Yahoo's CEO, Marissa Mayer, announced on Tumblr that they have renewed and extended their deal with Microsoft on their search front.In short, Bing will still power much of Yahoo Search but Yahoo does gain more control. Instead of Bing powering almost all of the ads on Yahoo Search desktop, now Yahoo only has to show Bing Ads on 51% of those searches.Danny Sullivan has an excellent FAQ on the deal. I am not surprised to see the deal renewed, was hoping to hear a hail-marry where Yahoo goes at search alone again, but that was highly doubtful.Marissa said:Today, I’m excited to announce a renewed search alliance with Microsoft. The agreement opens up significant opportunities in our partnership, enabling both partners to improve the search experience, create value for advertisers, and establish ongoing stability for partners.We firmly believe that search is still in its infancy – and this partnership marks the next chapter in our exploration of how to make search truly great. … [Read more...] about Yahoo Renews Microsoft Deal Reducing Yahoo’s Dependence On Bing Ads
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“Once Yahoo And Microsoft Agree On A Transaction”
This afternoon, Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft Platforms & Services Division, issued an email to Microsoft employees (that was released via its PR firm). The letter has a tone of confidence that assumes a deal with Yahoo will ultimately take place. It reiterates what Microsoft believes to be the benefits of that deal and looks beyond regulatory approval to integration issues. It downplays Yahoo resistance, potential culture conflicts between the companies, and potential layoffs, and focuses on an upbeat message about the future. Below is the full text of the email: I want to provide all employees in the Platforms & Services Division with an update on our February 1 proposal to combine with Yahoo!, and answer a few common questions that have been asked. As we’ve discussed, the online advertising industry is growing rapidly and is expected to be an $80B industry by 2010. We believe our proposal is a compelling one and that the combination of Yahoo! and Microsoft … [Read more...] about “Once Yahoo And Microsoft Agree On A Transaction”
Abandoning The Yahoo Deal: Microsoft’s $5 Billion Mistake?
If Microsoft’s walkaway from the Yahoo deal is indeed a ploy to save $5 billion, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer may have proven himself pennywise and pound foolish. He was prepared to spend billions to finally make Microsoft a serious rival to Google. For a bit more, he may have destroyed Microsoft’s chance to get there. Despite what I’m about to write, I like Microsoft. I’ve got many friends who work there (and at Google & Yahoo), and as a company, I actually want Microsoft (along with Yahoo) to provide a strong counter-balance to Google. Five Years, Nothing For Microsoft To Show Microsoft’s basic problem is this. After five years of going after Google in search, Microsoft has failed to make a dent in the big G. Millions — billions, I suppose — have been spent on the project. Huge technological effort has gone into the challenge. What’s to show for it? Google’s at all-time highs in the US and Microsoft has lost share. Three out of … [Read more...] about Abandoning The Yahoo Deal: Microsoft’s $5 Billion Mistake?
Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft Clarify Robots.txt Support
Today, Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft have come together to post details of how each of them support robots.txt and the robots meta tag. While their posts use terms like “collaboration” and “working together,” they haven’t joined together to implement a new standard (as they did with sitemaps.org). Rather, they are simply making a joint stand in messaging that robots.txt is the standard way of blocking search engine robot access to web sites. They have identified a core set of robots.txt and robots meta tag directives that all three engines support: Google and Yahoo! already supported and documented each of the core directives, and Microsoft supported most of them before this announcement. In their posts, they also list the directives they support that may not be supported by the other engines. For robots.txt, they all support: Disallow Allow Use of wildcards Sitemap location For robots meta tags, they all support: noindex nofollow noarchive nosnippet … [Read more...] about Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft Clarify Robots.txt Support
Yahoo Gemini Gaining Mobile Search Share, But Not At Google’s Expense, Yet
Yahoo launched its native and mobile search advertising platform, Gemini, last February, and since then there has been scant data released about its performance. When RKG noted in its fourth quarter digital marketing report that Yahoo Gemini had rapidly escalated mobile search ad serving in the second half of 2014, it caught my attention. The digital marketing agency reported that, among its retail-centric clients that have opted in to the platform, Gemini ramped from serving roughly 4 percent of mobile search traffic on the Yahoo Bing Network at the beginning of Q3 to 27 percent by the end of Q4 2014. Gemini serves search ads on Yahoo.com and its partner sites on tablets and smartphones. Before Gemini, all of Yahoo’s mobile search traffic was served by Bing Ads. Yahoo’s Gain Is Bing’s Loss I asked Mark Ballard, Director of Research at Merkle (which acquired RKG last year) and the author of the report, if any of the growth was the result of Yahoo gaining share from … [Read more...] about Yahoo Gemini Gaining Mobile Search Share, But Not At Google’s Expense, Yet
Yahoo-Bing Reach New Search Deal; Yahoo Gains Right To Serve Search Ads On The PC
Under the old deal, Yahoo had to carry Microsoft’s Bing’ ads on desktop. On mobile, Yahoo had flexibility to sell as it likes. Over the past year, Yahoo has made great use of this by launching its Yahoo Gemini platform that allows a single place for advertisers to buy mobile search and native ads. Now Yahoo has more flexibility on desktop. Under the new deal, 51% of its desktop search traffic has to carry Bing ads. The rest can carry ads however Yahoo likes — either from its own Gemini system or other partners. The biggest likely external partner would be Google, which has expressed interest in the past. Google originally wanted to be Yahoo’s partner before a deal with Microsoft was put into place, but that idea came to a halt in 2008 after the US Justice department threatened antitrust action. Yahoo told Search Engine Land that it is looking to likely extend Gemini to handle desktop search ads. As for partnering with Google, it’s possible but not … [Read more...] about Yahoo-Bing Reach New Search Deal; Yahoo Gains Right To Serve Search Ads On The PC
Yahoo Or Bing Could Now Divorce Before 10-Year Search Deal Expires
Last week Yahoo and Microsoft announced some important new terms for their Search Alliance agreement. The renegotiated deal now allows Yahoo to serve its own ads on the PC and opens the door for Yahoo to potentially work with other partners (read: Google). Though it is unlikely that Yahoo will be serving ads from Google (for many reasons) that possibility theoretically exists under the new terms. The company will however be extending its own Gemini ads into PC search results. An “8K” filing yesterday further elaborated on what was announced last week. In particular, either party now is free to terminate the entire Search Alliance relationship at any point prior to the formal expiration of the 10-year term: The term of the Search Agreement remains 10 years from its commencement date, February 23, 2010, subject to earlier termination as provided in the Search Agreement. Pursuant to the Amendment, on or after October 1, 2015, either Yahoo or Microsoft may terminate the Search … [Read more...] about Yahoo Or Bing Could Now Divorce Before 10-Year Search Deal Expires
Can Yahoo Gemini Succeed In Search? SEM Execs Weigh In
When Yahoo debuted Gemini in Feburary 2014, it signaled CEO Marissa Mayer’s drive to make Yahoo a player in search again — with mobile as the way in. A marketplace that couples search with one of the hottest growth areas in digital — native — is a major piece of Mayer’s turnaround plan. But getting agencies and marketers to invest in and commit resources to a nascent platform is easier said than done — just ask Microsoft. After six years, Bing just became profitable this past quarter. Can Gemini give Yahoo a foothold back into search advertising? Marketing Land spoke with several industry executives to get their take on Gemini’s promise, challenges and future. Yahoo And Bing: The Current Status First, a quick recap of where the Microsoft-Yahoo agreement puts Gemini now. With the renegotiated deal in May, Yahoo may continue to serve ads on up to 100 percent of Yahoo mobile search traffic, and now up to 49 percent of Yahoo desktop search traffic. … [Read more...] about Can Yahoo Gemini Succeed In Search? SEM Execs Weigh In
Why Amazon and Facebook Are Gaining on Google
In 1998, PC Magazine wrote: “Google! is a Stanford University project designed to find the most relevant Web pages (those with the most inbound links) and run searches against them. The 25 million pages currently catalogued seem to be good choices; the site has an uncanny knack for returning extremely relevant results.” Note the exclamation mark in that 1998-99 version of Google’s logo, which some say was added to mimic Yahoo’s logo. Yahoo had already been around for about four years when Google launched in 1998. At the time, Yahoo was the one to beat. Google beat Yahoo and everyone else in its path. In fact, Google is now the most used search engine on the web and owns at least 67 percent of search traffic. Over time, Google faced competition, if you can call it that, from Yahoo and Microsoft (which later became Bing), and that was mostly a battle for PPC dollars. Now, Google faces inspired competition from Amazon and Facebook. Neither is trying to simply copy … [Read more...] about Why Amazon and Facebook Are Gaining on Google
Microsoft Tracking Search and Browsing Behavior to Find Authoritative Pages
Between December 2005 and April 2006, researchers from Microsoft collected information about the searching and browsing activies of hundreds of thousands of Windows Live Toolbar users, with permission, to learn about the sometimes unranked and unindexed final destination pages that searchers ended up at in response to queries entered at Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft’s Live.com. So much of what search engines try to do when presenting relevant results to searchers is based upon assumptions found in algorithms like PageRank. Can tracking actual user search and browsing behaviors better help a search engine understand which pages may best answer queries posed by searchers at search engines? Microsoft on Final Destination Pages Last year, a trio of Microsoft researchers were awarded the Best Paper Award at SIGIR’07 for a paper titled Studying the Use of Popular Destinations to Enhance Web Search Interaction (pdf) that looked at the searching and browsing behavior of a large … [Read more...] about Microsoft Tracking Search and Browsing Behavior to Find Authoritative Pages