The next time you log into Yahoo! Answers you may notice things look a little bit different. We’re rolling out a new homepage and navigation over the next few days. Don’t worry: if you don’t see the new changes just yet, you will soon.
We’ve made quite a few changes to the homepage, so to make navigation a bit easier, we’ve broken things down for you by section, so let’s get started.
New Answers Homepage
1- New Navigation
You may have noticed that atop the Answers banner, there are four new, navigation tabs: Home, Browse Categories, My Activity, and About. Each of these tabs (as well as the green Answers banner) will stay with you throughout your experience on the site, making it easier for you to get to the places on Answers you care about most.
New Navigation
Home: This brings you back to the main page of Answers, where you can see the Best of Answers rotating module, the link to the Answers Blog (which is now on the right hand side, as well as the most recent questions posted on the site.
Browse categories: more about this below
My activity: From here, you can go directly to your Answers profile, view your network, your network activity, and even edit your preferences.
About: Learn all about Answers, revisit the Community Guidelines, check out the leaderboard, Suggestion Board, and visit the Answers Blog.
2 – Browsing categories
New Category Browse
On the old Answers homepage all of the categories were permanently displayed on the left hand column, hogging up homepage space that could have been used for valuable questions. We’ve decided to tuck the categories away under the top hide-away menu where you can easily access them any time, or, if you want to view them all at once, just click on the browse category tab to be taken to the “All Categories” page. From here, you’ll be able to peruse all of the questions that are: open, resolved or in voting on the site.
3- An updated look and feel
Over the past few years we’ve heard from quite a few of you that you love the Answers green but it’s just a little too green. So we’ve taken your feedback to heart and have toned down the green just a bit and have replaced the white background with a light blue that is a little easier on the eyes. Our smilies (4) have also received a facelift and look a bit more polished throughout the site.
Additionally, you’ll notice that the page feels a bit wider—one thing we heard from you when we introduced the new category pages several months back was that you liked the extra space. This extra space allows us to display even more questions on the homepage, making it easier for you to jump right in.
But wait, there’s more!
This release doesn’t just include cosmetic changes—we also included quite a few backend bug fixes, as well as a few feature requests, like updating the category leaderboards much more regularly. Starting today, category leaderboards will update on a daily basis instead of weekly.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
How Yahoo Refines Its Data Strategy
Google has been known for collecting mounds of consumer data in each user search for products and services. Still, the deal between Yahoo and Twitter announced this morning could have those tracking privacy concerns paying more attention to the No. 2 search engine.
In the new partnership, Yahoo will integrate Twitter streams across Yahoo properties. To access advanced services, people will need to sign into their Yahoo account -- a sweet deal for the Sunnyvale, Calif., company, which collects an "incredible" amount of data on its more than 600 million users worldwide across Yahoo's search engine, profiles and properties like Hot Jobs, Yahoo Personals, and Yahoo Shopping.
Yahoo has begun to dynamically serve content based on the data it collects from browsers behind people searching its engine and network of sites. This means Yahoo will serve up different content to me, compared with you. The data collected also helps advertisers determine the ads they buy. So, a sports junkie might see an increase in the amount of sports news or advertisements when visiting Yahoo.com.
Since Yahoo launched its new homepage last year, "we see longer engagement times on sessions, higher impression rates and more page views," says Ramsey McGrory, vice president of Yahoo North American Marketplaces.
In fact, since Yahoo began pairing content optimization technology with editorial, the company has seen click-through rates in the Today module on the homepage more than double. Additional improvements in the works aim to make the technology serve up more "personally relevant" content, according to McGrory.
Aside from content, Yahoo has been focusing on targeting and measurement, analyzing data integrated from partners, such as Nielsen. Companies have begun to spend more time with Yahoo on audits, such as audience or media verification, to get more insight into return on investment.
At the same time, McGrory says, agencies are no longer depending on ad networks or publishers to provide the targeting data. The holding companies are building data warehouse engines to define audiences, and that data now gets combined with third-party audience segments, both offline and online.
McGrory says Yahoo is consolidating all the data onto "one user grid" that will allow the company to determine what data to keep and discard. This means Yahoo will enable the integration of search data, with data from advertiser and third-company data collectors. Its databases crunches tons of terabytes to determine the best content and ads to serve up for any given person searching its sites.
Audience definitions have not been accurate in the past. Yahoo and the holding companies are attempting to change that. It's less about one particular piece of data, and more about the frequency of serving up and combining ad and content.
McGrory couldn't provide any insight into how the agreement with Microsoft Bing to power Yahoo Search's backend will change this strategy. He says it's just too early to tell if it will have any influence.
In the new partnership, Yahoo will integrate Twitter streams across Yahoo properties. To access advanced services, people will need to sign into their Yahoo account -- a sweet deal for the Sunnyvale, Calif., company, which collects an "incredible" amount of data on its more than 600 million users worldwide across Yahoo's search engine, profiles and properties like Hot Jobs, Yahoo Personals, and Yahoo Shopping.
Yahoo has begun to dynamically serve content based on the data it collects from browsers behind people searching its engine and network of sites. This means Yahoo will serve up different content to me, compared with you. The data collected also helps advertisers determine the ads they buy. So, a sports junkie might see an increase in the amount of sports news or advertisements when visiting Yahoo.com.
Since Yahoo launched its new homepage last year, "we see longer engagement times on sessions, higher impression rates and more page views," says Ramsey McGrory, vice president of Yahoo North American Marketplaces.
In fact, since Yahoo began pairing content optimization technology with editorial, the company has seen click-through rates in the Today module on the homepage more than double. Additional improvements in the works aim to make the technology serve up more "personally relevant" content, according to McGrory.
Aside from content, Yahoo has been focusing on targeting and measurement, analyzing data integrated from partners, such as Nielsen. Companies have begun to spend more time with Yahoo on audits, such as audience or media verification, to get more insight into return on investment.
At the same time, McGrory says, agencies are no longer depending on ad networks or publishers to provide the targeting data. The holding companies are building data warehouse engines to define audiences, and that data now gets combined with third-party audience segments, both offline and online.
McGrory says Yahoo is consolidating all the data onto "one user grid" that will allow the company to determine what data to keep and discard. This means Yahoo will enable the integration of search data, with data from advertiser and third-company data collectors. Its databases crunches tons of terabytes to determine the best content and ads to serve up for any given person searching its sites.
Audience definitions have not been accurate in the past. Yahoo and the holding companies are attempting to change that. It's less about one particular piece of data, and more about the frequency of serving up and combining ad and content.
McGrory couldn't provide any insight into how the agreement with Microsoft Bing to power Yahoo Search's backend will change this strategy. He says it's just too early to tell if it will have any influence.
Yahoo Cozies Up With Twitter
Yahoo on Wednesday will announce a global partnership with Twitter to integrate real-time search. As part of Yahoo's Open Strategy to make the Web more open, people will have the ability to update their Twitter status and share content from Yahoo in their Twitter stream.
The integration follows similar moves by Google and Microsoft Bing, as well as Yahoo's agreement with Facebook in December. The deal allows Facebook users to share content from Yahoo sites with friends, such as comments on Flickr and Yahoo News.
Integrating Facebook and Twitter into Yahoo's sites allows anyone with a Yahoo ID to post status updates to multiple social networks simultaneously. Being signed into the network also lets Yahoo serve up relevant content specific to each person as they travel across news, sports, finance and other properties.
And although Yahoo's announcement Wednesday does not mention how the content in the real-time Twitter tweets will influence paid search or display ads, advertising industry experts expect to see even more changes in ad-serving tactics based on consumer behavior and preference.
The real-time search integration becomes available immediately on Yahoo Search. Other parts of the deal between Yahoo and Twitter are expected to launch later this year, such as the ability to share updates with friends through Yahoo Updates. Other features that will have to wait include updates on Yahoo's media properties Yahoo Finance, Yahoo News, Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Sports.
The integration follows similar moves by Google and Microsoft Bing, as well as Yahoo's agreement with Facebook in December. The deal allows Facebook users to share content from Yahoo sites with friends, such as comments on Flickr and Yahoo News.
Integrating Facebook and Twitter into Yahoo's sites allows anyone with a Yahoo ID to post status updates to multiple social networks simultaneously. Being signed into the network also lets Yahoo serve up relevant content specific to each person as they travel across news, sports, finance and other properties.
And although Yahoo's announcement Wednesday does not mention how the content in the real-time Twitter tweets will influence paid search or display ads, advertising industry experts expect to see even more changes in ad-serving tactics based on consumer behavior and preference.
The real-time search integration becomes available immediately on Yahoo Search. Other parts of the deal between Yahoo and Twitter are expected to launch later this year, such as the ability to share updates with friends through Yahoo Updates. Other features that will have to wait include updates on Yahoo's media properties Yahoo Finance, Yahoo News, Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Sports.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Yahoo! switches to Bing search results
This week Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) and Yahoo! (Nasdaq:YHOO) announced that they have received clearance for their search agreement, without restrictions, from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission.
This means that Yahoo! will close down its own search engine and start using Bing search results instead, probably as early as next week.
And then they were two
This is a historical moment. It means that we see the end of no less than three search engines that all have played important roles in web search history. The Yahoo! search engine was born out of the merger of three search engines: The American search engines Inktomi and AltaVista, and the Norwegian search engine Alltheweb.
For parts of the 1990’s AltaVista was the Google of its day, delivering better and more alternative search results than any other search engine. For a short while Alltheweb was considered a serious contender to the search engine throne, but Fast Search and Transfer did not have the clout needed to compete with Google, so they sold the technology to Overture, which was then bought by Yahoo!
The end of the Yahoo search engine also means that the big three are now the big two: Google and Bing. The only interesting competitors to these two are Ask and Hakia, but they are both lagging far behind Google and Bing/Yahoo! traffic wise.
What makes Yahoo! different?
Yahoo is trying desperately to explain that this does not mean that Yahoo! is no longer a search company. The argument is that although the organic search results and the paid text ads will be provided by Microsoft/Bing, the presentation of these results are Yahoo’s own.
Yahoo gives the following examples:
1) Yahoo! will provide you with “rich results that display the most relevant information from Yahoo!’s rich content properties, as well as other great product, local, entertainment, reference, social and tech sites.” In other words: Yahoo! will include additional information from other sites on the search result pages.
2) Yahoo will add “specific results from vertical search products, like Yahoo! News.”
3) Yahoo! will provide “handy tools on the left-side of the page, such as our Search Pad and Search Scan apps, site filters that help you refine and explore the search results more easily, and related search term suggestions to help you refine your search further if the results aren’t quite what you were looking for.”
This is all true, but Bing will also provide links to additional content, related searches, news and more. The only significant difference is that Bing does not have a “Search Pad” (i.e. a kind of integrated note book for saving, organizing and sharing search related notes).
Yahoo! from search to content
Yahoo! will save a lot of money by not having a large search engine development staff. The Yahoo!/Bing alliance will also be able to sell more text ads for a higher price, now that their combined market share makes their product more interesting.
The danger for Yahoo! is that they might see their search market share shrink, as people realize that Bing delivers the same search results in what many may consider a more elegant packaging. That would mean that Yahoo’s role as a major Internet portal will depend on their other web properties, including tools like mail and messaging, and content sites like Yahoo! Health and Yahoo! Sports.
This means that Yahoo! will close down its own search engine and start using Bing search results instead, probably as early as next week.
And then they were two
This is a historical moment. It means that we see the end of no less than three search engines that all have played important roles in web search history. The Yahoo! search engine was born out of the merger of three search engines: The American search engines Inktomi and AltaVista, and the Norwegian search engine Alltheweb.
For parts of the 1990’s AltaVista was the Google of its day, delivering better and more alternative search results than any other search engine. For a short while Alltheweb was considered a serious contender to the search engine throne, but Fast Search and Transfer did not have the clout needed to compete with Google, so they sold the technology to Overture, which was then bought by Yahoo!
The end of the Yahoo search engine also means that the big three are now the big two: Google and Bing. The only interesting competitors to these two are Ask and Hakia, but they are both lagging far behind Google and Bing/Yahoo! traffic wise.
What makes Yahoo! different?
Yahoo is trying desperately to explain that this does not mean that Yahoo! is no longer a search company. The argument is that although the organic search results and the paid text ads will be provided by Microsoft/Bing, the presentation of these results are Yahoo’s own.
Yahoo gives the following examples:
1) Yahoo! will provide you with “rich results that display the most relevant information from Yahoo!’s rich content properties, as well as other great product, local, entertainment, reference, social and tech sites.” In other words: Yahoo! will include additional information from other sites on the search result pages.
2) Yahoo will add “specific results from vertical search products, like Yahoo! News.”
3) Yahoo! will provide “handy tools on the left-side of the page, such as our Search Pad and Search Scan apps, site filters that help you refine and explore the search results more easily, and related search term suggestions to help you refine your search further if the results aren’t quite what you were looking for.”
This is all true, but Bing will also provide links to additional content, related searches, news and more. The only significant difference is that Bing does not have a “Search Pad” (i.e. a kind of integrated note book for saving, organizing and sharing search related notes).
Yahoo! from search to content
Yahoo! will save a lot of money by not having a large search engine development staff. The Yahoo!/Bing alliance will also be able to sell more text ads for a higher price, now that their combined market share makes their product more interesting.
The danger for Yahoo! is that they might see their search market share shrink, as people realize that Bing delivers the same search results in what many may consider a more elegant packaging. That would mean that Yahoo’s role as a major Internet portal will depend on their other web properties, including tools like mail and messaging, and content sites like Yahoo! Health and Yahoo! Sports.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Yahoo Still King Of Display Advertising
Yahoo delivered 521 billion ad impressions in the 12-month period ending last November, according to comScore, beating out Fox Interactive (including MySpace) at 368 billion and Facebook at 330 billion.
And things finally seem to be picking up: During Yahoo's Q4 earnings call, CEO Carol Bartz said display ad revenue grew 26% from Q3. That was the strongest sequential growth the company had seen since 2006.
To stay on top, Yahoo will have to keep traffic to its homepage portal strong -- which could mean a major upgrade to its Mail service -- and fend off rising players like Facebook and AOL.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Yahoo's Founders Set Up Plans For Stock Sales
Last week, Yahoo disclosed that co-founder Jerry Yang has established a blind trust to handle the sale of 3 million of his company shares, while co-founder David Filo has established a stock sales plan to shed up to 2 million shares.
Yang, the former CEO who stepped down in late 2008 to take the role of Chief Yahoo, owned roughly 54.1 million shares of Yahoo, or a 3.9% stake, as of April 2, 2009, while Filo owned about 79.9 million shares, or a 5.7% stake.
Yang's trust was established in April of last year and will terminate at the end of this year, Yahoo said. Filo's stock sales are scheduled to begin in May.
Yang, the former CEO who stepped down in late 2008 to take the role of Chief Yahoo, owned roughly 54.1 million shares of Yahoo, or a 3.9% stake, as of April 2, 2009, while Filo owned about 79.9 million shares, or a 5.7% stake.
Yang's trust was established in April of last year and will terminate at the end of this year, Yahoo said. Filo's stock sales are scheduled to begin in May.
Advertisers to benefit from Nectar, Yahoo partnership
One of the U.K.'s largest supermarket chains, Sainsbury's, has partnered with Yahoo to enable online advertisers to target consumers according to purchases made using their Nectar loyalty card.
by Helen Leggatt
Around 16.8 million Brits own a Sainsbury's Nectar loyalty card, and it is estimated that 23 million people use Yahoo, so the coming together of these two huge databases will greatly enhance online advertisers' ability to target consumers effectively and with less ad waste.
Around 20,000 Nectar and Yahoo customers have opted-in to act as a sample group for the plan, according to the Financial Times, and six brands are involved, one of which is reported to be Cadbury.
Called Consumer Connect, the opt-in plan is very similar to Consumer Direct which Yahoo has been running in the U.S for several years.
So how does the partnership work? In essence, the Nectar and Yahoo databases will be linked in such a way that information on a consumer's Nectar card influences the behavioral ad system Yahoo uses to determine which ads they are presented with online. Also of great value, advertisers will be able to measure the effectiveness of their online campaigns by analyzing subsequent retail sales.
"The implication of today's product launch for FMCG companies is huge. Our customers depend on Yahoo to bring together their world and the world around them, and our advertising clients expect the same," said Mark Rabe, MD and VP of sales, Yahoo U.K. & Ireland.
by Helen Leggatt
Around 20,000 Nectar and Yahoo customers have opted-in to act as a sample group for the plan, according to the Financial Times, and six brands are involved, one of which is reported to be Cadbury.
Called Consumer Connect, the opt-in plan is very similar to Consumer Direct which Yahoo has been running in the U.S for several years.
So how does the partnership work? In essence, the Nectar and Yahoo databases will be linked in such a way that information on a consumer's Nectar card influences the behavioral ad system Yahoo uses to determine which ads they are presented with online. Also of great value, advertisers will be able to measure the effectiveness of their online campaigns by analyzing subsequent retail sales.
"The implication of today's product launch for FMCG companies is huge. Our customers depend on Yahoo to bring together their world and the world around them, and our advertising clients expect the same," said Mark Rabe, MD and VP of sales, Yahoo U.K. & Ireland.
EU Expected to Approve Yahoo-Microsoft Search Deal This Week
Deal is expected to be approved with no concessions
For a long time now, the big three search engines in the American market have been Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Google is the top search destination by far with over 65% of the U.S. search market. Microsoft has been working hard to catch up to Yahoo and Google in the search market, and is trying to grab a larger share of the huge online advertising market.
EWeek reports that the European Commission is expected to approve the Microsoft and Yahoo search deal that was first announced back in July 2009 later this week. The deal will see Microsoft's Bing search engine replace the Yahoo search engine on the Yahoo website.
Under the deal, Yahoo would retain its look and feel with Microsoft serving all search results behind the scenes. The deal would see Microsoft pay Yahoo 88% of what it costs to acquire traffic that is generated on the Yahoo site for the first five years of the ten-year search deal. In November 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo announced that they intended to take the partnership to Europe as well. If the EC approves the deal this week, it might put new pressure on the DOJ in the U.S. to approve the deal as well.
The self-imposed deadline for the EC to approve or deny the Yahoo-Microsoft deal in Europe is February 19. However, the EC could elect to extend its inquiry if it feels the deal might harm rivals in the search market.
If the deal goes through as expected, the combined Yahoo-Microsoft search engine will hold 28% of the search market making it a distant second place to Google.
The DOJ is reportedly looking at Microsoft's investments in Bing and details of the search deal including pricing for advertising. The Association of National Advertisers has issued a letter supporting the Yahoo/Microsoft deal. The association hopes that increased competition will result in lower advertising costs on Google and other online advertising programs.
For a long time now, the big three search engines in the American market have been Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Google is the top search destination by far with over 65% of the U.S. search market. Microsoft has been working hard to catch up to Yahoo and Google in the search market, and is trying to grab a larger share of the huge online advertising market.
EWeek reports that the European Commission is expected to approve the Microsoft and Yahoo search deal that was first announced back in July 2009 later this week. The deal will see Microsoft's Bing search engine replace the Yahoo search engine on the Yahoo website.
Under the deal, Yahoo would retain its look and feel with Microsoft serving all search results behind the scenes. The deal would see Microsoft pay Yahoo 88% of what it costs to acquire traffic that is generated on the Yahoo site for the first five years of the ten-year search deal. In November 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo announced that they intended to take the partnership to Europe as well. If the EC approves the deal this week, it might put new pressure on the DOJ in the U.S. to approve the deal as well.
The self-imposed deadline for the EC to approve or deny the Yahoo-Microsoft deal in Europe is February 19. However, the EC could elect to extend its inquiry if it feels the deal might harm rivals in the search market.
If the deal goes through as expected, the combined Yahoo-Microsoft search engine will hold 28% of the search market making it a distant second place to Google.
The DOJ is reportedly looking at Microsoft's investments in Bing and details of the search deal including pricing for advertising. The Association of National Advertisers has issued a letter supporting the Yahoo/Microsoft deal. The association hopes that increased competition will result in lower advertising costs on Google and other online advertising programs.
Yahoo Rolling Out Mobile Effort For Yahoo Finance
During Yahoo's fourth quarter conference call last month, CEO Carol Bartz said the portal was shifting its $100 million rebranding campaign to a new phase focusing on specific properties like Yahoo Sports, Finance and search. Bartz didn't offer any details but it appears mobile will play a role in the effort.
According to a mobile ad network executive, Yahoo is looking to promote its Finance section across the mobile sites of national and affinity Web brands including CNN Money, The New York Times, Cost Cutter, iStock Manager, NPR and Cashwerkz. Yahoo's mobile budget for Yahoo the for February is estimated at $100,000.
Bartz said last month the initial phase of the Yahoo promotional campaign had helped increase engagement and traffic and traffic growth, especially internationally. She added that it was still too early to judge the effectiveness of the company's planned 15-month marketing push launched last September.
According to a mobile ad network executive, Yahoo is looking to promote its Finance section across the mobile sites of national and affinity Web brands including CNN Money, The New York Times, Cost Cutter, iStock Manager, NPR and Cashwerkz. Yahoo's mobile budget for Yahoo the for February is estimated at $100,000.
Bartz said last month the initial phase of the Yahoo promotional campaign had helped increase engagement and traffic and traffic growth, especially internationally. She added that it was still too early to judge the effectiveness of the company's planned 15-month marketing push launched last September.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Yahoo Innovates Search Ads In Fight For Survival
While Yahoo continues to slip in search share - by 0.3% in January, according to recent numbers released by comScore -- the company refuses to stop fighting for survival. The seeming weapon of choice: innovation. Yahoo has begun testing new ways to put ads in front of consumers with two projects -- Your Ads, and Search Assist Ads.
David Pann, Yahoo vice president and general manager of Yahoo search marketing, tells me that about half the searches consumers do on yahoo.com don't return an ad on the page. So the company started to analyze consumer search history and behavior. Rather than serve up those search pages without ads, Yahoo tapped into its behavioral targeting tools to serve up ads in search results through the Your Ads tool, based on content the Web browser may have had contact with in the past across Yahoo's network.
Although the ads may not contextually match the search results in the Your Ads test, the ads would likely have relevance to the person searching on the keyword terms, given they had been the person using the same browser in the past.
The advertisements that serve up in the Your Ads test pull into Yahoo's search engine from its contextual-match database. Depending on the results from the tests, Yahoo will roll out or scale back the project.
Yahoo has filed, and recently updated, several of its patents on behavioral targeting technology.
Penn also says Yahoo began testing contextually relevant sponsored ads in its Search Assist feature on yahoo.com. In the Search Assist Ads test, people could begin to see sponsored ads in suggested search queries. For instance, start typing A-m-e-r-i-c-a-n-E-x-p-r-e-s-s and you could see an American Express sponsored search ad at the bottom of the Search Assist suggestions. Scottrade has begun testing this feature, according to ClickZ, who provides a screen shot of how the ad should appear. But I couldn't get Yahoo's Search Assist feature to duplicate the action.
Penn says Yahoo began testing the sponsored ad about two weeks ago. Today, you will find it on approximately 15,000 to 20,000 terms. These sponsored search ads in Search Assist serve up from Yahoo's sponsored search database. If the service rolls out, it could become an opt-in/opt-out feature in the content network.
David Pann, Yahoo vice president and general manager of Yahoo search marketing, tells me that about half the searches consumers do on yahoo.com don't return an ad on the page. So the company started to analyze consumer search history and behavior. Rather than serve up those search pages without ads, Yahoo tapped into its behavioral targeting tools to serve up ads in search results through the Your Ads tool, based on content the Web browser may have had contact with in the past across Yahoo's network.
Although the ads may not contextually match the search results in the Your Ads test, the ads would likely have relevance to the person searching on the keyword terms, given they had been the person using the same browser in the past.
The advertisements that serve up in the Your Ads test pull into Yahoo's search engine from its contextual-match database. Depending on the results from the tests, Yahoo will roll out or scale back the project.
Yahoo has filed, and recently updated, several of its patents on behavioral targeting technology.
Penn also says Yahoo began testing contextually relevant sponsored ads in its Search Assist feature on yahoo.com. In the Search Assist Ads test, people could begin to see sponsored ads in suggested search queries. For instance, start typing A-m-e-r-i-c-a-n-E-x-p-r-e-s-s and you could see an American Express sponsored search ad at the bottom of the Search Assist suggestions. Scottrade has begun testing this feature, according to ClickZ, who provides a screen shot of how the ad should appear. But I couldn't get Yahoo's Search Assist feature to duplicate the action.
Penn says Yahoo began testing the sponsored ad about two weeks ago. Today, you will find it on approximately 15,000 to 20,000 terms. These sponsored search ads in Search Assist serve up from Yahoo's sponsored search database. If the service rolls out, it could become an opt-in/opt-out feature in the content network.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Yahoo Led the Pack in Display Ads in 2009
U.S. Internet users saw an eye-popping 4.3 trillion display ads last year, with one company standing apart from the crowd as the runaway leader in graphic advertising.
Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) held a commanding lead over the next-closest display advertising network, serving up 521.2 billion ads on its sites, according to a new report from online metrics firm comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR).
Fox Interactive Media, the division of News Corp. that includes MySpace, checked in at No. 2 with 367.6 billion ads, followed by Facebook, which served up 329.6 billion placements.
In total, comScore reported a 21 percent increase in the number of display ads served on U.S. sites in 2009. In measuring the category, comScore counts both static and rich-media graphics, but does not include video ads.
For Yahoo, the display segment figures to play a central role in the company's ongoing turnaround mission as it looks to build out its content verticals and boost sales of premium inventory for branded messages.
On comScore's list, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was the fourth-largest advertising hub, serving 218.1 billion display ads on its network of sites, followed by AOL, with 192.2 placements.
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) checked in at a distant sixth on the list, with 69.9 billion display ads.
Among advertisers, three of the 10 biggest spenders were telecom providers. AT&T (NYSE: T) shelled out for 84.3 billion impressions, followed by Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), which bought up 56.8 billion spots. Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) was tenth on that list with 26.2 billion ad impressions.
The Social Networking Horse Race
Looking at other segments of the digital world, comScore described 2009 as a "landmark year" for social networking. In December, comScore found that nearly 80 percent of Internet users visited a social networking site, and that social activities now account for 11 percent of people's time spent online.
The leading storylines in 2009 were Facebook and Twitter, which both enjoyed triple-digit percentage growth in their user bases, with Facebook surging past MySpace by measure of U.S. visitors in May, after having overtaken its rival globally the previous August.
For Twitter, the rapid growth came in the first half of the year, while in the later months the microblogging site saw its traffic hit a plateau. Still, Twitter began 2009 with just 2 million users, ending the year with nearly 20 million.
For MySpace, 2009 was a rebuilding year. The one-time leader in the space shuffled its executive leadership, installing Facebook veteran Owen Van Natta as CEO after the departure of co-founder Chris DeWolfe.
MySpace executives have signaled that they are no longer trying to beat Facebook at its own game. Instead, they have focused on building out the site's entertainment platform, a strategy that comScore said is off to a promising start.
"MySpace has experienced some softening in its audience," the company said in its report. "However, a new strategic focus on entertainment content is exhibiting signs of success with MySpace Music having grown 92 percent in the past year."
But comScore's litany of usage statistics on social networking sites tells the story of Facebook's increasing prominence in people's online lives. In categories like total visits, minutes spent on the site and average daily visitors, Facebook enjoyed triple-digit percentage growth. The only metric in which Facebook saw a decline was in average minutes per visit, which comScore said was the likely result of the "increasing frequency with which people are visiting the site."
Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) held a commanding lead over the next-closest display advertising network, serving up 521.2 billion ads on its sites, according to a new report from online metrics firm comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR).
Fox Interactive Media, the division of News Corp. that includes MySpace, checked in at No. 2 with 367.6 billion ads, followed by Facebook, which served up 329.6 billion placements.
In total, comScore reported a 21 percent increase in the number of display ads served on U.S. sites in 2009. In measuring the category, comScore counts both static and rich-media graphics, but does not include video ads.
For Yahoo, the display segment figures to play a central role in the company's ongoing turnaround mission as it looks to build out its content verticals and boost sales of premium inventory for branded messages.
On comScore's list, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was the fourth-largest advertising hub, serving 218.1 billion display ads on its network of sites, followed by AOL, with 192.2 placements.
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) checked in at a distant sixth on the list, with 69.9 billion display ads.
Among advertisers, three of the 10 biggest spenders were telecom providers. AT&T (NYSE: T) shelled out for 84.3 billion impressions, followed by Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), which bought up 56.8 billion spots. Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) was tenth on that list with 26.2 billion ad impressions.
The Social Networking Horse Race
Looking at other segments of the digital world, comScore described 2009 as a "landmark year" for social networking. In December, comScore found that nearly 80 percent of Internet users visited a social networking site, and that social activities now account for 11 percent of people's time spent online.
The leading storylines in 2009 were Facebook and Twitter, which both enjoyed triple-digit percentage growth in their user bases, with Facebook surging past MySpace by measure of U.S. visitors in May, after having overtaken its rival globally the previous August.
For Twitter, the rapid growth came in the first half of the year, while in the later months the microblogging site saw its traffic hit a plateau. Still, Twitter began 2009 with just 2 million users, ending the year with nearly 20 million.
For MySpace, 2009 was a rebuilding year. The one-time leader in the space shuffled its executive leadership, installing Facebook veteran Owen Van Natta as CEO after the departure of co-founder Chris DeWolfe.
MySpace executives have signaled that they are no longer trying to beat Facebook at its own game. Instead, they have focused on building out the site's entertainment platform, a strategy that comScore said is off to a promising start.
"MySpace has experienced some softening in its audience," the company said in its report. "However, a new strategic focus on entertainment content is exhibiting signs of success with MySpace Music having grown 92 percent in the past year."
But comScore's litany of usage statistics on social networking sites tells the story of Facebook's increasing prominence in people's online lives. In categories like total visits, minutes spent on the site and average daily visitors, Facebook enjoyed triple-digit percentage growth. The only metric in which Facebook saw a decline was in average minutes per visit, which comScore said was the likely result of the "increasing frequency with which people are visiting the site."
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Yahoo! says that firms need to improve SEO campaigns
The search marketing team of Yahoo! says that firms need to upgrade their search engine optimization (SEO) campaign to make sure they get better return investments.
In the search engine’s blog, marketers were advised to do proper keyword selections, saying that this area is important especially when a company starts using professional SEO services.
Depending on the goal of an SEO campaign, sites will need to focus on high-volume search terms or product-specific phrases.
It is also important for an SEO campaign to respond to consumer behavior.
The Yahoo! marketing team explained: “Users are more sophisticated in their searches now, and we’ve seen that up to 20 per cent of searches in any given month can be search queries never seen before by a search engine.”
In the search engine’s blog, marketers were advised to do proper keyword selections, saying that this area is important especially when a company starts using professional SEO services.
Depending on the goal of an SEO campaign, sites will need to focus on high-volume search terms or product-specific phrases.
It is also important for an SEO campaign to respond to consumer behavior.
The Yahoo! marketing team explained: “Users are more sophisticated in their searches now, and we’ve seen that up to 20 per cent of searches in any given month can be search queries never seen before by a search engine.”
AP Renews Licensing Deal With Yahoo, Not Yet With Google
Yahoo has renewed its licensing deal with the Associated Press to post articles from the global wire service on Yahoo Web sites, the companies said on Monday.
The agreement contrasts with the state of similar negotiations between the AP and Google, which have apparently either stalled or not progressed according to schedule, leading Google to stop hosting AP stories on its Google News Web site.
"Yahoo has been an excellent partner for 12 years and has always recognized the value and importance of original, authoritative news. We are pleased Yahoo and AP will continue that valued relationship," AP spokesman Paul Colford said in an e-mailed statement.
"AP looks forward to deepening its partnership with Yahoo as we and our members explore new opportunities and new ways to engage with audiences," Colford added.
Meanwhile, Yahoo said AP articles are "an important part" of its effort to provide Yahoo visitors with comprehensive and relevant content. "We look forward to continuing our long-standing partnership with AP for many years to come," Yahoo spokeswoman Dana Lengkeek said via e-mail.
The AP and Google apparently are having a harder time coming to an agreement to renew their deal, which was announced in August 2006 but signed several months earlier. On Jan. 12, a Google spokesman said via e-mail that Google still had a licensing agreement with the AP but that it had stopped publishing AP stories on Google sites. On Monday, the spokesman said the situation remained the same.
News reports have speculated that the Google-AP deal is winding down and the renewal negotiations have stalled. The AP didn't respond to a request for comment about its negotiations with Google. An AP story on Monday stated that the news wire is in ongoing negotiations not only with Google but also with Microsoft.
The AP deal has allowed Google to post the full text of AP articles in Google News, instead of simply linking to AP stories on other Web sites.
Google's relationship with news organizations has often been tense. Publishers regularly grumble that Google is a parasite, indexing their content and linking to it from its regular search results and from Google News, without paying and without permission, while benefitting financially.
Google defends its practice of publishing headlines linked to news articles on external Web sites by saying that the fair use principle allows it. Google also often publishes short text snippets and thumbnail images along with the linked headlines.
Some publishers see great value in having their content linked to in Google News, because they can benefit from the Web traffic and monetize it through online ads.
However, the ad revenue of newspapers and magazines has dropped dramatically in recent years as marketers shift significant portions of their budgets to the Web and specifically to Google, creating resentment in the publishing industry.
In particular, wire services such as the AP and Agence France Presse see much less value in news aggregation sites like Google News. Wire services aren't as interested in having people visit their Web sites. The AP and AFP make money from licensing their content to publishers, so they are very protective of how their stories are used.
In fact, the AFP sued Google for copyright infringement in 2005 over Google's practice of linking to AFP stories published by other Web sites, namely newspapers that subscribe to the AFP content.
The case was settled out of court two years later, when Google agreed to sign a formal licensing agreement with the AFP that allows Google to post the full text of the French news agency's stories, similar to its deal with AP.
The agreement contrasts with the state of similar negotiations between the AP and Google, which have apparently either stalled or not progressed according to schedule, leading Google to stop hosting AP stories on its Google News Web site.
"Yahoo has been an excellent partner for 12 years and has always recognized the value and importance of original, authoritative news. We are pleased Yahoo and AP will continue that valued relationship," AP spokesman Paul Colford said in an e-mailed statement.
"AP looks forward to deepening its partnership with Yahoo as we and our members explore new opportunities and new ways to engage with audiences," Colford added.
Meanwhile, Yahoo said AP articles are "an important part" of its effort to provide Yahoo visitors with comprehensive and relevant content. "We look forward to continuing our long-standing partnership with AP for many years to come," Yahoo spokeswoman Dana Lengkeek said via e-mail.
The AP and Google apparently are having a harder time coming to an agreement to renew their deal, which was announced in August 2006 but signed several months earlier. On Jan. 12, a Google spokesman said via e-mail that Google still had a licensing agreement with the AP but that it had stopped publishing AP stories on Google sites. On Monday, the spokesman said the situation remained the same.
News reports have speculated that the Google-AP deal is winding down and the renewal negotiations have stalled. The AP didn't respond to a request for comment about its negotiations with Google. An AP story on Monday stated that the news wire is in ongoing negotiations not only with Google but also with Microsoft.
The AP deal has allowed Google to post the full text of AP articles in Google News, instead of simply linking to AP stories on other Web sites.
Google's relationship with news organizations has often been tense. Publishers regularly grumble that Google is a parasite, indexing their content and linking to it from its regular search results and from Google News, without paying and without permission, while benefitting financially.
Google defends its practice of publishing headlines linked to news articles on external Web sites by saying that the fair use principle allows it. Google also often publishes short text snippets and thumbnail images along with the linked headlines.
Some publishers see great value in having their content linked to in Google News, because they can benefit from the Web traffic and monetize it through online ads.
However, the ad revenue of newspapers and magazines has dropped dramatically in recent years as marketers shift significant portions of their budgets to the Web and specifically to Google, creating resentment in the publishing industry.
In particular, wire services such as the AP and Agence France Presse see much less value in news aggregation sites like Google News. Wire services aren't as interested in having people visit their Web sites. The AP and AFP make money from licensing their content to publishers, so they are very protective of how their stories are used.
In fact, the AFP sued Google for copyright infringement in 2005 over Google's practice of linking to AFP stories published by other Web sites, namely newspapers that subscribe to the AFP content.
The case was settled out of court two years later, when Google agreed to sign a formal licensing agreement with the AFP that allows Google to post the full text of the French news agency's stories, similar to its deal with AP.
Acacia Awarded $12.4 Million In Patent Infringement Case Against Yahoo
Nice timing, Acacia Research Corporation. The mother of all patent trolls patent acquisition, development and licensing company, which was profiled in depth by BusinessWeek just two days ago, this morning announced that it has been awarded a total of $12.4 million in a patent infringement case against Yahoo.
On May 15th, 2009, a federal court jury decided that Yahoo's messenger program with IMVironments ¿ which revolves around interactive backgrounds that users can add to IM conversations ¿ infringes US Patent Number 6,205,432, filed by a trio of inventors and published back in 2001.
The patent was described as follows:
An advertisement system and method are provided for inserting into an end user communication message a background reference to an advertisement. In some embodiments, the background reference causes an advertisement image to be tiled, or watermarked, across an end user screen behind the text of an e-mail message or public posting.
According to today's statement, Acacia subsidiary Creative Internet Advertising Corporation received a $12.4 million final judgment stemming from its May 2009 trial verdict (PDF) and corresponding $6.6 million damages award in its patent lawsuit.
In addition, the District Court?s judgment awarded a post-verdict ongoing royalty rate of 23% for all of Yahoo?s IMVironments sales.
To learn more about Acacia Research Corporation and its business, I suggest you read up on the company by heading to the BusinessWeek profile.
To give you an idea: Acacia essentially buys patents from inventors and then seeks fees from companies that it says infringe on those patents. It's in the business of suing companies rather than producing products or services; the company is said to have filed at least 337 patent-related lawsuits since its inception in 1992.
On May 15th, 2009, a federal court jury decided that Yahoo's messenger program with IMVironments ¿ which revolves around interactive backgrounds that users can add to IM conversations ¿ infringes US Patent Number 6,205,432, filed by a trio of inventors and published back in 2001.
The patent was described as follows:
An advertisement system and method are provided for inserting into an end user communication message a background reference to an advertisement. In some embodiments, the background reference causes an advertisement image to be tiled, or watermarked, across an end user screen behind the text of an e-mail message or public posting.
According to today's statement, Acacia subsidiary Creative Internet Advertising Corporation received a $12.4 million final judgment stemming from its May 2009 trial verdict (PDF) and corresponding $6.6 million damages award in its patent lawsuit.
In addition, the District Court?s judgment awarded a post-verdict ongoing royalty rate of 23% for all of Yahoo?s IMVironments sales.
To learn more about Acacia Research Corporation and its business, I suggest you read up on the company by heading to the BusinessWeek profile.
To give you an idea: Acacia essentially buys patents from inventors and then seeks fees from companies that it says infringe on those patents. It's in the business of suing companies rather than producing products or services; the company is said to have filed at least 337 patent-related lawsuits since its inception in 1992.
Buys Yahoo's HotJobs Site for $225M
The piecemeal sell off of Yahoo continued this week as Monster picked up Yahoo's HotJobs site for $225 million. The deal between the two companies will make Monster the default job listing provider in the U.S. and Canada for the next three years.
"The transaction with Monster enables us to continue to provide an important service to our users through the traffic agreement," Yahoo's executive vice president Hillary Schnieder said in a press release issued Wednesday. "Yahoo remains focused on its core businesses and delivering exceptional experiences to users, partners and advertisers."
HotJobs has been a part of Yahoo since 2002, when the company acquired the site for $432 million.
"The transaction with Monster enables us to continue to provide an important service to our users through the traffic agreement," Yahoo's executive vice president Hillary Schnieder said in a press release issued Wednesday. "Yahoo remains focused on its core businesses and delivering exceptional experiences to users, partners and advertisers."
HotJobs has been a part of Yahoo since 2002, when the company acquired the site for $432 million.
Does Monster's Acquisition Of Yahoo! HotJobs Matter If The Internet Is The Job Board
Monsters acquisition of Yahoo HotJobs signals a significant landscape change for a job board industry facing significant economic pressure and I believe the deal also marks a ?new normal? in how companies are hiring talent. Online recruiting is transitioning away from ?the Big Three? job boards. The Internet is becoming the job board.
Of course, unloading and closing properties that are not part of Yahoo?s strategy going forward is smart. (Though selling a job advertising board smack in the middle of this downturn and extreme unemployment must have been as hard as selling an empty, foreclosed home in Las Vegas right now.)
But more importantly, this acquisition is an indicator of a rapid evolution as more hiring takes place online. Venture-backed startups are transforming this industry as new technologies begin to change how companies find and attract talent. The elephant in the room is that the economic jolt of September 2008 has permanently altered the job market and dramatically accelerated labor trends underway for many years, such as the growth in job turnover throughout a person's career.
Increases in unemployment, under-employment and turnover are boosting traffic to nearly all job boards and job search engines ? and the number of online applications to resource-depleted recruiting departments. Companies are spending more money sifting through unqualified applications, so they are naturally spending less on job boards and taking advantage of free sites, like Indeed, to post and distribute their jobs.
To combat the influx of poor-fit applications, companies are turning to new technologies and online services to target talent and search across the open Web for people who may not be actively searching for a job on a board. This is possible because 42% of working adults in the US now maintain a profile somewhere online?most notably on LinkedIn and Facebook, but also on Twitter and services like Jigsaw, an SF-based, user-generated database of professionals. And the downturn is growing this number.
The more innovative recruiters at growing companies like Zappos and Dell are now are using social media to engage prospective candidates in a genuine and inexpensive way: building candidate communities in their career site and blogs, search engine optimizing job listings, distributing jobs through social networks to dramatically drive referrals, and tracking web analytics by job to determine their best sources of talent.
To me, the more interesting acquisition was Monster?s purchase 18 months ago of Trovix, a Bay Area startup that built a behavioral algorithm for matching jobs and resumes to help recruiters sift through applicants and jobseekers through jobs. But, the irony is that they will be ?unveiling? this new technology, dubbed 6Sense, on this weekend?s (expensive) Super Bowl, the annual marketing battleground of the big, horizontal job boards.
As funny as those ads can be, they are not likely to solve the job boards? bigger marketing challenge: how to convince companies to spend more money ?posting and praying? that the best person applies for their job when the broader, open Internet is fast becoming the new, cost-effective ?job board? of talent. This week?s combination of Monster and Hotjobs isn't going to solve that problem either.
Of course, unloading and closing properties that are not part of Yahoo?s strategy going forward is smart. (Though selling a job advertising board smack in the middle of this downturn and extreme unemployment must have been as hard as selling an empty, foreclosed home in Las Vegas right now.)
But more importantly, this acquisition is an indicator of a rapid evolution as more hiring takes place online. Venture-backed startups are transforming this industry as new technologies begin to change how companies find and attract talent. The elephant in the room is that the economic jolt of September 2008 has permanently altered the job market and dramatically accelerated labor trends underway for many years, such as the growth in job turnover throughout a person's career.
Increases in unemployment, under-employment and turnover are boosting traffic to nearly all job boards and job search engines ? and the number of online applications to resource-depleted recruiting departments. Companies are spending more money sifting through unqualified applications, so they are naturally spending less on job boards and taking advantage of free sites, like Indeed, to post and distribute their jobs.
To combat the influx of poor-fit applications, companies are turning to new technologies and online services to target talent and search across the open Web for people who may not be actively searching for a job on a board. This is possible because 42% of working adults in the US now maintain a profile somewhere online?most notably on LinkedIn and Facebook, but also on Twitter and services like Jigsaw, an SF-based, user-generated database of professionals. And the downturn is growing this number.
The more innovative recruiters at growing companies like Zappos and Dell are now are using social media to engage prospective candidates in a genuine and inexpensive way: building candidate communities in their career site and blogs, search engine optimizing job listings, distributing jobs through social networks to dramatically drive referrals, and tracking web analytics by job to determine their best sources of talent.
To me, the more interesting acquisition was Monster?s purchase 18 months ago of Trovix, a Bay Area startup that built a behavioral algorithm for matching jobs and resumes to help recruiters sift through applicants and jobseekers through jobs. But, the irony is that they will be ?unveiling? this new technology, dubbed 6Sense, on this weekend?s (expensive) Super Bowl, the annual marketing battleground of the big, horizontal job boards.
As funny as those ads can be, they are not likely to solve the job boards? bigger marketing challenge: how to convince companies to spend more money ?posting and praying? that the best person applies for their job when the broader, open Internet is fast becoming the new, cost-effective ?job board? of talent. This week?s combination of Monster and Hotjobs isn't going to solve that problem either.
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