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May 26, 2008
Is Yahoo Gouging For Domain Registrations?A thread over at WebmasterWorld has reported that Yahoo will be increasing its charges for domain registration as of July 1, 2008 to $34.95. Now I have not heard that the major domain registries have increased prices so is this another way Yahoo thinks it can help increase revenue?
Most companies charge about a third of the new price so it looks like Yahoo will be losing a lot of that business. Guess the ones left will pay extra and Yahoo can cut back on staff.
This is not a smart move given all that is happening right now. Almost looks like they don't want to do it any more and figure to just boost the prices to a level where everyone leaves.
The price seems to include a starter hosting package. Curious would this have a spill over effect on visitor counts to Yahoo? Does it force sites to include Yahoo links or advertising?
I know gas prices are increasing a lot of goods and services but there is no gas needed to do this service.
Yahoo may want to reconsider this move. Sounds like desperate measures.
Posted by Frank Watson at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
March 18, 2008
Yahoo Shows Microsoft, Wall Street What Its Really WorthYahoo has filed an investor presentation which projects its operating cash flow to increase from $1.9 billion to $3.7 billion over the next 3 years. An estimated $8.8 billion (excluding the cost of acquiring all of this traffic) is expected as a result.
Basically, Yahoo is saying "Hey, Microsoft, we're worth far more than the paltry $44 billion you offered us." But if you really want the corporate speak here it is:
"Yahoo! is positioned for accelerated financial growth – we have a powerful consumer brand, a huge global audience and a highly profitable operating model," said Jerry Yang, the Company's co-founder and chief executive officer. "With industry-leading tools, technology, people and platforms, Yahoo! is poised to capture growth in display advertising where we believe growth will be greatest. Combined with our recent progress in search monetization, Yahoo! is well positioned to provide the broadest range of products to our advertisers while delivering the most compelling experiences to users."
The numbers are in line with other reports suggesting that search and online advertising is expected to continue growing over the coming years and that search spending is growing despite the gloom and doom in the economy-at-large. However, many analysts see Google taking a big land grab on the growth – not Yahoo.
Yahoo's stock rose today in the wake of the report, though it may be receiving a boost from anticipation over another Fed rate cut and Q1 banking reports coming in higher than expected, just one day after Bear Stearns incurred a major freefall and took the broader market along for the ride. Yahoo trailed the overall gains in the NASDAQ market at the time of this report.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:25 AM | Permalink
January 30, 2008
Yahoo Strategy from the Yahoo Magic 8 Ball?Yahoo's Yodel Turns Into a Whimper. That's how BusinessWeek described the Yahoo earnings call. In his NY Times Tech blog, Saul Hansell savaged Yahoo execs on the conference call for not articulating a strategy, obfuscation, and excessive use of jargon.
I disagree, so we'll let our search industry readers decide for themselves.
Here are the 5 most important questions Wall St. analysts asked and Yahoo executives answered about Search, excerpted courtesy of SeekingAlpha.com, where you read the full transcript of Yahoo's earnings call and tomorrow's Google earnings call (January 31).
Judge the answers for yourself. There are golden nuggets you'll be able to use when developing your search engine strategies.
Brian Pitz, Banc of America: Would you comment on whether you continue to see click-through rate improvements from Panama accelerating since Q3?
Susan Decker, President, Yahoo: Brian, the click-through rate improvements have been the primary driver of the RPS (revenue per search) gains, as we have said in the past. We don’t get too specific on all the components, but I did mention that in Q4 a couple of initiatives that will help advertiser ROI actually may have limited our gains and were deliberate moves against coverage. We have seen continued improvement in click-through rates and as I mentioned, the RPS gains in Q4 were pretty consistent with what we saw in the prior two quarters of close to 20%.
Mark Mahaney, Citigroup: You (Susan Decker) made some comments about some macroeconomic uncertainty. What kind of impact in a hard recessionary environment do you think you could see in your display and search advertising, whether one would be more insulated than the other? Specifically in Search, to the extent that you were to see a major negative macroeconomic impact, do you think you would see that more in terms of advertiser demand or a change in user or searcher behavior?
SD: Just going back to some of the comments I made in my script, we have, from time to time, seen pockets of weakness and certainly a couple of pockets in the fourth quarter as I outlined. We’ve also had areas of strength that have been offsetting.
The challenge in answering your question is clearly the secular trends in online advertising have historically, and even today, very much been overwhelming the cyclical environment. It’s early to tell though if the weakness in the housing and financial and travel sectors -- a little bit in retail -- will start to affect the consumer more broadly and the advertiser more broadly and therefore searches in terms of what kind of commercial searches happen.
I don’t think we have a crystal ball in that, but we are encouraged, actually, by how much offsetting strength we’ve seen in some of the other categories which has kept our overall marketing services growth rate in line in display and Search with what we saw earlier in the third quarter, or actually even a little bit better.
Jason Helfstein, CIBC World Markets: Can you give us some color on the affiliate weakness? How much of that was pricing versus volume? What was headcount at the end of the quarter?
Blake Jorgensen, Yahoo CFO: On the headcount front we didn’t disclose headcount in this conversation but it is roughly 14,300. As a reminder, we closed two acquisitions during the fourth quarter that added approximately 200 heads to that group.
SD: On the affiliate -- this is Search affiliate, just to be clear on that -- the overwhelming majority of it is price. I said in my comments that the TAC (traffic acquisition cost) rate for the last two years really looking at 2006 to what is implied in our projections for ‘08 has gone from 72% to about 80% on TAC-attributable revenue and that excludes the Yahoo! Japan deal which has been restructured. …In terms of volume, the only real volume changes have been some traffic quality partners and really not much else.
Justin Post, Merrill Lynch: On query volume, I know market share has been an issue for The Street. Can you talk about how your query volume growth has trended both U.S. and internationally over the last three or four quarters?
SD: On the Search side we talked about our overall revenue being up about 30% plus in Q4 and RPS being up about 20%. You can do the math, but the implied query growth is up about 10% double-digits.
Business Week asked search marketing firms for commentary on Yahoo's dilemma: Didit Executive Chairman Kevin Lee, was quoted as saying, "We give them every dollar we can but if they don't have the traffic, there's nothing for us to spend the money on."
That's the general sentiment of the SEMs managing paid search campaigns. Everyone's rooting for Yahoo, MSN adCenter, even Ask to win back share from Google.
Ellen Siminoff, CEO of Efficient Frontier (whose search spending study was detailed by ClickZ yesterday) noted Yahoo can't cut its way to prosperity and shared an astounding statistic: overall search ad spending on Yahoo by Efficient Frontier clients fell 3.8 percent in Q4 y/y while Google's share of search ad spending rose to 76.6 percent from 70.5 percent last year.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:21 PM | Permalink
March 21, 2007
Minus Expenses Yahoo, Google Ad Revenues SimilarWhile it is well known Google has higher search market share, recent analysis of profits show Yahoo's ad revenue is a lot closer than the market share would suggest.
Jupiter Research blogger David Card reports thast Google has 17 percent of online ad revenue to Yahoo's 16 percent.
These numbers are of what the comapny keeps after expenses.... could be the YouTube deal is holding down those numbers... or as some are suggesting Yahoo keeps more of the money - they pay less to their search partners... though from what I have seen Yahoo pays more, but has lower click through rates...
Posted by Frank Watson at 9:55 AM | Permalink
February 22, 2007
Yahoo Launching Separate Content Advertising PlatformUpdate: Yahoo emailed me to say this is only being offered in Europe right now.
Yahoo is launching a separate content platform, according to the email I received earlier today.
The email states:
In the next coming months, Yahoo! Search Marketing will introduce a new serving platform for Content Match. This new platform is designed to improve listing relevance, power the Yahoo! Search Marketing Distribution Network, and improve the end-user experience.The new Content Match platform includes an improved matching algorithm and real-time optimization that, in addition to bid, will consider additional relevancy factors like keywords, title and description to determine your listing position.
Posted by Frank Watson at 1:17 PM | Permalink
November 21, 2006
Can Developers & API Save Yahoo From Its Peanut Butter CrisisDanny reported yesterday on the internal Yahoo memo that called for Yahoo to make cut backs due to them spreading out the Yahoo resources like peanut butter. In reaction to that Jeremy Zawodny of Yahoo wrote Yahoo's Peanut Butter APIs which is strongly supported by News.com's Yahoo seeks geek credibility. Jeremy argues that APIs are part of the solution to the problem of being "everything to everyone." The News.com article explains that this is part of Yahoo's appeal. I tend to agree with Jeremy's argument, but as he said, "Brad is very right about some things and terribly wrong about others." It is also important to note, as Danny IMed me, "Hey Yahoo! Microsoft Is Jelly To Your Peanut Butter. Make A Sandwich!" More details on that here.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:15 AM | Permalink
November 20, 2006
Yahoo Exec Releases Jerry Maguire-Style Reform MemoOver the weekend, an email from Yahoo senior vice president Brad Garlinghouse was released by the Wall Street Journal covering how Garlinghouse fears Yahoo's resources are spread too thinly (like peanut butter on a sandwich) and that massive reforms, along with firings, are needed. Some excerpts:
I proudly bleed purple and, yellow everyday! And like so many people here, I love this company
But all is not well. Last Thursday's NY Times article was a blessing in the disguise of a painful public flogging. While it lacked accurate details, its conclusions rang true, and thus was a much needed wake up call. But also a call to action. A clear statement with which I, and far too many Yahoo's, agreed. And thankfully a reminder. A reminder that the measure of any person is not in how many times he or she falls down - but rather the spirit and resolve used to get back up. The same is now true of our Company.
It's time for us to get back up....
We lack a focused, cohesive vision for our company. We want to do everything and be everything -- to everyone. We've known this for years, talk about it incessantly, but do nothing to fundamentally address it. We are scared to be left out. We are reactive instead of charting an unwavering course. We are separated into silos that far too frequently don't talk to each other. And when we do talk, it isn't to collaborate on a clearly focused strategy, but rather to argue and fight about ownership, strategies and tactics.
Our inclination and proclivity to repeatedly hire leaders from outside the company results in disparate visions of what winning looks like -- rather than a leadership team rallying around a single cohesive strategy.
I've heard our strategy described as spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world. The result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular.
I hate peanut butter. We all should....
We lack clarity of ownership and accountability. The most painful manifestation of this is the massive redundancy that exists throughout the organization. We now operate in an organizational structure -- admittedly created with the best of intentions -- that has become overly bureaucratic. For far too many employees, there is another person with dramatically similar and overlapping responsibilities. This slows us down and burdens the company with unnecessary costs.
Equally problematic, at what point in the organization does someone really OWN the success of their product or service or feature? Product, marketing, engineering, corporate strategy, financial operations... there are so many people in charge (or believe that they are in charge) that it's not clear if anyone is in charge. This forces decisions to be pushed up - rather than down. It forces decisions by committee or consensus and discourages the innovators from breaking the mold... thinking outside the box....
We lack decisiveness. Combine a lack of focus with unclear ownership, and the result is that decisions are either not made or are made when it is already too late. Without a clear and focused vision, and without complete clarity of ownership, we lack a macro perspective to guide our decisions and visibility into who should make those decisions. We are repeatedly stymied by challenging and hairy decisions. We are held hostage by our analysis paralysis.
We end up with competing (or redundant) initiatives and synergistic opportunities living in the different silos of our company.
• YME vs. Musicmatch
• Flickr vs. Photos
• YMG video vs. Search video
• Deli.cio.us vs. myweb....
We have lost our passion to win. Far too many employees are "phoning" it in, lacking the passion and commitment to be a part of the solution. We sit idly by while -- at all levels -- employees are enabled to "hang around". Where is the accountability? Moreover, our compensation systems don't align to our overall success. Weak performers that have been around for years are rewarded. And many of our top performers aren't adequately recognized for their efforts.
As a result, the employees that we really need to stay (leaders, risk-takers, innovators, passionate) become discouraged and leave. Unfortunately many who opt to stay are not the ones who will lead us through the dramatic change that is needed....
There are three pillars to my plan:
1. Focus the vision.
2. Restore accountability and clarity of ownership.
3. Execute a radical reorganization....
1. Focus the vision
a) We need to boldly and definitively declare what we are and what we are not.
b) We need to exit (sell?) non core businesses and eliminate duplicative projects and businesses....
2. Restore accountability and clarity of ownership
a) Existing business owners must be held accountable for where we find ourselves today -- heads must roll,
b) We must thoughtfully create senior roles that have holistic accountability for a particular line of business (a variant of a GM structure that will work with Yahoo!'s new focus)
c) We must redesign our performance and incentive systems....
3. Execute a radical reorganization
a) The current business unit structure must go away.
b) We must dramatically decentralize and eliminate as much of the matrix as possible.
c) We must reduce our headcount by 15-20%.
Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:31 AM | Permalink
October 23, 2006
Yahoo Japan's Profit & Sales Grow 20+ PercentMarket Watch reports that Yahoo Japan's net profit rose 22-percent in Q3 of this year. Net sales rose 36% to 21.20 billion yen from the previous quarter. Projected net profit is between 13.65 billion yen and 15.20 billion yen in the fiscal quarter through December.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:38 AM | Permalink
October 18, 2006
Google To Own 25% Of 2006 Online Ad RevenueAn eMarketer.com report estimates that Google will account for twenty-five percent of all online ad revenue. Google's share continues to increase (65% increase YoY) while Yahoo's growth continues to decrease, eMarketer says. Google first surpassed Yahoo in ad revenue back in 2005, but barely. Google in 2006 is expected to earn over $4 billion in ad revenue but Yahoo has just $2.9 billion according to eMarketer.com.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:24 AM | Permalink
A Look At Yahoo's 3rd Quarter 2006 EarningsYahoo announced 3rd quarter earnings yesterday, so I figured I share with you some highlights from the announcement. The main quote being pulled out was Terry Semel's, "While we're very excited about a number of things happening at Yahoo, I am not satisfied with our third quarter financial performance," line. That along with falling $1.14 billion short of Wall Streets expectations in revenues earned and a drop in net income by 37.5 percent, has sent Yahoo's stock downwards again. One highlight is that Yahoo finally released Panama. If you want a full written transcript of the conference call, you can view it at SeekingAlpha.com. There is more coverage of Yahoo's earnings at ClickZ, NY Times, AP, PaidContent.org, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:46 AM | Permalink
October 17, 2006
Yahoo Reports 3rd Quarter 2006 EarningsYahoo just posted their earnings report for the third quarter of 2006. You can download the report as a PDF from Yahoo's site here. I did not read it yet, but I wanted to post the link to the release.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 5:07 PM | Permalink
October 13, 2006
Yahoo To Hold 3rd Quarter Earnings Conference Call 10/17Yahoo will hold their third-quarter earnings conference call on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 2:00 PM PT / 5:00 PM ET. The live Webcast of Yahoo's Q3 2006 earnings conference call can be accessed here. The Webcast will be archived within 24 hours of the end of the call and will be available through the same link above.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:13 AM | Permalink
October 12, 2006
Bug Leaves Advertisers Unable To Change Ads On YahooAs I reported at reported at Search Engine Roundtable twice already, Yahoo has left their search advertising customers out to dry.
Advertisers and agencies are reporting they are unable to properly manage their accounts due to a 3+ day old bug in the Yahoo Search Marketing system.
Email responses back to Yahoo customers state that Yahoo is aware of the problem but have "no estimated date or time frame for the issue to be resolved."
One person emailed Search Engine Watch saying, "Users are unable to view the remaining balance in their accounts, nor are we able to modify or add listings."
Some of the Yahoo reps have been instructing clients to email them so that they can make the necessary changes for them. Just nuts! This must be something very serious for them to not be able to revert back to a previous coding state.
Having the same issue and want to discuss? Join our Search Engine Watch Forums thread, Yahoo PPC management crash.
Postscript: Yahoo commented at our forums saying it has been fixed.
We've been experiencing some technical difficulties that were impacting the editorial tools in our search advertising UI but are happy to report that these systems are back up and running. Thanks for your patience.Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:16 AM | Permalink
October 11, 2006
Yahoo Hurting While Google Healthier Than EverThe NY Times has an article named Yahoo’s Growth Being Eroded by New Rivals (free version available at (IHT.com). The article goes through how Yahoo is suffering and lagging behind its competitors. (1) They made a bid at YouTube but those deals broke down, according to the article, and Google "swooped" them up. (2) The new Yahoo search ad system, Panama, is over a year delayed. This "delay has sucked up the company’s engineering resources and prevented it from developing new advertising products."
Based on my coverage of Yahoo over the past year, it seems like webmasters, SEOs, and industry folks have become less and less interested with the company.
The LA Times has an article this morning that goes on the same theme. If you can't get to the article, try going through Google News to gain free access, it worked for me.
Postscript From Greg Sterling:
This is not the kind of publicity you want to see if you're on the PR team. While it's true that Google has momentum and Yahoo may need a kind of "shot in the arm," what people forget is that Yahoo is the largest site on the Internet with the most monthly uniques.It also has a bunch of market-leading properties including mail, finance and local (among others). Mail is also the number one mobile site.
Google, though a very dynamic and powerful company with lots of momentum, is not without its challenges and vulnerabilities. If anything the YouTube acquisition was an admission of some of those. Though, by the same token, Google now has great opportunity with YouTube.
I'm not sure, from where I sit, how many problems identified in the Saul Hansell Times piece are real and how many are simply perceived. But perception does influence reality.
Yahoo is a little like a strong sports team that happens to be in a bit of a slump right now.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:40 AM | Permalink
September 19, 2006
Yahoo CEO Says Ad Growth Slowing Down; Ask.com To Increase Market ShareThe Wall Street Journal reports that Terry Semel, Yahoo's CEO, has warned that online advertising growth will be slowing in automotive and financial services industries. He said that there is still growth, but "but they're not growing as quickly as we might have hoped at this point in time," Semel said. On that news, Yahoo's shared dropped $3.47, or 12%, to $25.54.
Barry Diller, CEO of IAC, said he can see Ask.com gaining market share, about 8 to 10 percent share. More details on that story at Reuters.com.
Postscript From Danny: See my follow-up post, Again, The Need For Search Ad Revenue To Stand Alone.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 12:21 PM | Permalink
August 17, 2006
Former Yahoo China Head Sues Yahoo For DefamationReuters reports that Zhou Hongyi, the former head of Yahoo China, has sued Yahoo for defamation. Yahoo said they were about to sue Zhou Hongyi for "unethical business practices." Hongyi has a 40 percent stake in Alibaba.com, which was bought by Yahoo for $1 billion last year. To me, it seems like from the article, that Yahoo finds Hongyi to be a shady character, and Hongyi doesn't like Yahoo telling the public how they feel about him.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:20 AM | Permalink
July 24, 2006
Google Versus Yahoo: Consistency Or Wow In Product Development?An article over at the New York Times 'In the race with Google, it's consistency vs 'wow'' discusses the differing approaches of Google and Yahoo to the introduction of new technology and resources. The fact that Google hasn't added some of the basics to its mapping service in comparison to the Yahoo and AOL offerings is the starting point for an indepth discussion on how both engines (MSN, AOL and Ask get very short shrift) are trying to increase their user base.
Alan Eustace (Senior VP at Google for engineering and research) is quoted as saying "We are trying to come up with something that is new and different, that makes people say ‘Wow.’ " Yahoo on the other hand is taking a rather different approach of ensuring that their services are predictable and consistent.
Although the article doesn't use the analogy it does remind me very much of the tortoise and the hare story, with Google of course being the hare, bouncing along, playing to the audience, not really looking where he's going, but getting there very quickly. The Yahoo tortoise carefully places one foot in front of the other, and it isn't very exciting, but you know where you'll be with it.
Is one approach better than the other? Clearly there are examples that can be drawn from both camps; the speed of Google mapping with its click and drag approach certainly did draw 'wow' responses. 'Wow' is exciting - it gives bloggers something to write about, teachers something new to teach and industry commentators something to talk about on the conference podium. On the other hand consistency is rather dull, but ultimately important if you want to provide a raft of integrated services.
I'm as guilty as the rest - when demonstrating features from search engines I like to demonstrate all the 'wow' functionality, and the delegates love it and enjoy playing with it. But at the end of the day, when it comes to answering quiz questions they tend to go for the resources and functions that work, and that they can rely on.
What I'd like to see is a situation where I can look at a search engine, with all of its offerings, search syntax, extra resources and so on and go 'Wow - all this stuff works well together, and it's really exciting', but perhaps that's asking too much?
Posted by Phil Bradley at 12:36 PM | Permalink
Google Versus Yahoo: Consistency Or Wow In Product Development?An article over at the New York Times 'In the race with Google, it's consistency vs 'wow'' discusses the differing approaches of Google and Yahoo to the introduction of new technology and resources. The fact that Google hasn't added some of the basics to its mapping service in comparison to the Yahoo and AOL offerings is the starting point for an indepth discussion on how both engines (MSN, AOL and Ask get very short shrift) are trying to increase their user base.
Alan Eustace (Senior VP at Google for engineering and research) is quoted as saying "We are trying to come up with something that is new and different, that makes people say ‘Wow.’ " Yahoo on the other hand is taking a rather different approach of ensuring that their services are predictable and consistent.
Although the article doesn't use the analogy it does remind me very much of the tortoise and the hare story, with Google of course being the hare, bouncing along, playing to the audience, not really looking where he's going, but getting there very quickly. The Yahoo tortoise carefully places one foot in front of the other, and it isn't very exciting, but you know where you'll be with it.
Is one approach better than the other? Clearly there are examples that can be drawn from both camps; the speed of Google mapping with its click and drag approach certainly did draw 'wow' responses. 'Wow' is exciting - it gives bloggers something to write about, teachers something new to teach and industry commentators something to talk about on the conference podium. On the other hand consistency is rather dull, but ultimately important if you want to provide a raft of integrated services.
I'm as guilty as the rest - when demonstrating features from search engines I like to demonstrate all the 'wow' functionality, and the delegates love it and enjoy playing with it. But at the end of the day, when it comes to answering quiz questions they tend to go for the resources and functions that work, and that they can rely on.
What I'd like to see is a situation where I can look at a search engine, with all of its offerings, search syntax, extra resources and so on and go 'Wow - all this stuff works well together, and it's really exciting', but perhaps that's asking too much?
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:36 PM | Permalink
Google Versus Yahoo: Consistency Or Wow In Product Development?An article over at the New York Times 'In the race with Google, it's consistency vs 'wow'' discusses the differing approaches of Google and Yahoo to the introduction of new technology and resources. The fact that Google hasn't added some of the basics to its mapping service in comparison to the Yahoo and AOL offerings is the starting point for an indepth discussion on how both engines (MSN, AOL and Ask get very short shrift) are trying to increase their user base.
Alan Eustace (Senior VP at Google for engineering and research) is quoted as saying "We are trying to come up with something that is new and different, that makes people say ‘Wow.’ " Yahoo on the other hand is taking a rather different approach of ensuring that their services are predictable and consistent.
Although the article doesn't use the analogy it does remind me very much of the tortoise and the hare story, with Google of course being the hare, bouncing along, playing to the audience, not really looking where he's going, but getting there very quickly. The Yahoo tortoise carefully places one foot in front of the other, and it isn't very exciting, but you know where you'll be with it.
Is one approach better than the other? Clearly there are examples that can be drawn from both camps; the speed of Google mapping with its click and drag approach certainly did draw 'wow' responses. 'Wow' is exciting - it gives bloggers something to write about, teachers something new to teach and industry commentators something to talk about on the conference podium. On the other hand consistency is rather dull, but ultimately important if you want to provide a raft of integrated services.
I'm as guilty as the rest - when demonstrating features from search engines I like to demonstrate all the 'wow' functionality, and the delegates love it and enjoy playing with it. But at the end of the day, when it comes to answering quiz questions they tend to go for the resources and functions that work, and that they can rely on.
What I'd like to see is a situation where I can look at a search engine, with all of its offerings, search syntax, extra resources and so on and go 'Wow - all this stuff works well together, and it's really exciting', but perhaps that's asking too much?
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:36 PM | Permalink
Google Versus Yahoo: Consistency Or Wow In Product Development?An article over at the New York Times 'In the race with Google, it's consistency vs 'wow'' discusses the differing approaches of Google and Yahoo to the introduction of new technology and resources. The fact that Google hasn't added some of the basics to its mapping service in comparison to the Yahoo and AOL offerings is the starting point for an indepth discussion on how both engines (MSN, AOL and Ask get very short shrift) are trying to increase their user base.
Alan Eustace (Senior VP at Google for engineering and research) is quoted as saying "We are trying to come up with something that is new and different, that makes people say ‘Wow.’ " Yahoo on the other hand is taking a rather different approach of ensuring that their services are predictable and consistent.
Although the article doesn't use the analogy it does remind me very much of the tortoise and the hare story, with Google of course being the hare, bouncing along, playing to the audience, not really looking where he's going, but getting there very quickly. The Yahoo tortoise carefully places one foot in front of the other, and it isn't very exciting, but you know where you'll be with it.
Is one approach better than the other? Clearly there are examples that can be drawn from both camps; the speed of Google mapping with its click and drag approach certainly did draw 'wow' responses. 'Wow' is exciting - it gives bloggers something to write about, teachers something new to teach and industry commentators something to talk about on the conference podium. On the other hand consistency is rather dull, but ultimately important if you want to provide a raft of integrated services.
I'm as guilty as the rest - when demonstrating features from search engines I like to demonstrate all the 'wow' functionality, and the delegates love it and enjoy playing with it. But at the end of the day, when it comes to answering quiz questions they tend to go for the resources and functions that work, and that they can rely on.
What I'd like to see is a situation where I can look at a search engine, with all of its offerings, search syntax, extra resources and so on and go 'Wow - all this stuff works well together, and it's really exciting', but perhaps that's asking too much?
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:36 PM | Permalink
July 19, 2006
Yahoo's Stock Falls On Panama Delay & Q2 Earnings ReleaseEveryone is blaming the fall in Yahoo's stock price due to the delayed launch of Panama, Yahoo's new ad system. We have USA Today reporting about a record second quarter revenue that still didn't help Yahoo's stock price. Bloomberg reports that Yahoo shares "had their biggest drop in more than four years" and how earnings fell just short of analyst projections. CNN has a catchy "No yodeling for Yahoo investors" headline for its report. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters explain that Yahoo's numbers met expectations but that the delayed launch caused concern that Microsoft can catch up with Yahoo in the sponsored search game.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:31 AM | Permalink
Yahoo's Stock Falls On Panama Delay & Q2 Earnings ReleaseEveryone is blaming the fall in Yahoo's stock price due to the delayed launch of Panama, Yahoo's new ad system. We have USA Today reporting about a record second quarter revenue that still didn't help Yahoo's stock price. Bloomberg reports that Yahoo shares "had their biggest drop in more than four years" and how earnings fell just short of analyst projections. CNN has a catchy "No yodeling for Yahoo investors" headline for its report. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters explain that Yahoo's numbers met expectations but that the delayed launch caused concern that Microsoft can catch up with Yahoo in the sponsored search game.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:31 AM | Permalink
Yahoo's Stock Falls On Panama Delay & Q2 Earnings ReleaseEveryone is blaming the fall in Yahoo's stock price due to the delayed launch of Panama, Yahoo's new ad system. We have USA Today reporting about a record second quarter revenue that still didn't help Yahoo's stock price. Bloomberg reports that Yahoo shares "had their biggest drop in more than four years" and how earnings fell just short of analyst projections. CNN has a catchy "No yodeling for Yahoo investors" headline for its report. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters explain that Yahoo's numbers met expectations but that the delayed launch caused concern that Microsoft can catch up with Yahoo in the sponsored search game.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:31 AM | Permalink
Yahoo's Stock Falls On Panama Delay & Q2 Earnings ReleaseEveryone is blaming the fall in Yahoo's stock price due to the delayed launch of Panama, Yahoo's new ad system. We have USA Today reporting about a record second quarter revenue that still didn't help Yahoo's stock price. Bloomberg reports that Yahoo shares "had their biggest drop in more than four years" and how earnings fell just short of analyst projections. CNN has a catchy "No yodeling for Yahoo investors" headline for its report. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters explain that Yahoo's numbers met expectations but that the delayed launch caused concern that Microsoft can catch up with Yahoo in the sponsored search game.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:31 AM | Permalink
June 29, 2006
Google Knocks Off Apple On The Wired 40The Wired 40 was just released and Google has secured the top spot, at number one this year. They have bumped off Apple, who last year ranked number one. Wired commented on Google with the following;
Less cuddly but more profitable than ever, the monster from Mountain View has rivals but no peers. Is it a search engine? A media company? A software provider? Who cares? Microsoft, for one. Get ready for the grudge match of the decade.Wired is a huge Apple fan and supporter, as far as I know. For them to hand over the spot to Google, says something. Note that Yahoo is on the list at a respectable number 5.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:03 AM | Permalink
Google Knocks Off Apple On The Wired 40The Wired 40 was just released and Google has secured the top spot, at number one this year. They have bumped off Apple, who last year ranked number one. Wired commented on Google with the following;
Less cuddly but more profitable than ever, the monster from Mountain View has rivals but no peers. Is it a search engine? A media company? A software provider? Who cares? Microsoft, for one. Get ready for the grudge match of the decade.Wired is a huge Apple fan and supporter, as far as I know. For them to hand over the spot to Google, says something. Note that Yahoo is on the list at a respectable number 5.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:03 AM | Permalink
Google Knocks Off Apple On The Wired 40The Wired 40 was just released and Google has secured the top spot, at number one this year. They have bumped off Apple, who last year ranked number one. Wired commented on Google with the following;
Less cuddly but more profitable than ever, the monster from Mountain View has rivals but no peers. Is it a search engine? A media company? A software provider? Who cares? Microsoft, for one. Get ready for the grudge match of the decade.Wired is a huge Apple fan and supporter, as far as I know. For them to hand over the spot to Google, says something. Note that Yahoo is on the list at a respectable number 5.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:03 AM | Permalink
Google Knocks Off Apple On The Wired 40The Wired 40 was just released and Google has secured the top spot, at number one this year. They have bumped off Apple, who last year ranked number one. Wired commented on Google with the following;
Less cuddly but more profitable than ever, the monster from Mountain View has rivals but no peers. Is it a search engine? A media company? A software provider? Who cares? Microsoft, for one. Get ready for the grudge match of the decade.Wired is a huge Apple fan and supporter, as far as I know. For them to hand over the spot to Google, says something. Note that Yahoo is on the list at a respectable number 5.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:03 AM | Permalink
June 22, 2006
Google Partners With Adobe For Toolbar Distribution In Shockwave, Other Product To Be NamedBoth Adobe (PDF link) and Google have announced a new deal where Adobe will distribute the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer as part of Adobe Macromedia Shockwave Player downloads. That was supposed to begin yesterday, and bundling with other Adobe products will happen in the future.
Wait a minute? Weren't Yahoo and Adobe buddy-buddies? Yes -- a special version of the Yahoo Toolbar is built into the popular Adobe Acrobat Reader program, through a deal dating back to October 2004.
In January of this year, Google began distributing Adobe Reader as part of the Google Pack without the Yahoo Toolbar being part of it. Google told me (article for SEW members) then that the Adobe-Yahoo agreement only covered the distribution Adobe did.
So is the Yahoo-Adobe deal completely over? No. Reuters reports that Adobe says that will continue:
Adobe previously included Yahoo Inc.'s toolbar as an option with the Shockwave Player, Adobe spokeswoman Katie Juran said. Adobe still offers the Yahoo toolbar as an option for its Flash Player and Adobe Reader products, she said.
I just uninstalled Acrobat Reader and downloaded a fresh copy. I definitely see the Yahoo Toolbar as part of the latest installation.
As for the Abobe-Google deal, the bundling with Google Pack wasn't based on payment, Google told me at the time. This latest deal is a financial arrangement, though exactly how much money is changing hands is not disclosed.
As for the distribution, I downloaded Shockwave and got no prompt for the Google Toolbar to be added. Of course, I already had it in Internet Explorer, and that seems to be why I didn't get a separate install. The Shockwave FAQ suggests that you should see a separate install process and that this won't happen if you have the Google Toolbar already.
That FAQ also notes that the Yahoo Toolbar, previously bundled with Shockwave, has now been dropped. In addition, it says that that third parties that distribute Shockwave do not have to bundle the Google Toolbar with those distributions.
The Google Blog post also says:
Starting today, Adobe is offering the Google Toolbar to its customers as a free download -- a great way to take Google search with you anywhere on the web.
So far, that seems to be true within Shockwave. But it's also a bit overstated. The Google Toolbar on its own is not offered anywhere on the Adobe products page, nor does a search for "google toolbar" flag any page for those who just want the toolbar on its own
The best, most specific information is part of the Shockwave FAQ that I've mentioned. There is at least a direct link to the Google Toolbar download page. But that's much different that the idea the Google Blog suggests, that people visiting Adobe might be getting a pitch for the Google Toolbar on its own. Not yet, not so far.
Postscript Barry:
I was sent a screen capture of this in action, you can view the screen capture at tcal.net.
Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:48 AM | Permalink
Google Partners With Adobe For Toolbar Distribution In Shockwave, Other Product To Be NamedBoth Adobe (PDF link) and Google have announced a new deal where Adobe will distribute the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer as part of Adobe Macromedia Shockwave Player downloads. That was supposed to begin yesterday, and bundling with other Adobe products will happen in the future.
Wait a minute? Weren't Yahoo and Adobe buddy-buddies? Yes -- a special version of the Yahoo Toolbar is built into the popular Adobe Acrobat Reader program, through a deal dating back to October 2004.
In January of this year, Google began distributing Adobe Reader as part of the Google Pack without the Yahoo Toolbar being part of it. Google told me (article for SEW members) then that the Adobe-Yahoo agreement only covered the distribution Adobe did.
So is the Yahoo-Adobe deal completely over? No. Reuters reports that Adobe says that will continue:
Adobe previously included Yahoo Inc.'s toolbar as an option with the Shockwave Player, Adobe spokeswoman Katie Juran said. Adobe still offers the Yahoo toolbar as an option for its Flash Player and Adobe Reader products, she said.
I just uninstalled Acrobat Reader and downloaded a fresh copy. I definitely see the Yahoo Toolbar as part of the latest installation.
As for the Abobe-Google deal, the bundling with Google Pack wasn't based on payment, Google told me at the time. This latest deal is a financial arrangement, though exactly how much money is changing hands is not disclosed.
As for the distribution, I downloaded Shockwave and got no prompt for the Google Toolbar to be added. Of course, I already had it in Internet Explorer, and that seems to be why I didn't get a separate install. The Shockwave FAQ suggests that you should see a separate install process and that this won't happen if you have the Google Toolbar already.
That FAQ also notes that the Yahoo Toolbar, previously bundled with Shockwave, has now been dropped. In addition, it says that that third parties that distribute Shockwave do not have to bundle the Google Toolbar with those distributions.
The Google Blog post also says:
Starting today, Adobe is offering the Google Toolbar to its customers as a free download -- a great way to take Google search with you anywhere on the web.
So far, that seems to be true within Shockwave. But it's also a bit overstated. The Google Toolbar on its own is not offered anywhere on the Adobe products page, nor does a search for "google toolbar" flag any page for those who just want the toolbar on its own
The best, most specific information is part of the Shockwave FAQ that I've mentioned. There is at least a direct link to the Google Toolbar download page. But that's much different that the idea the Google Blog suggests, that people visiting Adobe might be getting a pitch for the Google Toolbar on its own. Not yet, not so far.
Postscript Barry:
I was sent a screen capture of this in action, you can view the screen capture at tcal.net.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 6:48 AM | Permalink
Google Partners With Adobe For Toolbar Distribution In Shockwave, Other Product To Be NamedBoth Adobe (PDF link) and Google have announced a new deal where Adobe will distribute the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer as part of Adobe Macromedia Shockwave Player downloads. That was supposed to begin yesterday, and bundling with other Adobe products will happen in the future.
Wait a minute? Weren't Yahoo and Adobe buddy-buddies? Yes -- a special version of the Yahoo Toolbar is built into the popular Adobe Acrobat Reader program, through a deal dating back to October 2004.
In January of this year, Google began distributing Adobe Reader as part of the Google Pack without the Yahoo Toolbar being part of it. Google told me (article for SEW members) then that the Adobe-Yahoo agreement only covered the distribution Adobe did.
So is the Yahoo-Adobe deal completely over? No. Reuters reports that Adobe says that will continue:
Adobe previously included Yahoo Inc.'s toolbar as an option with the Shockwave Player, Adobe spokeswoman Katie Juran said. Adobe still offers the Yahoo toolbar as an option for its Flash Player and Adobe Reader products, she said.
I just uninstalled Acrobat Reader and downloaded a fresh copy. I definitely see the Yahoo Toolbar as part of the latest installation.
As for the Abobe-Google deal, the bundling with Google Pack wasn't based on payment, Google told me at the time. This latest deal is a financial arrangement, though exactly how much money is changing hands is not disclosed.
As for the distribution, I downloaded Shockwave and got no prompt for the Google Toolbar to be added. Of course, I already had it in Internet Explorer, and that seems to be why I didn't get a separate install. The Shockwave FAQ suggests that you should see a separate install process and that this won't happen if you have the Google Toolbar already.
That FAQ also notes that the Yahoo Toolbar, previously bundled with Shockwave, has now been dropped. In addition, it says that that third parties that distribute Shockwave do not have to bundle the Google Toolbar with those distributions.
The Google Blog post also says:
Starting today, Adobe is offering the Google Toolbar to its customers as a free download -- a great way to take Google search with you anywhere on the web.
So far, that seems to be true within Shockwave. But it's also a bit overstated. The Google Toolbar on its own is not offered anywhere on the Adobe products page, nor does a search for "google toolbar" flag any page for those who just want the toolbar on its own
The best, most specific information is part of the Shockwave FAQ that I've mentioned. There is at least a direct link to the Google Toolbar download page. But that's much different that the idea the Google Blog suggests, that people visiting Adobe might be getting a pitch for the Google Toolbar on its own. Not yet, not so far.
Postscript Barry:
I was sent a screen capture of this in action, you can view the screen capture at tcal.net.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 6:48 AM | Permalink
Google Partners With Adobe For Toolbar Distribution In Shockwave, Other Product To Be NamedBoth Adobe (PDF link) and Google have announced a new deal where Adobe will distribute the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer as part of Adobe Macromedia Shockwave Player downloads. That was supposed to begin yesterday, and bundling with other Adobe products will happen in the future.
Wait a minute? Weren't Yahoo and Adobe buddy-buddies? Yes -- a special version of the Yahoo Toolbar is built into the popular Adobe Acrobat Reader program, through a deal dating back to October 2004.
In January of this year, Google began distributing Adobe Reader as part of the Google Pack without the Yahoo Toolbar being part of it. Google told me (article for SEW members) then that the Adobe-Yahoo agreement only covered the distribution Adobe did.
So is the Yahoo-Adobe deal completely over? No. Reuters reports that Adobe says that will continue:
Adobe previously included Yahoo Inc.'s toolbar as an option with the Shockwave Player, Adobe spokeswoman Katie Juran said. Adobe still offers the Yahoo toolbar as an option for its Flash Player and Adobe Reader products, she said.
I just uninstalled Acrobat Reader and downloaded a fresh copy. I definitely see the Yahoo Toolbar as part of the latest installation.
As for the Abobe-Google deal, the bundling with Google Pack wasn't based on payment, Google told me at the time. This latest deal is a financial arrangement, though exactly how much money is changing hands is not disclosed.
As for the distribution, I downloaded Shockwave and got no prompt for the Google Toolbar to be added. Of course, I already had it in Internet Explorer, and that seems to be why I didn't get a separate install. The Shockwave FAQ suggests that you should see a separate install process and that this won't happen if you have the Google Toolbar already.
That FAQ also notes that the Yahoo Toolbar, previously bundled with Shockwave, has now been dropped. In addition, it says that that third parties that distribute Shockwave do not have to bundle the Google Toolbar with those distributions.
The Google Blog post also says:
Starting today, Adobe is offering the Google Toolbar to its customers as a free download -- a great way to take Google search with you anywhere on the web.
So far, that seems to be true within Shockwave. But it's also a bit overstated. The Google Toolbar on its own is not offered anywhere on the Adobe products page, nor does a search for "google toolbar" flag any page for those who just want the toolbar on its own
The best, most specific information is part of the Shockwave FAQ that I've mentioned. There is at least a direct link to the Google Toolbar download page. But that's much different that the idea the Google Blog suggests, that people visiting Adobe might be getting a pitch for the Google Toolbar on its own. Not yet, not so far.
Postscript Barry:
I was sent a screen capture of this in action, you can view the screen capture at tcal.net.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 6:48 AM | Permalink
June 5, 2006
Yahoo's CEO Terry Semel's Salary Adjusted To One DollarBloomberg reports that Yahoo CEO Terry Semel will soon be earning a base salary of $1 per year. The rest of his income will come from a bonus and retention plan with options for nine million shares. Last year, Semel earned $600,000 as a base salary. The change to taking only $1 has him joining the "low" base salary ranks of Google's two cofounder Larry Page and Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:58 AM | Permalink
Yahoo's CEO Terry Semel's Salary Adjusted To One DollarBloomberg reports that Yahoo CEO Terry Semel will soon be earning a base salary of $1 per year. The rest of his income will come from a bonus and retention plan with options for nine million shares. Last year, Semel earned $600,000 as a base salary. The change to taking only $1 has him joining the "low" base salary ranks of Google's two cofounder Larry Page and Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:58 AM | Permalink
Yahoo's CEO Terry Semel's Salary Adjusted To One DollarBloomberg reports that Yahoo CEO Terry Semel will soon be earning a base salary of $1 per year. The rest of his income will come from a bonus and retention plan with options for nine million shares. Last year, Semel earned $600,000 as a base salary. The change to taking only $1 has him joining the "low" base salary ranks of Google's two cofounder Larry Page and Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:58 AM | Permalink
Yahoo's CEO Terry Semel's Salary Adjusted To One DollarBloomberg reports that Yahoo CEO Terry Semel will soon be earning a base salary of $1 per year. The rest of his income will come from a bonus and retention plan with options for nine million shares. Last year, Semel earned $600,000 as a base salary. The change to taking only $1 has him joining the "low" base salary ranks of Google's two cofounder Larry Page and Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:58 AM | Permalink
May 24, 2006
Yahoo's Annual Meeting Of Stockholders Tomorrow At 1PM (EST)Yahoo is hosting the Annual Meeting Of Stockholders tomorrow at 1pm (EST). You can enroll for the meeting by clicking here and providing your email address. Once enrolled you should receive electronic delivery of the proxy statement, annual report, and related materials. More details at the Investor Events page.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:34 AM | Permalink
Yahoo's Annual Meeting Of Stockholders Tomorrow At 1PM (EST)Yahoo is hosting the Annual Meeting Of Stockholders tomorrow at 1pm (EST). You can enroll for the meeting by clicking here and providing your email address. Once enrolled you should receive electronic delivery of the proxy statement, annual report, and related materials. More details at the Investor Events page.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:34 AM | Permalink
Yahoo's Annual Meeting Of Stockholders Tomorrow At 1PM (EST)Yahoo is hosting the Annual Meeting Of Stockholders tomorrow at 1pm (EST). You can enroll for the meeting by clicking here and providing your email address. Once enrolled you should receive electronic delivery of the proxy statement, annual report, and related materials. More details at the Investor Events page.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:34 AM | Permalink
Yahoo's Annual Meeting Of Stockholders Tomorrow At 1PM (EST)Yahoo is hosting the Annual Meeting Of Stockholders tomorrow at 1pm (EST). You can enroll for the meeting by clicking here and providing your email address. Once enrolled you should receive electronic delivery of the proxy statement, annual report, and related materials. More details at the Investor Events page.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:34 AM | Permalink
May 17, 2006
Tim Cadogan Talking At Yahoo Analyst DayTim Cadogan, vice president of search, up now at Yahoo Analyst Day, talking about search monetization. He starts by saying the consumer is always first in consideration, then explains the search food chain/cycle, how questions can be answered by advertisers. Think there are billions of offers that can be delivered with more relevancy to make both sides, advertisers and searchers, happy.
Five priorities:
- Core platform
- Advertiser experience
- Marketplace design
- Consumer experience
- Breadth and depth of advertiser experience
Priority 1
Get performance up to reduce transaction cost, which isn't just money but time and effort. Working to reduce this at a low cost. Scale, want millions of advertisers with billions of offers and 10s of billions of impressions per day. Rapid innovation, platform built to grow with new things (heard these types of things before with organic search architecture and not happened, but we'll see). Need to help ensure continued support for third parties in the search ecosystem.
Priority 2
Ease of use for advertisers, give them fast editorial turnaround. Search marketing hasn't always been easy, so spent a lot of time thinking on how to reveal the right level of sophistication when actually needed. Simple user gets simple interface; advanced gets more advanced charting and options. Effectiveness. Part of this is new ad testing to allow advertiser to express different creative for ads until get the right ad (you know, like AdWords has). Also better geotargeting.
Goal-based optimization. Everyone gets conversion tracking, so any advertiser (those who care and trust to share) can have bids optimized to reach things like cost per acquisition. Talks about "assists." How some terms get a lot of searches like digital camera and d70 will get more conversion, so advertiser might believe digital camera aren't good and so only do d70. That might be bad since digital camera might have drove or "assisted" the searcher earlier in the buying process or funnel, until they convert with a more specific term. Says this is a first to Yahoo's knowledge for the industry. I think so, if you exclude third party tools.
Shows the current system and how the new system will have a new budget system, with a bar chart showing you what opportunity you might be missing out on by not budgeting more. So helpful, but helpful to both sides.
Priority 3
New ranking system, with the first focus on improving the consumer experience. Shows a good, relevant ad for talavera tile. Doesn't show a bad example but says it happens and needs to improve.
Shows the ad quality chart. This is pretty cool -- I saw it in a briefing for the article I did two weeks ago. Shows you at a glance ads that aren't meeting the quality score. You don't know what exactly makes up that, but at least you can more easily see which ads are at risk. Clickthrough, he doesn't say, is a key component.
Priority 4
Enhanced geo-targeting, pick a city, have your ad targeted to there.
Priority 5
All small business now under one person, from domains to store functionality. On sales side, Yahoo Search Marketing and graphical sales now under one person.
Competitive stack up time. Relevancy-based ranking, ad testing, easier-to-use system, fast editorial review, integrated analytics are all key jumps up. Beyond this and above, visible quality scores, enhanced bidding and forecasting, a really easier-to-use system, good geo-targeting, the implementation of assists.
When? Platform tests through Q3 this year, then deploy in US, then Q1 next year internationally. Advertisers will also come into the new platform. The ranking system itself won't change until Q4 this year in the US, it's expected, then Q1 internationally, and designed to easy advertisers into new system.
Questions (joined by panelists):
Is there a risk bid prices might drop (me: sure, but if clicks increase...). We feel in aggregate, the net experience is going to be better. As for the analytic integration, Yahoo if I understood right does get some aggregate data to use for insight but mainly aimed at helping advertisers learn more.
Safa Rashtchy from Piper Jaffray: do you think you've got a new architecture that will let you move faster (they've said yes already but they say yes again). Also said (sorry, didn't catch name of the other panelist saying this) this is the third generation of this type of ad system, either third generation for Overture (if so, sure) or third generation in Overture-Google-Yahoo (if so, disagree. MSN is more a third generation platform, though I've written before that doesn't guarantee advertisers if there's no traffic).
Geotargeting: Tim sees lots of potential on those who don't advertiser who would once they have good local targeting. Susan Decker CFO stresses this is 1.0 of the new system and so they are considering some things down the line that their competitors might have (ie MSN and demographics).
Worried about hitting the holidays? Our advertisers say they want this sooner.
What type of increases in monetization expecting based on testing and any surprises from that. Susan: You don't really know until you have a real marketplace, and a dynamic marketplace. Don't expect a financial contribution this year from the system but more next year (ie, any big benefits won't really happen in 2006).
Posted by Danny Sullivan at 2:20 PM | Permalink
Tim Cadogan Talking At Yahoo Analyst DayTim Cadogan, vice president of search, up now at Yahoo Analyst Day, talking about search monetization. He starts by saying the consumer is always first in consideration, then explains the search food chain/cycle, how questions can be answered by advertisers. Think there are billions of offers that can be delivered with more relevancy to make both sides, advertisers and searchers, happy.
Five priorities:
- Core platform
- Advertiser experience
- Marketplace design
- Consumer experience
- Breadth and depth of advertiser experience
Priority 1
Get performance up to reduce transaction cost, which isn't just money but time and effort. Working to reduce this at a low cost. Scale, want millions of advertisers with billions of offers and 10s of billions of impressions per day. Rapid innovation, platform built to grow with new things (heard these types of things before with organic search architecture and not happened, but we'll see). Need to help ensure continued support for third parties in the search ecosystem.
Priority 2
Ease of use for advertisers, give them fast editorial turnaround. Search marketing hasn't always been easy, so spent a lot of time thinking on how to reveal the right level of sophistication when actually needed. Simple user gets simple interface; advanced gets more advanced charting and options. Effectiveness. Part of this is new ad testing to allow advertiser to express different creative for ads until get the right ad (you know, like AdWords has). Also better geotargeting.
Goal-based optimization. Everyone gets conversion tracking, so any advertiser (those who care and trust to share) can have bids optimized to reach things like cost per acquisition. Talks about "assists." How some terms get a lot of searches like digital camera and d70 will get more conversion, so advertiser might believe digital camera aren't good and so only do d70. That might be bad since digital camera might have drove or "assisted" the searcher earlier in the buying process or funnel, until they convert with a more specific term. Says this is a first to Yahoo's knowledge for the industry. I think so, if you exclude third party tools.
Shows the current system and how the new system will have a new budget system, with a bar chart showing you what opportunity you might be missing out on by not budgeting more. So helpful, but helpful to both sides.
Priority 3
New ranking system, with the first focus on improving the consumer experience. Shows a good, relevant ad for talavera tile. Doesn't show a bad example but says it happens and needs to improve.
Shows the ad quality chart. This is pretty cool -- I saw it in a briefing for the article I did two weeks ago. Shows you at a glance ads that aren't meeting the quality score. You don't know what exactly makes up that, but at least you can more easily see which ads are at risk. Clickthrough, he doesn't say, is a key component.
Priority 4
Enhanced geo-targeting, pick a city, have your ad targeted to there.
Priority 5
All small business now under one person, from domains to store functionality. On sales side, Yahoo Search Marketing and graphical sales now under one person.
Competitive stack up time. Relevancy-based ranking, ad testing, easier-to-use system, fast editorial review, integrated analytics are all key jumps up. Beyond this and above, visible quality scores, enhanced bidding and forecasting, a really easier-to-use system, good geo-targeting, the implementation of assists.
When? Platform tests through Q3 this year, then deploy in US, then Q1 next year internationally. Advertisers will also come into the new platform. The ranking system itself won't change until Q4 this year in the US, it's expected, then Q1 internationally, and designed to easy advertisers into new system.
Questions (joined by panelists):
Is there a risk bid prices might drop (me: sure, but if clicks increase...). We feel in aggregate, the net experience is going to be better. As for the analytic integration, Yahoo if I understood right does get some aggregate data to use for insight but mainly aimed at helping advertisers learn more.
Safa Rashtchy from Piper Jaffray: do you think you've got a new architecture that will let you move faster (they've said yes already but they say yes again). Also said (sorry, didn't catch name of the other panelist saying this) this is the third generation of this type of ad system, either third generation for Overture (if so, sure) or third generation in Overture-Google-Yahoo (if so, disagree. MSN is more a third generation platform, though I've written before that doesn't guarantee advertisers if there's no traffic).
Geotargeting: Tim sees lots of potential on those who don't advertiser who would once they have good local targeting. Susan Decker CFO stresses this is 1.0 of the new system and so they are considering some things down the line that their competitors might have (ie MSN and demographics).
Worried about hitting the holidays? Our advertisers say they want this sooner.
What type of increases in monetization expecting based on testing and any surprises from that. Susan: You don't really know until you have a real marketplace, and a dynamic marketplace. Don't expect a financial contribution this year from the system but more next year (ie, any big benefits won't really happen in 2006).
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:20 PM | Permalink
Tim Cadogan Talking At Yahoo Analyst DayTim Cadogan, vice president of search, up now at Yahoo Analyst Day, talking about search monetization. He starts by saying the consumer is always first in consideration, then explains the search food chain/cycle, how questions can be answered by advertisers. Think there are billions of offers that can be delivered with more relevancy to make both sides, advertisers and searchers, happy.
Five priorities:
- Core platform
- Advertiser experience
- Marketplace design
- Consumer experience
- Breadth and depth of advertiser experience
Priority 1
Get performance up to reduce transaction cost, which isn't just money but time and effort. Working to reduce this at a low cost. Scale, want millions of advertisers with billions of offers and 10s of billions of impressions per day. Rapid innovation, platform built to grow with new things (heard these types of things before with organic search architecture and not happened, but we'll see). Need to help ensure continued support for third parties in the search ecosystem.
Priority 2
Ease of use for advertisers, give them fast editorial turnaround. Search marketing hasn't always been easy, so spent a lot of time thinking on how to reveal the right level of sophistication when actually needed. Simple user gets simple interface; advanced gets more advanced charting and options. Effectiveness. Part of this is new ad testing to allow advertiser to express different creative for ads until get the right ad (you know, like AdWords has). Also better geotargeting.
Goal-based optimization. Everyone gets conversion tracking, so any advertiser (those who care and trust to share) can have bids optimized to reach things like cost per acquisition. Talks about "assists." How some terms get a lot of searches like digital camera and d70 will get more conversion, so advertiser might believe digital camera aren't good and so only do d70. That might be bad since digital camera might have drove or "assisted" the searcher earlier in the buying process or funnel, until they convert with a more specific term. Says this is a first to Yahoo's knowledge for the industry. I think so, if you exclude third party tools.
Shows the current system and how the new system will have a new budget system, with a bar chart showing you what opportunity you might be missing out on by not budgeting more. So helpful, but helpful to both sides.
Priority 3
New ranking system, with the first focus on improving the consumer experience. Shows a good, relevant ad for talavera tile. Doesn't show a bad example but says it happens and needs to improve.
Shows the ad quality chart. This is pretty cool -- I saw it in a briefing for the article I did two weeks ago. Shows you at a glance ads that aren't meeting the quality score. You don't know what exactly makes up that, but at least you can more easily see which ads are at risk. Clickthrough, he doesn't say, is a key component.
Priority 4
Enhanced geo-targeting, pick a city, have your ad targeted to there.
Priority 5
All small business now under one person, from domains to store functionality. On sales side, Yahoo Search Marketing and graphical sales now under one person.
Competitive stack up time. Relevancy-based ranking, ad testing, easier-to-use system, fast editorial review, integrated analytics are all key jumps up. Beyond this and above, visible quality scores, enhanced bidding and forecasting, a really easier-to-use system, good geo-targeting, the implementation of assists.
When? Platform tests through Q3 this year, then deploy in US, then Q1 next year internationally. Advertisers will also come into the new platform. The ranking system itself won't change until Q4 this year in the US, it's expected, then Q1 internationally, and designed to easy advertisers into new system.
Questions (joined by panelists):
Is there a risk bid prices might drop (me: sure, but if clicks increase...). We feel in aggregate, the net experience is going to be better. As for the analytic integration, Yahoo if I understood right does get some aggregate data to use for insight but mainly aimed at helping advertisers learn more.
Safa Rashtchy from Piper Jaffray: do you think you've got a new architecture that will let you move faster (they've said yes already but they say yes again). Also said (sorry, didn't catch name of the other panelist saying this) this is the third generation of this type of ad system, either third generation for Overture (if so, sure) or third generation in Overture-Google-Yahoo (if so, disagree. MSN is more a third generation platform, though I've written before that doesn't guarantee advertisers if there's no traffic).
Geotargeting: Tim sees lots of potential on those who don't advertiser who would once they have good local targeting. Susan Decker CFO stresses this is 1.0 of the new system and so they are considering some things down the line that their competitors might have (ie MSN and demographics).
Worried about hitting the holidays? Our advertisers say they want this sooner.
What type of increases in monetization expecting based on testing and any surprises from that. Susan: You don't really know until you have a real marketplace, and a dynamic marketplace. Don't expect a financial contribution this year from the system but more next year (ie, any big benefits won't really happen in 2006).
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:20 PM | Permalink
Tim Cadogan Talking At Yahoo Analyst DayTim Cadogan, vice president of search, up now at Yahoo Analyst Day, talking about search monetization. He starts by saying the consumer is always first in consideration, then explains the search food chain/cycle, how questions can be answered by advertisers. Think there are billions of offers that can be delivered with more relevancy to make both sides, advertisers and searchers, happy.
Five priorities:
- Core platform
- Advertiser experience
- Marketplace design
- Consumer experience
- Breadth and depth of advertiser experience
Priority 1
Get performance up to reduce transaction cost, which isn't just money but time and effort. Working to reduce this at a low cost. Scale, want millions of advertisers with billions of offers and 10s of billions of impressions per day. Rapid innovation, platform built to grow with new things (heard these types of things before with organic search architecture and not happened, but we'll see). Need to help ensure continued support for third parties in the search ecosystem.
Priority 2
Ease of use for advertisers, give them fast editorial turnaround. Search marketing hasn't always been easy, so spent a lot of time thinking on how to reveal the right level of sophistication when actually needed. Simple user gets simple interface; advanced gets more advanced charting and options. Effectiveness. Part of this is new ad testing to allow advertiser to express different creative for ads until get the right ad (you know, like AdWords has). Also better geotargeting.
Goal-based optimization. Everyone gets conversion tracking, so any advertiser (those who care and trust to share) can have bids optimized to reach things like cost per acquisition. Talks about "assists." How some terms get a lot of searches like digital camera and d70 will get more conversion, so advertiser might believe digital camera aren't good and so only do d70. That might be bad since digital camera might have drove or "assisted" the searcher earlier in the buying process or funnel, until they convert with a more specific term. Says this is a first to Yahoo's knowledge for the industry. I think so, if you exclude third party tools.
Shows the current system and how the new system will have a new budget system, with a bar chart showing you what opportunity you might be missing out on by not budgeting more. So helpful, but helpful to both sides.
Priority 3
New ranking system, with the first focus on improving the consumer experience. Shows a good, relevant ad for talavera tile. Doesn't show a bad example but says it happens and needs to improve.
Shows the ad quality chart. This is pretty cool -- I saw it in a briefing for the article I did two weeks ago. Shows you at a glance ads that aren't meeting the quality score. You don't know what exactly makes up that, but at least you can more easily see which ads are at risk. Clickthrough, he doesn't say, is a key component.
Priority 4
Enhanced geo-targeting, pick a city, have your ad targeted to there.
Priority 5
All small business now under one person, from domains to store functionality. On sales side, Yahoo Search Marketing and graphical sales now under one person.
Competitive stack up time. Relevancy-based ranking, ad testing, easier-to-use system, fast editorial review, integrated analytics are all key jumps up. Beyond this and above, visible quality scores, enhanced bidding and forecasting, a really easier-to-use system, good geo-targeting, the implementation of assists.
When? Platform tests through Q3 this year, then deploy in US, then Q1 next year internationally. Advertisers will also come into the new platform. The ranking system itself won't change until Q4 this year in the US, it's expected, then Q1 internationally, and designed to easy advertisers into new system.
Questions (joined by panelists):
Is there a risk bid prices might drop (me: sure, but if clicks increase...). We feel in aggregate, the net experience is going to be better. As for the analytic integration, Yahoo if I understood right does get some aggregate data to use for insight but mainly aimed at helping advertisers learn more.
Safa Rashtchy from Piper Jaffray: do you think you've got a new architecture that will let you move faster (they've said yes already but they say yes again). Also said (sorry, didn't catch name of the other panelist saying this) this is the third generation of this type of ad system, either third generation for Overture (if so, sure) or third generation in Overture-Google-Yahoo (if so, disagree. MSN is more a third generation platform, though I've written before that doesn't guarantee advertisers if there's no traffic).
Geotargeting: Tim sees lots of potential on those who don't advertiser who would once they have good local targeting. Susan Decker CFO stresses this is 1.0 of the new system and so they are considering some things down the line that their competitors might have (ie MSN and demographics).
Worried about hitting the holidays? Our advertisers say they want this sooner.
What type of increases in monetization expecting based on testing and any surprises from that. Susan: You don't really know until you have a real marketplace, and a dynamic marketplace. Don't expect a financial contribution this year from the system but more next year (ie, any big benefits won't really happen in 2006).
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:20 PM | Permalink
Google Adding More Jobs Than YahooBusinessWeek.com reports that Google is adding more jobs than Yahoo. Google has 1,800 open positions this year, up from 800 open positions last year. Yahoo has 800 openings this year, but they have declined from last year, with 935 job openings. Google is also higher a higher percentage of employees overseas, with 51% of their job openings based outside of the U.S. Yahoo has 29% of their job openings based overseas, up 15% from last year. Yahoo still has more employees than Google, with 10,098 employees at Yahoo and 6,790 employees at Google.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:59 AM | Permalink
Google Adding More Jobs Than YahooBusinessWeek.com reports that Google is adding more jobs than Yahoo. Google has 1,800 open positions this year, up from 800 open positions last year. Yahoo has 800 openings this year, but they have declined from last year, with 935 job openings. Google is also higher a higher percentage of employees overseas, with 51% of their job openings based outside of the U.S. Yahoo has 29% of their job openings based overseas, up 15% from last year. Yahoo still has more employees than Google, with 10,098 employees at Yahoo and 6,790 employees at Google.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:59 AM | Permalink
Google Adding More Jobs Than YahooBusinessWeek.com reports that Google is adding more jobs than Yahoo. Google has 1,800 open positions this year, up from 800 open positions last year. Yahoo has 800 openings this year, but they have declined from last year, with 935 job openings. Google is also higher a higher percentage of employees overseas, with 51% of their job openings based outside of the U.S. Yahoo has 29% of their job openings based overseas, up 15% from last year. Yahoo still has more employees than Google, with 10,098 employees at Yahoo and 6,790 employees at Google.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:59 AM | Permalink
Google Adding More Jobs Than YahooBusinessWeek.com reports that Google is adding more jobs than Yahoo. Google has 1,800 open positions this year, up from 800 open positions last year. Yahoo has 800 openings this year, but they have declined from last year, with 935 job openings. Google is also higher a higher percentage of employees overseas, with 51% of their job openings based outside of the U.S. Yahoo has 29% of their job openings based overseas, up 15% from last year. Yahoo still has more employees than Google, with 10,098 employees at Yahoo and 6,790 employees at Google.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:59 AM | Permalink
May 10, 2006
Yahoo En Español & Telemundo.com To MergeThe Wall Street Journal reports that Yahoo En Español and Telemundo.com will be merging companies. They will be merging the staff and sharing one advertising budget. If you visit http://espanol.yahoo.com/ now, you will find both logos at the top of the page, representing each company. The reason for the merger is because the online Hispanic market is growing extremely quickly and the two companies want to take advantage of "the incredible growth of the Hispanic marketplace," today. It appears that the two companies will fold under the Yahoo umbrella.
We have been reporting on the Hispanic market growth recently. You can find out more by reading here and here.
Postscript: PaidContent.org has some more details on the merger plans.
Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:45 AM | Permalink
Yahoo En Español & Telemundo.com To MergeThe Wall Street Journal reports that Yahoo En Español and Telemundo.com will be merging companies. They will be merging the staff and sharing one advertising budget. If you visit http://espanol.yahoo.com/ now, you will find both logos at the top of the page, representing each company. The reason for the merger is because the online Hispanic market is growing extremely quickly and the two companies want to take advantage of "the incredible growth of the Hispanic marketplace," today. It appears that the two companies will fold under the Yahoo umbrella.
We have been reporting on the Hispanic market growth recently. You can find out more by reading here and here.
Postscript: PaidContent.org has some more details on the merger plans.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:45 AM | Permalink
Yahoo En Español & Telemundo.com To MergeThe Wall Street Journal reports that Yahoo En Español and Telemundo.com will be merging companies. They will be merging the staff and sharing one advertising budget. If you visit http://espanol.yahoo.com/ now, you will find both logos at the top of the page, representing each company. The reason for the merger is because the online Hispanic market is growing extremely quickly and the two companies want to take advantage of "the incredible growth of the Hispanic marketplace," today. It appears that the two companies will fold under the Yahoo umbrella.
We have been reporting on the Hispanic market growth recently. You can find out more by reading here and here.
Postscript: PaidContent.org has some more details on the merger plans.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:45 AM | Permalink
Yahoo En Español & Telemundo.com To MergeThe Wall Street Journal reports that Yahoo En Español and Telemundo.com will be merging companies. They will be merging the staff and sharing one advertising budget. If you visit http://espanol.yahoo.com/ now, you will find both logos at the top of the page, representing each company. The reason for the merger is because the online Hispanic market is growing extremely quickly and the two companies want to take advantage of "the incredible growth of the Hispanic marketplace," today. It appears that the two companies will fold under the Yahoo umbrella.
We have been reporting on the Hispanic market growth recently. You can find out more by reading here and here.
Postscript: PaidContent.org has some more details on the merger plans.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:45 AM | Permalink
May 3, 2006
Yahoo & Microsoft Have Talked Partnering, MergingI was talking with Kevin Delaney of the Wall Street Journal on Monday about search things in general and mentioned the sense it makes for Microsoft and Yahoo to get together. Microsoft is behind with the core search technology. Yahoo's been struggling to upgrade its paid search service. Let's get these two kids together! And today in the Wall Street Journal, it turns out that there's apparently a faction at Microsoft that wants to do just that.
Via Paid Content, A Microsoft, Yahoo Tie-Up? from the Wall Street Journal has the details. Kevin and colleague Robert Guth write of there being two factions within Microsoft -- the "let's built it ourselves" group that has been in control so far and the "let's acquire" group apparently led by Microsoft senior vice president Hank Vigil.
Vigil is said to have led the failed negotiations to combine MSN with AOL. Frankly, a Yahoo deal makes more sense than that. AOL would have provided existing traffic but not solid search technology. Yahoo provides plenty of traffic, along with core search technology and a healthy, first-hand advertiser base.
What's not to love? Probably the high price of the acquisition, plus whether Yahoo -- especially cofounder Jerry Yang -- would go for it. But apparently it's plausible enough that both companies have talked informally over the past year.
The Wall Street Journal cites the hiring of Steve Berkowitz by Microsoft as perhaps being a tipping point. I'd certainly agree. Steve is the first serious outside person Microsoft has brought in for its battle in the search wars. Bringing him on was a big sign that what Microsoft has been trying to do internally hasn't been working -- and so something radical such as an Ask or Yahoo acquisition might be in order.
The big downside is that such an acquisition would give Microsoft yet another brand to confuse consumers with. After spending hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to push MSN, they've now shifted things behind making the stupid Windows Live brand their flagship. It's stupid for so many reasons. Let me bullet point two major ones:
- Most people I know don't really like the Windows brand. Heck, I'm a Windows person, fairly anti-Mac, but Windows still represents crashes and glitches to me. And this is the label you want to attach to your online services?
- We're moving into a world where the operating system and my web-based services aren't necessarily connected. I love Outlook. I live in Outlook. But online, I might want to sync Outlook with Yahoo or Google's calendar. Forcing me to think -- overtly or indirectly through branding -- that I have to use all your products makes me want to use none of them. Let MSN operate as if it wasn't linked to your operating system or your browser and it will be a stronger service in the long run, not weaker.
So Microsoft's already coping with the confusion of two major brands. Adding in Yahoo further confuses matters, unless they perhaps make a brave, bold move and put everything behind the brand leader in the space, Yahoo.
Meanwhile, via Valleywag, Ballmer defends Microsoft's spending increase from the Seattle Times covers a likely leaked memo from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer naming Google as one of the company's chief competitors and requiring further "heavy investments" in search. The goal, which we've heard before, is to create "the web's largest advertising network, giving us an engine that twill enable us to monetize our services and compete against Google."
Ah -- but to compete against Google, you don't need an advertising network. You first need a quality core web search engine, which your heavy investment to date has failed to create. And so back to Yahoo, which has exactly what Microsoft needs, that core technology.
Microsoft's AdCenter May Fail to Topple Google From Dominance from Bloomberg covers how advertisers are getting a more formal look at the MSN adCenter service that Microsoft has rolled out over the past few months. Unlike Microsoft's failure in web search, I'd say adCenter is a big success. The service already has plenty of advertisers using it -- and anecdotally continues to draw lots of praise for its features.
Features ultimately mean little, of course. As the story cites, it's about volume. MSN could have rolled out a terrible product that advertisers would have coped with simply because it was the only way to reach MSN's substantial traffic. But to the company's credit, they did not do that. Instead, they've continued to refine and tweak and take advertiser feedback in a way that has earned them raves I rarely hear recently about the systems at Google or Yahoo. Volume remains key, but the features and wooing still certainly help.
And that brings us back to Yahoo, which has been struggling with an antiquated paid listings toolset. The Counterattack On Google from BusinessWeek covers how Yahoo's "Panama" update to its paid listings system has been progressing over the past two years and is nearing completion. But BusinessWeek correctly summarizes, in my view, the changes are more about bringing Yahoo up to Google's level of features rather than leapfrogging past Google and into features like MSN offers.
It's another argument that makes the idea of Yahoo and Microsoft getting together not wacky at all.
Want to comment or discuss? Visit our Search Engine Watch Forums thread, Yahoo & Microsoft To Combine.
Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:00 AM | Permalink
Yahoo & Microsoft Have Talked Partnering, MergingI was talking with Kevin Delaney of the Wall Street Journal on Monday about search things in general and mentioned the sense it makes for Microsoft and Yahoo to get together. Microsoft is behind with the core search technology. Yahoo's been struggling to upgrade its paid search service. Let's get these two kids together! And today in the Wall Street Journal, it turns out that there's apparently a faction at Microsoft that wants to do just that.
Via Paid Content, A Microsoft, Yahoo Tie-Up? f