially to people by searching at Yahoo.com in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina.

Originally posted on July 7, 2009 @ 10:04 am

Yahoo! introduces new ad products with greater reach precision

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Yahoo! Inc. has introduced three new targeting products for brand and performance marketers that are designed to help them reach the audiences that matter most when advertising online.

The new products include:

• Search Retargeting, which gives advertisers the ability to target display advertising based on user search activities;

• Enhanced Retargeting, which allows advertisers to deliver dynamically generated display ads across the Yahoo! network based on user activity on an advertiser’s site; and

• Enhanced Targeting capabilities for search advertising, including ad scheduling and demographic targeting within search.

“As the economy continues to put pressure on advertising budgets, marketers are looking for increased accountability for every dollar they spend. Yahoo!’s new targeting products significantly improve the ability for search and display advertisers to reach their target audience, providing increased efficiency and accountability,” said Michael Walrath, senior vice president, Advertising Marketplaces Group, Yahoo!.

Originally posted on February 24, 2009 @ 12:11 pm