TravelMan - 6:49 am on Mar 10, 2004 (gmt 0)

There needs to be some balance here, surely the Y! people can see this?

Could someone from Y! give us the company line on this?

This has pretty major implications for the shape of the web and internet marketing in general. CJ, Tradedoubler, Befree, etc generate millions of dollars of income and business for a multitude of organisations the world over.

Affiliate marketing has been a massive contributer to the growth and development of the internet.

I think its pretty arrogant for Y! to take such a unilateral decision, literally ripping the ground from beneath 1000's of people.

There should at the very least be a PFI route back. Y! are effectively restricting trade.

Search itself is currently more or less duopolistic, why should my business or anyone else for that matter be excluded from 50% of the marketplace? Is Y! going to drop all Brokerage firms, Travel agents, Insurance agents too?

Sure, there are strong arguments on either side of this divide, but please, lets have a little commonsense here, a little fairness and equal access too.