Microsoft and Yahoo Agree to Amend Search Partnership

[travelin cat]

Today Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) announced that the companies amended their search partnership to improve the search experience, create value for advertisers and establish ongoing stability for partners. The update reaffirms commitments made by both companies in the original 2009 agreement, while implementing changes to keep the partnership strong and productive, with both companies committed to maximizing the alliance.

[info.yahoo.com...]

[engine]

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System: The following message was spliced on to this thread from: http://www.webmasterworld.com/yahoo_search/3006415.htm [webmasterworld.com] by engine - 2:27 pm on Apr 16, 2015 (utc 0)

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Today Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) announced that the companies amended their search partnership to improve the search experience, create value for advertisers and establish ongoing stability for partners. The update reaffirms commitments made by both companies in the original 2009 agreement, while implementing changes to keep the partnership strong and productive, with both companies committed to maximizing the alliance.

Microsoft and Yahoo Agree To Amend Search Partnership [info.yahoo.com]

The update includes improvements in two core areas. First, Yahoo will now have increased flexibility to enhance the search experience on any platform, since the partnership is non-exclusive for both desktop and mobile. Yahoo will continue to serve Bing ads and search results for a majority of its desktop search traffic.

Second, the update increases agility and sales focus. Microsoft will become the exclusive salesforce for ads delivered by Microsoft’s Bing Ads platform, while Yahoo will continue to be the exclusive salesforce for Yahoo’s Gemini ads platform. Integrating the sales teams with those responsible for engineering will allow both companies to service advertisers more effectively. Microsoft and Yahoo plan to begin to transition managed advertiser sales responsibilities this summer.

[isellstuff]

I would love to know what this really means. I hope it doesn't mean Yahoo is about to do a deal with Google. We need as much competition as we can get and having Google get a bigger piece of the pie is, in no way, good.

Sigh... I'm one of those people still having his Bing ads managed by Yahoo. Its been a tug-of-war with me, as my PPC rep has been Yahoo -> Bing -> Yahoo -> and now Bing again!

[tangor]

Anything that keeps the "deal" alive at the moment is a good result... in that diversity of choice remains. How long that choice will be there we don't know.

[isellstuff]

I got more details in an e-mail. Not exactly thrilled. Yahoo Gemini appears to be some sort of lame excuse to fleece advertisers. Maybe I'm wrong, but its functionality appears limited and seems more "user interest" based than keyword targeted. The idea that they would be integrating Gemini into desktop keyword search seems deeply flawed from a precision point of view. I wish Marissa Mayer would understand that the reason they aren't making as much money from search is because they aren't providing enough value to the advertiser! Yahoo's traffic quality, especially from their partner network, has always been poor. If they Yahoo Bing partnership did anything, it brought down Bing's traffic quality, such that Bing's pre-deal projections were ruined as advertisers pulled back on spend due to Yahoo's poor quality. It would have been wise to jettison Yahoo's partner network prior to entering the deal, then the outcome might have been better.

In the next few weeks, Yahoo Gemini will be eligible to serve ads on all mobile search traffic and up to half of computer search traffic - reaching up to 75% of Yahoo’s US search inventory across all devices.