November 18, 2009

Yahoo! Announces Yodel Studio Winners

The winners of the Yahoo! Yodel Studio contest have been announced.

Tiffany Jo Allen of Tucson, AZ
Katherine Skene of St. Andrews, UK
Ankitaa Bhattacharji of Mumbai, India

The winners were publicly voted on after Yahoo! selected three finalists each for the US, UK, and India from 21,000 submissions.

Tiffany Jo's Yodel can be heard on the Yahoo! homepage for the next week. Simply click on the exclamation point in Yahoo!'s logo to give it a listen.

Katherine and Ankitaa's Yodels will be featured on the respective UK and India Yahoo! homepages in coming weeks.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 10, 2009

Yahoo! Announces Yodel Studio Finalists; Google LatLong Announces Trike Finalists

Last month, Yahoo! and Google launched a couple of contests (separately), and this week both are announcing the finalists.

First up, Yahoo! is looking for a new Yodel, and they received 21,000 entries. They've narrowed it down to three contestants each for the US, UK and India. Click on the links below to view the finalists' entries and cast your vote:

Tiffany Jo from Arizona Carlo from Arizona Christopher from Oklahoma

Katherine Hajar James

India

Nishant Ankitaa Ayesha

Meanwhile, Google launched a contest to see where the new Street View vehicle, Google Trike would go. They received 25,000 suggestions, 44% of which were college campuses. Below are the finalists for the various categories. You can cast your vote at Google.com/trike.

University Campuses Arizona State University Michigan State University Princeton University Rochester Intitute of Technology Stanford University

Parks & Trails Boulder Creek Bike Path, CO Capital Crescent Trail, MD/DC Centennial Trail, WA Schuylkill River Trail, PA Stevens Creek Trail, CA

Pedestrian Malls Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston, MA Navy Pier, Chicago, IL Pier 39, San Francisco, CA

Landmarks Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, CA Central Park, NY Millenium Park, Chicago, IL Kennedy Space Center, FL National Mall, DC

Theme Parks & Zoos Bronx Zoo, NY Busch Gardens, VA Detroit Zoo, MI Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL San Diego Zoo, CA Universal Studios, FL

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google, Yahoo!, and Bing Launch Free Wifi Campaigns

The big three search engines all announced this week separate efforts to provide free Wifi in various locations.

Google is offering free Wifi in 47 airports. See the list here. The campaign runs through January 15, 2010.

Yahoo! is offering free Wifi to the 500,000 people who pass through Times Square each day. They're partnering with the Times Square Alliance in the effort, which will last through 2010.

Bing is offering free Wifi through JiWire hotspots in airports and hotels. All you have to do is conduct a search on Bing to get access. The program began in Q3 2009 and has been extended through the end of the year.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 26, 2009

Carl Icahn Quits Yahoo! Board

He came, he kinda sorta conquered and now he's left. Investor Carl Icahn, who stirred up investors during the Microsoft acquisition attempt, quit Yahoo!'s Board of Directors on Friday.

After Yahoo! failed to accept Microsoft's offer to fully acquire the Sunnyvale-based Internet company, Carl Icahn embarked on his own attempt to overthrow Yahoo!'s Board of Directors. Icahn ultimately settled with Yahoo! just before the 2008 shareholders meeting. He got a seat on the board plus the board was expanded to bring in some outsiders.

A few months later, Jerry Yang stepped down as CEO. Eventually, Carol Bartz was named as replacement. Now, there's a pending search deal with Microsoft, and Yahoo!'s stock has been steadily increasing.

Wam, Bam, Thank You Ma'am. I guess Icahn's work at Yahoo! is done.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 20, 2009

Advertising Association Urges DOJ to Approve Microsoft-Yahoo! Search Deal

The American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) has written an open letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, urging them to approve the Microsoft-Yahoo! search deal. Announced at the end of July, the deal has Microsoft and Yahoo! partnering up on search in order to create what will become the number 2 search service in the United States.

In the letter (PDF), Nancy Hill, President and CEO of the AAAA, wrote:

These benefits are too important to wait for. As leading members of the advertising and marketing services industry, we urge the Department of Justice to bring its antitrust review to a speedy conclusion. This proposal enhances competition, and should be allowed to take effect as soon as possible.

CEOs of four ad agencies added their John Hancocks to the letter:

Maurice Levy, chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe
Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP
Michael Roth, chairman and CEO of Interpubic Group
John Wren, president and CEO of Omnicom Group

Analysts have predicted the regulatory approval process would be lengthy. But with the changes in the advertising industry over the past few years in addition to the current global economic uncertainty, it's no surprise that agencies are seeking a quick resolution in this matter.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 15, 2009

Bing's Growth Slows, Google Recoups Losses in comScore September 2009 Report

comScore has released their search engine share report for September 2009 and we're seeing yet another twist in the "Can Bing catch up with Google?" saga. You may remember that Bing has been on quite a roll since launch gaining over 1 percentage point, with Google and Yahoo! trading off the losses.

Well, the tides began to turn last month, with Google regaining 0.3% of its loss and Bing gaining another 0.1% in share, which is not the rate of growth they have been experiencing. This time, Yahoo! suffered the losses with a 0.5% decline. Ask.com and AOL held steady.

Another interesting tidbit is YouTube's continued growth and how it compares to search. Greg Jarboe already provided you with the scoop on how more YouTube videos were watched in August than searches conducted in September. Be sure to read his post because this is a phenomenon to watch for sure.

Also, read up on Promoted Videos, which is essentially paid search for YouTube. You can now purchase Promoted Videos in AdWords, which will appear in the search results over at YouTube.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

October 13, 2009

Yahoo! Launches Yodeling Contest for Charity (and Advertising)

Yahoo! is holding a global Yodeling contest. Yes, that's right, now you have the chance to enter your musical interpretation of the famous Yahoo! Yodel.

You have until November 8th to show off your pipes. Head on over to the Yodel Studio to record your Yodel via webcam. You can also record a video with a camcorder and upload it. Yahoo! will donate to charity up to $130,000 for every Yodel submitted. Winning Yodels will appear in Yahoo!'s new global advertising campaign.

To kick off the event, Yahoo! is hosting events in New York, London, and Mumbai over the next two days. Celebrities will be on hand to coach your inner Yodel.

In New York, Jewel, Lee Ann Rimes, Pete Wentz and Randy Jackson will assist Yodelers with their recordings. Now, I know Jewel can Yodel, but Pete Wentz and Randy Jackson? I'm guessing Yahoo! really is looking for a new, um, interpretation of yodeling.

In London, Pixie Lott and Sinnitta will appear, and in Mumbai, Shankar Mahadevan, VJ Nikhil Chinappa and Shaa'ir + Func will advise yodelers.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 12, 2009

Will Black Friday Become Cyber Friday?

One of the most significant online shopping days of the year is Cyber Monday, which, like Black Friday, follows Thanksgiving and unofficially marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season. But new data that Yahoo! has released suggests that Black Friday is itself increasingly becoming a popular day for online shoppers.

Last year, while overall click-through rates were down for both days, conversions shot up 147% for Black Friday while they "only" increased 73% on Cyber Monday.

Let's face it, search marketers. You gotta play both days.

Anecdotally, I can testify to being online with my computer at midnight on Thanksgiving/Black Friday, soaking up a sweet deal on some scooters for my kids. I did it all from the comfort of my rental condo atop of a peak in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, which I can assure you is far preferable to the (unfortunately lethal) stomping grounds of big box stores across the land.

While the economy has consumers as uncertain as ever, I wouldn't be surprised if last year's Walmart deaths have people bumping those conversion rates even more this year. Make sure you've got great deals and free shipping. You might just save a life.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Yahoo! to Serve Up Sponsored Ads on BOSS

Web developers who use Yahoo!'s BOSS (Build your Own Search Service) have requested the incorporation of Sponsored Ads as a way of generating revenue on their sites. Yahoo! has obliged the requests, but has arranged for a third party to manage everything.

Developers will need to apply through Domain Development Corp (DDC) in order to be selected to have Sponsored Ads on their BOSS search sites. DDC will provide support and payment for the program, not Yahoo!

Yahoo! did take the opportunity of the announcement to reiterate that it still does not know how the impending Microsoft search deal will affect BOSS. In the meantime, it looks like there are revenues to be had for BOSS developers.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 9, 2009

Yahoo! Search Filters Now Shows Sponsored Ads

If you're conducting a search on Yahoo! and use one of the filters on the left hand side to narrow your search, you may now see Sponsored Ads. The ads will appear on filtered results for selected sites who are also Yahoo! advertisers. Here's an example.

Let's say you're searching for "argyle sweater." You filter the results by JC Penney. The ad that JC Penney placed for the larger "argyle sweater" search will also appear in the filtered search that display only pages from the company's website.

This won't change the bidding for placement in the original, broader search. But the competition will be nixed, once the filter is in place.

How do you get your site listed as a filter? Yahoo! isn't revealing the secret sauce, but says it uses many factors including listings' quality, popularity and user response to determine which sites get the filter treatment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No, Yahoo! and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are Not BFFs

This morning, ZDnet ran a surprising post that Yahoo! forked over 200,000 names to the Iranian government following the country's contentious elections this summer. The post seemed based on some very loose information, and I waited for the official rejection from Yahoo!

Said rejection has occurred on the Yodel Anecdotal blog. Blog editor Nicki Dugan emphatically denied the allegations:

The claims are false. Neither Yahoo! nor any Yahoo! representative has met with or communicated with Iranian officials regarding the matters referenced in the article, and Yahoo! has not disclosed user data to the Iranian government.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

October 7, 2009

This Breaking News Just In - The Meta Keywords Tag is Still Dead!

At SMX East this week, Cris Pierry, the Senior Director of Yahoo! Search, surprised everyone by saying that Yahoo! had stopped supporting the Meta Keywords Tag several months ago.

Google has never supported the Meta Keywords Tag and Bing doesn't support it, either.

So, I think I can safely say, "The Meta Keywords Tag is still dead."

Actually, the first to notice that it had died was Andrew Goodman of Traffick, who declared way back on my September 2, 2002, "An End to Metatags (Enough Already, Part 1)". He observed, "If somebody would just declare the end of the metatag era, full stop, it would make it easier on everyone."

On October 1, 2002, Danny Sullivan, provided a second opinion in Search Engine Watch in "Death of A Meta Tag." He declared, "In my opinion, the meta keywords tag is dead, dead, dead."

Nevertheless, Inktomi and then Yahoo! Search continued to support the meta keywords tag, so some search engine optimizers continued using it, although it didn't have significant impact.

Time passed, Sullivan left Search Engine Watch to start Search Engine Land and Search Marketing Expo, and way too many search engine optimizers continued using the Meta Keywords Tag because there's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.

But, now Pierry has officially notified the next of kin.

So, I think the entire search industry can stop using the Meta Keywords Tag -- just as Chevy Chase has stopped saying, "This breaking news just in - Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!"

I can't wait to tell the public relations agencies and PR departments that don't want to include keywords in their headline or lead paragraph. They mistakenly think that their newswire can automatically sprinkle Meta Keywords Tags over an unedited press release like pixie dust and magically optimize it for Google News or Yahoo! News.

I've long recommended using top search keywords in headlines and at least the first 100 words of optimized press releases. However, since Yahoo! News paid even minor attention to the Meta Keywords Tag, just as Yahoo! Search did, it was hard to get some to change their behavior.

Even those who realized that top search keywords actually need to appear high up in very visible locations, had trouble dealing with the death of the Meta Keywords Tag. They would go through the five stages of grief described in the book by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, "On Death and Dying." They are: 1. Denial (This isn't happening to me!) 2. Anger (Why is this happening to me?) 3. Bargaining (I promise I'll be a better person if...) 4. Depression (I don't care anymore.) 5. Acceptance (I'm ready for whatever comes.)

But, now I can stay the meta keywords tag is dead, dead, dead.

And now, as a public service to those of our viewers who have difficulty with their hearing, I will repeat the top story of the day, aided by Senior Vice President of content for Search Engine Watch, ClickZ, and Search Engine Strategies, Mike Grehan.

Greg Jarboe: "Our top story tonight.."

Mike Grehan: [ screaming ] "Our top story tonight..!"

Greg Jarboe: "..The Meta Keywords Tag.."

Mike Grehan: [ screaming ] "..The Meta Keywords Tag..!"

Greg Jarboe: "..is still dead."

Mike Grehan: "..is still dead!"

Greg Jarboe: Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.

Mike Grehan: [ screaming ] Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow!

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

September 29, 2009

Yahoo! Launches Ads on Mobile Search for iPhone and Android

With mobile search on the rise, it's no surprise that search engines wish to monetize the traffic. Yahoo! today announced that they're adding search advertising to their mobile search for iPhones, iPod Touches and Android devices.

One ad appears at the top of the search results and two ads appear at the bottom. Take a look:

Noticeably missing from the announcement is the inclusion of Windows Mobile phones, a curious exclusion in the wake of the recently struck Microsoft-Yahoo! search deal.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

September 28, 2009

Yahoo! Unveils First Y!ou Ad

Yahoo! begins its new global advertising campaign today and part of that campaign is a new television ad. Check it out:

The ad will air on all major broadcast channels plus major cable networks such as AMC, ESPN, USA, Comedy Central and Bravo.

Advertising seems to be working for Bing, which has steadily gained market share since launch. It will be interesting to see if Yahoo! gains back some search share, despite their advertising campaign focusing on content.

What do you think of Yahoo!'s new ad? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

September 22, 2009

Yahoo!'s New Ad Campaign: It Really Is All About Y!ou

Today, Yahoo! unveiled their forthcoming branding campaign: Y!ou. Next Monday, the internet company will be building on their strength of having some of the most visited properties on the web.

"Our vision is to be at the center of people's online lives--to be at the place where their world meets the larger world," said Elisa Steele, Yahoo! executive vice president and chief marketing officer, speaking at the IAB MIXX Conference and Expo in New York City. "Our new branding will focus on people--the power and promise of 'you.'"

Yahoo! has spent two months launching initiatives leading up to the new campaign, including:

The homepage now includes access to third-party content such as social media sties.
Yahoo! Search was updated just today.
Video calling was added to Yahoo! Messenger.
New mobile apps were deployed.

"Today the Web and your world are inseparable," said Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz. "Hundreds of millions of people use Yahoo! to get the information they need, connect with friends and family, and be entertained. We are about creating online experiences people find meaningful, relevant, and fun."

The campaign will initially be rolled out in the US and then a global expansion will follow.

Yahoo! may be all about Y!ou, but are you all about Yahoo!'s new campaign? Let us know in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 10, 2009

Court Dismisses Lawsuit By Woman Unhappy with Yahoo! Search Results

This past February, a woman who was none too pleased with the search results for her name sued Yahoo! Beverly Stayart argued that the results were a false endorsement under the Lanham Act.

The court has now dismissed her lawsuit, but since part of the dismissal was on procedural grounds, Stayart will be allowed to refile her suit.

Stayart would have been better off learning a little SEO instead of spending all of this time on a lawsuit. With an unpopular, unfamiliar name, it's not that hard to rank and dominate results for your name.

Her task is now more difficult as a result of the suit. My post covering this story from February now ranks in the top 10, as do other sites covering the news. The good news is that the top 10 search results don't contain those pesky adult and porn sites Stayart was seeing before. That was, after all, Stayart's goal wasn't it? No, probably not. A few sites list Stayart as a legal professional and I'm gonna go out on a limb and say she's after some moolah here.

But a word of advice for Ms. Stayart - start optimizing for Bing now. Because if/when/should the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal go through, you'll be seeing some different results on Yahoo! Consider yourself warned.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 3, 2009

Yahoo! Search Index Update for September 2009 Underway

Over at Yahoo!, they're rolling out a new update to their search index. As usual, not much to report except - go check your rankings. Here's what they had to say over at the Yahoo! Search blog:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 31, 2009

Yahoo! Sets More SearchMonkey Features to Default

Yahoo! is expanding the number of SearchMonkey features set to default-on in their search results. The update is the result of the completion of testing microformat templates.

Now, sites that provide structured data according to Yahoo!'s specified formats will automatically get SearchMonkey default-on status, allowing an enhanced result to be displayed in the SERPs.

Enhancements can include:

Video
Documents
Games
Products
Local Businesses
Event
Discussions
News items

Yahoo! is also turning on SearchMonkey defaults for Entertainment and Social Networking sites. Look for enhanced results from sites such as Netflix, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Friendster and Britannica.

The new defaults join a list of previously set SearchMonkey defaults. Facebook, Wikipedia, Citysearch, Zagat, Yelp and LinkedIn SearchMonkey apps have already been set to default.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Global Search Market Tops Over 100 Billion Searches a Month

comScore has just released a study of the global search market that shows more than 113 billion searches were conducted in July 2009. This represents a 41 percent increase compared to a year ago.

Google attracted significantly more searches than any other search engine with 76.7 billion searches conducted, giving it 67.5 percent market share. Yahoo! ranked second worldwide with 8.9 billion searches (7.8 percent share), followed closely by Chinese search engine Baidu with 8 billion searches (7.0 percent share). Most of the top search properties worldwide experienced significant growth in search query volume versus last year, with Russian search engine Yandex growing at the fastest rate (94 percent) among the top ten.

It is worth noting that Europe accounted for the highest share of searches at 32.1 percent, followed by Asia Pacific (30.8 percent) and North America (22.1 percent). Among the five global regions, Latin America exhibited the heaviest search behavior per person with an average of 13 search usage days in July and 130 searches per searcher. Europe had the second highest overall search volume per person (117 searches per searcher) while North America exhibited the second heaviest frequency (12.5 search usage days per searcher).

This makes it as important to attend SES Berlin November 24-25, 2009, as it does to attend SES Chicago December 7-10, 2009. Why?

As Mike Grehan, the newly-anointed VP and Global Content Director at SES, SEW, and ClickZ, told me earlier this month, search isn't a static topic. The changes in the industry are accelerating. Can anyone afford to be behind the times in this new era?

Mike Grehan, the new VP and Global Content Director, ties social media to search, SES San Jose 2009

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 21, 2009

Blind Search Test: You Might Be Surprised at Which Results You Prefer

Last night, I began playing around on BlindSearch, which returns results from Google, Yahoo! and Bing, but doesn't tell you which one is which. Then, you vote for the results you like the test and it reveals which search engine you chose.

BlindSearch was developed by a Microsoft employee, but not on the company dime or time. (Plus, if it was designed to trick you into liking Bing, it would be entirely too easy to prove that it was tampered with.)

I searched for things I've been searching lately. Waterproof watch, flip flops, Bahamas. (My family is going on a cruise this fall.) I was surprised at how many times Yahoo! results were the ones I liked.

Then I searched topics I'm very familiar with. "Thyroid cancer" (was diagnosed over 6 years ago) and "Synthroid" (which keeps me alive). The best search engine was Bing. This was also the results I felt the strongest about my vote. I know exactly which sites I would want to send people to if they got thyroid cancer and Bing ranked them the best.

It made me think - why am I searching on Google so much when the results I trust the most on topics I'm an expert on - are on Bing?!

On topics where I'm more of a casual observer, though, it was difficult to even choose a clear winner. the results are virtually identical for so many searches. The idea that Google is superior is definitely a myth.

It's clear that we're at a crossroads in search. Too many searches must be refined and the results the Big 3 engines are giving us are pretty much the same. Whoever is able to reduce task time in search will emerge as the next winner.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

August 11, 2009

Hadoop Founder Leaves Yahoo! for Cloudera

Doug Cutting is leaving his job working on Hadoop at Yahoo! to work on Hadoop at Cloudera, a Silicon Valley Startup. Cutting founded Hadoop, an open source framework designed to break up large sets of data in order to make them more easily manipulated. Yahoo! obviously uses Hadoop, but other companies such as Facebook uses it as well.

Many are perceiving the exit as a reaction to the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal, but Cutting told the New York Times that is not so. He said he wants to move from simply tuning Hadoop for Yahoo! to tweaking it for more diverse applications. That certainly sounds plausible, but it won't fully quell the suspicion.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Delicious Founder Regrets Yahoo! Sale, Launches Twitter Tool

Ben Parr over at Mashable dugg up the news (no pun intended) on Delicious founder Joshua Schachter regretting ever selling Delicious to Yahoo! He said:

I wish I had not sold it to them. The cash and freedom do not even come close; I would rather work on a big, popular product.

With all due respect to Schachter, who by the way now works at Google, even if he never sold Delicious to Yahoo!, there's no guarantee the social bookmarking site would have grown to be anything more than it has become.

Let's face it. No social bookmarking site has really be able to truly take on Digg in a significant way. The sale of Delicious to Yahoo! was fairly appropriate because Delicious is to Digg like Yahoo! is was to Google.

Plus, saying you'd rather work on a big, popular product sounds like the thousands who move to Hollywood to work in show business. Many of them do not care about the craft of acting or music, they just want to be famous. The tabloids are full of evidence that it's a hollow way to live. But, I'll give Schachter props for at least admitting that it's not all about the cash and "freedom."

Despite working at Google, I guess the "big, popular tool" Schachter really wants to work on is Twitter, yes, something someone else created. TechCrunch reports that Schachter has released a Twitter conversation thread tool.

It's only slightly ironic since Schachter tweeted that he hates Delicious's new Twitter integration.

Some people are just hard to please.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 6, 2009

Yahoo! SEC Filing Reveals Details on Search Deal with Microsoft

This week, Yahoo! submitted an 8-k filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pertaining to the new search deal they've struck with Microsoft. In it are more details on how the plan would unfold.

For the first 3 years of the plan, Microsoft will pay Yahoo! $50 million annually. This is in addition to the 88% revenue share from search advertising on Yahoo! and partner sites. This type of revenue is something investors wanted. When the announcement of the deal first came out, only the revenue sharing was said to be part of the deal. This $50 million per year for 3 years makes Wall Street happier, but it's still bewildering why this wasn't mentioned last week (a possible last minute addition?).

After the first 5 years, Microsoft is permitted to cancel the Yahoo!'s exclusive control of search ads. If that were to happen, Yahoo! would receive 93% revenue share on ads on its sites. Or Yahoo! could veto Microsoft's termination, but that would mean the revenue share would be reduced to 83%.

As a result of Microsoft taking over search, they will be required to hire 400 Yahoo! employees, plus 150 more to help with transition purposes.

Yahoo! also has the option of bailing on the deal if the revenue-per-search query (RPS) is less than a certain percentage of Google's estimated RPS on a 12-month average.

They couldn't then go to Google. Last year, Yahoo! and Google were working on a search deal when Google bailed under DOJ antitrust lawsuit threats. AOL uses Google search and Ask.com has a paid search deal with Google, as well.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

August 5, 2009

Flickr Updates Design of Search Results

Yahoo! owned Flickr has given a makeover to its search results page. Now, instead of scrolling through a single stream of images, you see a grid.

You can filter by size by checking your selection at the top right of the results. Also, mouseover a single result and look for an "i" in the lower right corner. Click on it for more information about the image.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 4, 2009

SES San Jose 2009 to Feature Search Engine Foosball Smackdown Rematch

If you attended SES San Jose last year, you may have seen the Search Engine Foosball Smackdown. It was a heated event between Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! Each search engine sent some of its best foosers to see who would dominate (well, at least who would dominate the foosball table).

Microsoft was knocked out in the elimination round, although that was before Bing. This left Google and Yahoo! to battle it out in the finals.

The Yahoo! team of Daniel Wong and Jake Rosenberg took home the coveted Stonetemple Cup after a tough finals match. Check out the photo by Kelsey Jarboe to see just how seriously everyone took this event.

But, that was then, and this is now.

Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft will be meeting for a rematch at SES San Jose 2009. According to Eric Enge, the president of Stone Temple Consulting, the teams have been changed as each search engine has brought in their best and brightest foosers -- and there's no telling if some of them are ringers.

Who will take home the the coveted Stonetemple Cup this year?

Will this match tell us what will be the dominant search engine of the future?

Will the matches tell us anything about the working relationship of the new tag-team wrestling team created by the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal?

Will Adam Lasnik or Maile Ohye of Google show up in cheerleading costumes?

You need to be there to know the results before everyone else has tweeted about them in the Twittersphere, posted the news for the blogosphere to comment on or Digg, or uploaded a video for the YouTube community to discover, watch and share.

In other words, don't wait to see the story on ESPN 8, "The Ocho" along with everyone else. Be in the front row to document the outcome yourself. The Tweeter, blogger, or YouTuber who posts the story first has the greatest chance of getting the most links.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 6:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

July 30, 2009

Yahoo! Doesn't Know What Will Happen with BOSS; YUI, YQL and Pipes Unaffected by Deal

One of the biggest questions regarding the new Microsoft-Yahoo! deal is what will happen to Yahoo!'s search offerings in its Developer Network. Yahoo! is known for being pretty open, which was a major reasons that many thought last year's Microsoft acquisition offer was a bad idea. The cultures just didn't seem to mesh.

Fast forward to yesterday and the deal was severely watered down from 2008 proposals. Yahoo! will maintain the UI in its search pages and the two companies will essentially engaging in a revenue-sharing agreement, powered by Bing.

But what will happen to Yahoo! offerings like BOSS, which allow developers to harness Yahoo! search technology for their sites and applications. The answer: even the BOSS team doesn't know. Not yet.

Chris Yeh, head of the Yahoo! Developer Network (YDN), did take to the YDN blog to ensure that YUI, YQL, and Pipes will remain unaffected by the deal. But the deal is just too new to know how it will affect YDN's search offerings.

Hopefully, Microsoft will adopt BOSS and SearchMonkey into Bing.

Around the beginning of the year, Microsoft snagged a bunch of former Yahoo! execs with experience in search. It won't be surprising if their influence encourages Microsoft to incorporate more openness into search there.

Actually, Microsoft is much more of an open company than people think. For example, the Windows Mobile operating system was been open to developers for years before the iPhone came on the scene. They don't approve or reject apps (like Apple does), and there are many sites on the web where you can get the apps. When you think about it, it's a big strange that Live Search was so closed.

What do you think should happen to BOSS and SearchMonkey? Leave a comment and give your opinion.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 6:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 29, 2009

Search Industry Reacts to Yahoo!-Microsoft Deal, and They're Not Holding Back

Here at Search Engine Watch, we wanted to reach out to the search community to get their reaction to the long-awaited search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo! Not surprisingly, marketers, search engine representives, and agencies had a lot to say on the matter. Below you'll find their initial reactions to this morning's announcement.

The deal is good for marketers and advertisers

Most agree with Search Engine Watch editor Kevin Newcomb, who earlier wrote today that the MSFT-YHOO deal is good for advertisers.

Ted Shergalis, co-founder and chief strategy officer of [x+1] thinks the deal raises the profile of search marketers, who, on the flip side, must be diligent in learning the terms of the deal as they unfold.

Ultimately i think it makes SEMs more relevant. Now, instead of doing the bulk of the work on each search engine, search marketers will now need to dedicate a bulk of time understanding new Bing/Yahoo! environment. At [x+1], we specialize in display, landing pages, and website personalization, so it will be interesitng to see if different type of user is coming through using the new Bing/Yahoo!

Brian Lewis, vice president at Engine Ready, emphasized the need for this type of improvement for search marketers, while recognizing the difficulty of capturing additional market share, which requires habitual change.

Although many specifics remain to be disclosed, my initial thoughts are that this alliance is just what the search industry needed to continue to provide improvements in the search experience for users as well as an advertising medium that offers profitable returns for savvy marketers. I think one of the biggest challenges for Yahoo/Microsoft will be changing user habits of automatically jumping to Google for search, and slowing the perception that Google and search have become synonymous.

Not an alternative to Google

Combining the number 2 and number 3 search engines may help advertisers in terms of traffic, but will the search landscape truly change? Other search engines know that to truly make waves in search, you need to provide value to searchers, which is not a guarantee in this deal.

Dr. Tomasz Imielinski, executive vice president of technology at Ask.com hints that their could be room for other players to move ahead while Microsoft and Yahoo! spend time implementing the terms of their deal.

This news is a solid indication that the search market is healthy and growing across the board, and a core foundation of the online medium. But as far as Microsoft and Yahoo are concerned, the primary focus for both for 2009 and into 2010 will need to be on search integration - and not on search innovation. At Ask, our core focus will continue to be innovating for success by putting consumers - and search products - first.

Ryan Hardy and Dan Giulvezan , Co-founders of Unurthme, echo that sentiment.

Everyone in the search industry has the same thing on their to-do list: beat Google. At Unurthme, we believe the more significant opportunity is to add value and innovation to search, thereby delivering users a superior search experience.

SEW Expert and WebCertain CEO Andy Atkins-Krüger thinks its a good time for smaller search engines to partner up with Google or Microsoft.

This deal is the best of both worlds. It creates a stronger competitor for Google, and an opportunity for regional search engines - such as Baidu, Yandex and Seznam - also to enter the fray thanks to the distraction this will create for Google and the negotiating position it opens up with them to partner with Microsoft or Google.

hakia CEO Dr. Riza Berkan thinks that Google has nothing to worry about, at least from this deal.

Our perspective is this deal does not really change anything from the search precision point of view. We think that Yahoo! is actually more precise. From the business point of view, it will create more advertising opportunities, since the share will be at 30%. The advertisers will feel better because the exposure is wider. But as for business as usual, I don't think there's a significant change. The search problem is still there and google is still dominating. this won't make a big diffference.

hakia, of course, employs Yahoo! search technology. Will this deal harm the semantic search engine? Berkan says no.

We don't rely on it. It helps us, but from what i have read so far, those services will be intact. But even if it wasn't, it really won't affect us at all.

It's natural for competitors to challenge the idea that the deal will work, but they're not alone. Vern Rowe, client strategy manager at OneUpWeb wonders if innovating existing search is even the answer. Perhaps the efforts seen lately in social media are the true future of search?

The Microsoft/Yahoo! deal is interesting from many aspects. Is it really about partnering to battle an adversary, or are we perhaps seeing a glimpse into a struggling profit center at Microsoft and a new Yahoo perspective that search is a dying technology (time to move on to the next thing-maybe social)? Whatever cord finally struck to get these two together, it might be a long road ahead of them with the Department of Justice before the deal is done. Then, if and when it gets cleared, there will most likely be another several months before there is a significant change from an advertiser's perspective.

So, you're telling me there's a chance?

Still, there are a few optimists out there who know what Microsoft and the technology community are capable of. Underdogs have been known to upset giants before.

Ben Saren, Co-Founder and CEO of CitySquares thinks perserverance is the answer.

Microsoft is taking some hard swings at Google and its just a matter of time until they make contact. Their most dominant days may not be in their past, rather coming very shortly. This kind of competition is entirely necessary and is ultimately going to be a very good thing for search and its cottage industries. Seems to me that the battle drums in the search wars are growing louder and more intense.

Joshua Palau, vice president of the search engine marketing office at Razorfish (an interactive ad agency acquired by Microsoft in 2007) sees an opportunity ripe with potential for Microsoft now.

I think it now sets up MSFT to do what Yahoo failed at - combine search and display in an advertiser friendly way. With 30% search share and a boatload of impressions that can leverage BT, MSFT now becomes a more compelling option.

A wide sentiment is that Yahoo! has given up on search. According to Mark Kelly at Chair 10 Marketing, Yahoo! may have given up a long time ago, and getting rid of the dead weight might just be the ticket for Microsoft.

Yahoo stopped improving its pay-per-click platform, while Microsoft and Google have continued to improve. Advertisers need a stronger competitor to counter-balance Google's power, and Yahoo and Microsoft on their own weren't providing that. With this increased search traffic, Microsoft has a much better shot at competing effectively.

Rick Kahn, CEO of eZanga, thinks combining the technologies will inject fresh ideas into the search industry.

Well it's about time. By pairing up and using each other's technology, I believe Microsoft and Yahoo are going to have what it takes to slowly close the gap between their companies and Google. The old saying of 'Two heads are better than one' will be hard at work, as both Yahoo and Microsoft have some interesting technologies. I think by using Yahoo's system, but adding the new traffic available at Bing, it's going to be a winning combination for both companies. By putting them together there can be some interesting synergies created and new functionality that can benefit people searching as well as advertisers. I look forward to tracking the results of this deal over the upcoming months and years.

What is YOUR reaction to the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal? Continue the conversation by leaving a comment below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

It's Official: Microsoft and Yahoo! Finally Strike Search Deal

Don't adjust your screen folks, it's finally official. Microsoft and Yahoo! have finally struck a search deal. No, Microsoft will not be acquiring all of Yahoo! No, Yahoo! will not be slicing off search and selling it off to Microsoft.

Under the 10 year agreement, Bing will power Yahoo! search, creating a Google competitor that last month reached a combined 28.4% of the search market share, according to comScore. Microsoft will also be able to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its web search platform.

Meanwhile, Yahoo! will sell the search advertising for the newly combined entities. AdCenter will be the self-service search ad platform. This will take a long time to implement as they adjust relationships with thousands of advertisers.

Display advertising will not be affected by the deal. Both companies will maintain their programs separately.

Microsoft will pay Yahoo! 88% of search ad revenues generated by Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! expects to see $275 million operating cash flow as a result of the deal.

"This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry, and I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development," said Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz.

Yahoo! will now focus primarily on their media sites, many of which are #1 in their categories. Sites like Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Sports are very popular and bring in millions of unique visitors per month.

"Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides," continued Bartz. "Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities and mobile experiences."

For its part, Microsoft is finally getting what it wants: an increased search market share to take on rival Google. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hopes that combining the resources of the #2 and #3 search engines will help innovation, which he says is needed to steal share from Google.

"With our new Bing search platform, we've created breakthrough innovation and features," said Ballmer. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there's so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search."

Antitrust issues will likely rear their ugly head, with Microsoft poised to seek the blessing of the DOJ. Expect Google to lobby against the deal, but keep in mind that Christine Varney, Assistant AG at DOJ Antitrust is on record saying she wants to go after Google for antitrust issues. She has also said that Microsoft antitrust issues are, like, so 1990s.

Alright, SEW readers, time to unleash your initial reaction to this deal. That's what the comments section below is for. What do you think of this deal? Will they be able to take on Google? Do you want to use AdCenter to for search ads on Yahoo!? Let us know!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)

July 23, 2009

AT&T Interactive to Sell Yahoo! Display Ad Inventory

Yahoo! and AT&T Interactive have announced a new partnership in which the telecom will sell the search engine/media portal/email giant's display advertising. AT&T's 5,000 sales people will sell the inventory to local businesses.

Here's the official corporate-speak from Yahoo!

"Local businesses are looking to drive in-store traffic, and our alliance with AT&T Interactive will help them reach a local audience of highly-engaged potential customers on Yahoo!," said Jim Schinella, Senior Vice President, North America Region, Yahoo!. "As local businesses shift their advertising spend to reach the growing number of Internet consumers, AT&T Interactive and Yahoo! can equip them with the tools and expertise they need to be successful online."

And here it is from AT&T:

"Our local advertisers are focused on growing their business so they look to us to help find the most comprehensive and effective ways to reach consumers," said Matt Crowley, Chief Marketing Officer, AT&T Interactive. "Adding Yahoo!'s reach through highly targeted display advertising enhances our existing portfolio of local advertising products, allows our advertisers another way to raise their visibility and reach more online consumers. This joint effort is a natural extension of our existing relationship with Yahoo! and takes advantage of each company's assets in the local market."

It's not the first teaming up by the two companies. For example, Yahoo! Local is powered by content from YellowPages.com.

What do you think of the latest partnership between AT&T and Yahoo!? Sell us on your opinion below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

July 21, 2009

Yahoo! Rolls Out New Homepage, Releases Second Quarter Earnings

Yahoo! is doing a couple of rather newsworthy things this week and you have to wonder if they were attempting to cancel each other out.

Yahoo! released quarterly earnings yesterday. Net income rose 8% over the second quarter of 2008, even though revenue fell by 13%. That's likely due to periodic layoffs conducted to nix the bloated workforce.

"I'm pleased with our results this past quarter. We established a clear, simple vision to be the center of people's lives online, and we're backing that vision with important initiatives to create 'wow' experiences for our users," said Yahoo! chief executive officer Carol Bartz.

The new homepage released this week (which is still technically in beta and you have to opt in by going to here) is supposed to be part of that "wow." It's been in the works for nearly a year and slowly has been unveiled to users since the announcement last September.

"We're confident that this vision will put us on the right path to growth and profitability long term. Our new homepage is a perfect example of our efforts to create innovative products aimed at increasing user engagement while offering the most compelling advertising proposition in the industry."

However, I'm not personally feeling the wow factor. I do use Yahoo! sites quite frequently and I won't deny their strength. But there's nothing wrong with being strong on stability instead of trying to impress the cool kids. (Geek is the new cool and Silicon Valley is Geekdom.)

All in all, I think Yahoo! is doing pretty darn good. They're certainly not steps from the grave like some in the media and on Wall Street (those who are left) would like you to think.

What about you? How do you feel about the new Yahoo! homepage? What about Yahoo!'s earnings? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 7:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 13, 2009

Adgooroo Q2 2009 Search Ad Report Shows Market Stability, Despite Bing

Adgooroo has released their quarterly search engine advertising report, and despite the launch of Bing in June, things have remained pretty much the same.

Keep in mind that quarter two includes April and May, during which Microsoft's search was still Live Search. However, the report lobs them all under the title of Bing, and is comparing past data to Live Search. Let's dive in.

For the year ending June 2009, Microsoft grew advertiser base by 35%, but Google still outpaced them by growing theirs by 52%. Yahoo! fared worse than both by only growing their base by 14%.

The share of advertisers among Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft has remained largely unchanged.

The number of first page ads on Microsoft search products dropped by 24%. Meanwhile, the number of ads per keyword are still on the rise for Google and Yahoo! internationally. In the U.S., Microsoft and Yahoo! are seeing declines in the average number of ads per keyword while Google remains on the rise.

Keep in mind that a reduction in ads per keyword could indicate better ad quality.

Below is a list of the top 25 advertisers per search engine for June 2009, according to Adgooroo. The list is in alphabetical order and is calculated on impressions and not ad spend.

What do you think of the Adgooroo Q2 2009 report? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

July 7, 2009

Yahoo! Launches Search Pad, a Personal Research Tool

Yahoo! has launched a new note-taking research tool called Search Pad. The tool is designed to automatically detect research intent among people using Yahoo! search.

Once the intent is detected, searchers are prompted with an invitation to use Search Pad. The tool uses drag and drop but includes the ability to write free form notes as well.

This is a great concept because alternatives require opening separate documents and applications or taking handwritten notes.

The tool is rolling out today to several countries. I personally couldn't get a Search Pad prompt yet today. Could you? Let us know by leaving a comment. Here are the countries Search Pad is rolling out to:

United States
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
Singapore
Malaysia
Philippines
United Kingdom
France
Spain
Italy
Germany
Brazil
Mexico
Argentina

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 1, 2009

Bing Continues Microsoft Search Share Growth in June 2009, According to StatCounter

StatCounter made news fast and furious in Bing's first week when they offered up data showing Bing had surpassed Yahoo! in search. And now they're making a splash again by quickly releasing data for the whole month of June.

Overall, things are relatively steady, but there's an ever-so-slight increase in Microsoft search share.

The data shows Bing gaining .5% search share in June compared to May. But Live Search had gained about .5% in May over April.

One percent growth over the last two months may not seem significant, but it could be the beginning of momentum.

"At first sight, a 1% increase in market share does not appear to be a huge return on the investment Microsoft has made in Bing but the underlying trend appears positive," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. "Steady if not spectacular might be the best way to describe performance to date."

Plus, the 1% growth has come at the expense of Google. The search mammoth saw its search engine share according to StatCounter decline by 79.07% in April to 78.48% in June.

By the way, despite that first week of traffic for Bing, Yahoo! still retained its second place status for the entire month of June. Yahoo!'s traffic has remained fairly steady over the past three months in StatCounter data.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

June 23, 2009

Yahoo! Search Updates: SearchMonkey Enables More Enhanced Results, Google Base Accepted

Yahoo! has released a couple of updates to extend enhanced search results. A new SearchMonkey update that enables even more enhanced results. You may remember back in March that a similar update enabled embedded rich media and documents in Yahoo! search results. Not every search would show them, but for web developers, adding a code snippet could be worth the added attraction in results.

Now, the enhancement is being expanded. Product pages, local information, events, news, and discussions can potentially be seen in the results per SearchMonkey code.

The Yahoo! Search blog gave an example of a Systore.com result for a video game:

Additionally, Yahoo! search will now accept Google Base, a product publishing tool. Five Google Base items will now be supported: Event, Product, Review, Job, and Personals. Those who have Event and Product information can submit their feeds to Yahoo! Site explorer to get their enhanced results automatically displayed.

What do you think of these updates? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 12, 2009

Yahoo! Contributes to Development of Semantic Tagging Format

If you've ever used tagging to bookmark or organize content, you know that there can be many different tags associated with a variety of terms and topics. Mustang could be a tag for a car or a horse. Columbus is a city but also a historical figure. Los Angeles could be tagged as la or los_angeles.

Now, Yahoo!, Zemanta, AdaptiveBlue, DERI (NUI Galway), Faviki, Freebase and Zigtag have collaborated to develop a semantic tagging format in the hopes of unifying the tagging process. Dubbed Common Tag, the format is an open tag with metadata and unique URLs.

"Semantic tagging is an important next step in the evolution of the Web. When we add semantic meaning to tags, the content that is tagged becomes significantly easier for machines to understand," said Peter Mika from Yahoo! Research. "That in turn allows for the development of more intelligent applications for aggregating, searching, and browsing the Web."

The idea is that over time, more and more websites and internet companies embrace Common Tag. Ultimately, content discovered through Common Tags could be used in application development, furthering and streamlining the distribution of published content on the web.

What do you think of Common Tag? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 11, 2009

Will New CFO Morse Answer Yahoo's SOS

Yahoo announced the appointment of a new CFO today - Tim Morse "will be responsible for the company's finance, investor relations, and mergers and acquisitions groups. He will commence employment on June 17, 2009 and will assume the responsibilities of CFO on July 1, 2009," the company stated.

The new SOS - is "Save Our Stock" and I am sure there are a lot of people hoping Morse is related to the inventor of Morse code and gets the message.

"Tim has a proven ability to translate strategy into structure, process, and execution, and I am delighted that he will be joining my leadership team to help drive Yahoo!'s growth," said Carol Bartz, Yahoo CEO. "With his passion for operational finance, global experience, and expertise simplifying complex organizations and managing growth, Tim is a natural fit for Yahoo!."

Morse comes from Altera Corporation, a semiconductor company and before that GE where he worked for over 15 years.

Many stockholders will be following his performance.

Posted by Frank Watson at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 3, 2009

Yahoo! Search Update for June 2009 Underway

If you're noticing some change in your Yahoo! rankings, you're not alone. Yahoo! announced that they're rolling out an index update. If you've noticed any changes, do share in the comments.

These announcements are always vague and short, so I've called upon Keyboard Cat to play this post off....

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 28, 2009

Carol Bartz Paints Yahoo! in a Different Light

"It's simple." That's the mantra new Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz kept repeating at her D7 appearance this week. It's a message Bartz wants to get across to both her staff at Yahoo! and the media.

Bartz took to the stage at the annual All Things D conference to be interviewed by Kara Swisher. I found this to be an unusual pairing, as Swisher is constantly publishing rumors leaked by Purple People and Bartz wants to crack down on the moles leaking the info.

Swisher's column at All Things D is a popular one, though and their opposite personalities provided for one heck of an entertaining session.

If you read news articles and blog posts about Yahoo!, you'd be tempted to think that the company is a search engine that just happens to have a few popular websites. But new CEO Carol Bartz wants you to think of Yahoo! as a whole, not just as one of its parts. And while that may seem the opposite of simplification - it isn't.

When Bartz was asked if Yahoo! was a media or a tech company, she essentially responded with asking why there has to be a separation. She's right. It's as if Yahoo! was a human and everyone wants to concentrate on its foot, when it, indeed, has arms, legs, organs, a brain, etc.

This is a fact sometimes lost on Yahoo! itself. Bartz spoke about the silos Yahoo! has constructed, where the homepage division doesn't want to send traffic to the Finance site. They want to keep the traffic for themselves. And if a company has the wrong goals for its divisions, something that creates competition instead of integration, it's easy to see how this would happen.

Thankfully for Yahoo!, Bartz sees the whole picture. While achieving her holistic vision for Yahoo! is painful at times (i.e. recent layoffs and restructuring), Bartz seems poised to build on Yahoo!'s strengths.

Bartz reminded the audience that Yahoo! is one of the most visited sites in the world, and when people arrive, they spend a lot of time hanging out. She seeks to enhance and personalize that experience so that Yahoo! meets a variety of needs for their large, diverse audience.

Of course, one of the most-anticipated moments was Bartz was asked about the possibility of still striking a search deal with Microsoft. Bartz said the possibility was still there but that it required the right alignment of tech, goals and money. Her take was consistent with her goals for integration and streamlining Yahoo!: "It's simple."

Watch highlights from Kara Swisher's interview with Carol Bartz here. Read a summary of the interview here. Read a Q&A with Carol Bartz on the Yahoo! blog Yodel Anecdotal here.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 22, 2009

Yahoo! Expands Smart Ads Program with Tech Partnerships

Despite data that shows how search and display provide a higher ROI than either method alone, online marketers still sometimes have a hard time bringing themselves to purchase display ads. That's because display ads, on their own, perform poorly when compared to search, which typically has a strong ROI.

Yahoo! is attempting to kill that myth with the expansion of their Smart Ads program. Currently, the Smart Ads is an open platform, but Yahoo! has struck partnerships with Teracent and Tumri to make the program available to PC and mobile advertisers.

Through Smart Ads, advertisers are able to create different ads for the same campaign, but target them to different demographics. If you're advertising a product that reaches a wide audience, Smart Ads will be highly useful. The same messaging probably will not reach both a 22 year old recent college grad and a 50 year old who has watched his retirement fund go down in the recent recession.

As a result, it should come as no surprise to know that tests of the Smart Ad program are working. HP has already tested the program and saw results that were 20 times higher their normal display ad results.

With new technology partners providing the ability to a greater advertiser base, Smart Ads could become a very attractive option for those seeking to complement their search campaigns with a solid display advertising option.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 12, 2009

Yahoo! Sites Rank as Top Display Ad Publisher for March 2009

comScore has released the display ad rankings for March 2009 and Yahoo! takes the cake as the number one publisher. Yahoo! sites served up 42.8 billion ad views, which translates to 13.2% of the market share. Here are the top 10:

Telecommunications companies top the list of advertisers:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 13, 2009

Yahoo! First Page Advertisers Increase by 10% in Q1 2009

When Yahoo! announced that its quarterly earnings will be released Tuesday, April 21, I mentioned that it could be too soon to see any changes due to the installation of a new CEO in Carol Bartz. But, hopefully, I might be wrong.

AdGooroo has released its first quarter search engine data and they're showing Yahoo! as seeing an almost 10% increase in first page advertisers. Check out the chart below. Google and Microsoft both saw some decreases in at least one of the first three months of 2009. Yahoo! saw only gains.

"Unlike findings from previous reports, Google's Ad Coverage diverged significantly from its estimated growth in active advertisers in Q109. We haven't seen this in our analysis until now," said AdGooroo Founder and Chief Gooroo Rich Stokes.

Still, Google maintains a stronghold on the search advertising share:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 10, 2009

Yahoo! to Announce Q1 Earnings Call Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Yahoo! will hold their first quarter earnings call on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 2pm Pacific /5pm Eastern. There will be a live webcast of the call, which can be accessed at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/results.cfm.

The first quarter of 2009 was also the first quarter with new CEO Carol Bartz at the helm for Yahoo! While she's been busy reorganizing, this quarter will likely be too early to see any reflection of her influence.

Then there's that pesky thing called an economy, which throws uncertainty into the mix for all earnings calls right now. There have been some pleasant surprises as of late (Wells Fargo), so we can only hope that Yahoo! has some good news in store as well.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 9, 2009

Yahoo! Updates BOSS with Three New Capabilities

In July of last year, Yahoo! launched BOSS which stands for Build your Own Search Service. The concept behind the service is to enable web developers to create search options for various websites and applications based on Yahoo! search technology.

Last November, Yahoo! enabled Key Terms for BOSS. Then in January came the announcement that Yahoo! would be charging for BOSS usage (which will begin at some point in the second quarter of this year).

Now another announcement comes in the form of added capabilities. They are:

Delicious content (including Delicious saves, top tags, and count information)
Advanced language capabilities
News sorting functionality

What do you think of this update? Have you used BOSS? Share your experience in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 7, 2009

Yahoo! Music's Re-Launched Artist PagesCompete with MySpace, iLike

Yahoo! Music has re-launched their Artist Pages with a focus on customization. The result is what appears to be an attempt to compete with MySpace and iLike.

While MySpace may be losing traction as a general social network to Facebook, it still retains its roots as a great marketing resource for recording artists, both signed and independent.

Unlike MySpace and Yahoo, iLike's focus is purely about music. However, their reach is thus far nowhere near that of MySpace or Yahoo!

Unfortunately, Yahoo! is off to a cluttered start. Their page is not user-friendly with ads and boxes running together. To be fair, most of the pages haven't been customized yet. But I would expect the basis from which to start to be a little cleaner. I understand the need to monetize these pages with ads, but if they're too frustrating to look at, profits won't come.

Here are screenshots comparing the pages of Yahoo! Music, iLike and MySpace for the band Addison Road:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 19, 2009

In Search Race, Ballmer Seeks More Eyeballs

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer just can't get away from questions about going after Yahoo - again. Just over a year after the software giant made a public - and unsolicited - bid for the Sunnyvale search engine, the playing field has changed. The economy went to the pooper and Yahoo!'s stock followed suit. Then there's a brand spankin' new CEO in former Autodesk Chairman Carol Bartz.

Ever since Ballmer declared that Microsoft is moving on last July, he's never wavered from that stance. Instead, he's been scooping up Yahoo! employees and bringing them into his house.

So when Ballmer recently said that any deal with Yahoo! would be a grab for eyeballs, not technology - I tend to believe him. After all, he's got a bunch of Yahoo! talent now. They have the tech know-how. What else would he really need Yahoo! for?

Of course, that won't stop the questions from being asked and the whispers from being uttered. Will Microsoft and Yahoo! strike a deal? Only time will tell, but the nature of a new deal almost certainly has changed.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 13, 2009

SearchMonkey Now Allows Embedded Rich Media in Yahoo! Results

If you want to have a flash video, game or document appear in Yahoo! results, a new SearchMonkey feature will allow you to do that. All you have to do is add a couple lines of code and the next time Yahoo! crawls that page, the embedded rich media will appear in the results.

Here's an example of a Hulu result with an embedded video next to it:

Here's the code - the first two lines are what create the embed in the Yahoo! results:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 12, 2009

Yahoo! Search Soars in Japan

Searches on Yahoo! sites grew 13% year-over-year in January - in Japan. Google sites, including YouTube grew just 5%. There is a caveat. This comScore data doesn't count mobile searches, and mobile is big in Japan.

Yahoo! enjoys 50% of searches in the Japanese search market:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 10, 2009

Yahoo! Lowers Minimum Bid on Some Keywords

Yahoo! has announced that they have lowered the minimum bid on some keywords. They were quite vague about which ones. The reason given for the change was the economy and marketers' needs to maximize their budgets.

Advertisers will want to check in on their Yahoo! campaigns to see if the minimum bid change affects their campaigns. Yahoo! says some campaigns may turn from inactive to active because their bids now meet the minimum.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 9, 2009

Yahoo! Search Marketing Adds Keyword Suggestion Feature to Help Section

Yahoo! Search Marketing has updated their Help Center to provide keyword suggestions.

Industry specific market research is provided for the following niches:

Apparel
Automotive
Education
Financial Services
Healthcare
Home Improvement
Legal Services
Travel
Wireless Services

If you have a different niche, simply use the Add Keywords tool. You can find the tool in your Ad Group details page. Click on "Add Keywords," then select from the following:

Quick Add
Choose from List
Research Keywords

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 6, 2009

Yahoo! Releases Inquisitor for the iPhone

Last year, Yahoo! acquired the assets for search suggestion plugin Inquisitor. At the time, Inquisitor was a plug-in for Apple's Safari web browser. Since the acquisition, Yahoo! has made the plugin available for Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Now, Yahoo! is launching an Inquisitor application for the iPhone. The app is available for free on iTunes' app store. Take a look:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 3, 2009

Flickr Extends Video to All Members; Enables HD and 'Flickr Clock'

Last year, Flickr began allowing its Pro members to upload 90 second videos. Now, Flickr is letting all members upload videos, but there's a caveat. Members using the free version of Flickr are limited to two 90 second videos a month (which is in addition to the 100 mb monthly photo upload allowance).

Additionally, Flickr is now enabling HD video, something YouTube recently has done as well. However, only Pro members can upload HD video.

Flickr has also launched the "Flickr Clock." It's a time line of videos by users about what's going on in their world at any given moment. Here's a screenshot:

If you click on one of the long, vertical strands, it expands to show the video clip:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 1, 2009

Yahoo Announces Changes In Algorithm

Yahoo confirmed Friday that the changes noted by others had been in the works for a few days and would continue for a few more.

"We've rolled out some changes to our index with fresh web data and updates to our crawling, indexing, and ranking algorithms over the last few days. We have had two updates since last November: one in December, 2008, and another in late January this year. We expect the update will be completed very soon. Throughout this process you may see some changes in ranking as well as some shuffling of the pages in the index," Yahoo blogger Sharad Verma announced.

Posted by Frank Watson at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

February 26, 2009

Bartz Blogs: Yahoo! Reorganizes, Customer Advocacy Group Created

It's been rumored for a week, and now is making it official in her first post on Yodel Anecdotal: Yahoo! is reorganizing. Bartz says she wants to make things run smoother and simpler. She says the "notorious silos" are gone.

Bartz also announced the creation of a Customer Advisory group. She says she's frustrated with how many customers call up and are angry. Bartz wants Yahoo! to do a better job of listening to customers.

This is very good to hear. Their primary competitor, Google, has always presented a customer-oriented business model. Yahoo! at times has presented themselves as "Look what we're doing."

I hope these goals that Bartz is pushing for with the reorganization work. It would be great to see Yahoo! emerge as a stronger competitor to Google. Competition is driven through innovation, and the beneficiaries will be the customers.

But reorganization has its not-so-pretty side. Yahoo!'s CFO Blake Jorgensen will be leaving his post once his replacement is found. Expect more exits to follow as the reorganization is implemented.

By the way, Wall Street reacted positively to the news. Yahoo! stocks went up after the announcement.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo! Sets Facebook SearchMonkey App as Default

Yahoo! has set the SearchMonkey application for Facebook as default. This means, when you search for a name and see a Facebook result, the customized result developed by Facebook via SearchMonkey will appear.

Here's an example of the result for Facebook engineer, Alex Moskalyuk:

Facebook joins other SearchMonkey apps already set as default, including Wikipedia, Yelp, LinkedIn, Citysearch and Zagat.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 19, 2009

Yahoo! Tests Rich Media Ads in Paid Search Listings

Yahoo! has been testing rich media ads in their paid search listings. Thus far, the program has been available to a small group of advertisers and seen by a small group of searchers.

The ads can include video, images, or a custom search box.

The results are promising. Advertisers testing the rich media ads saw click-through rates rise as much as 25% in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 18, 2009

Happy Fifth Birthday to Yahoo! Search

Five years ago, Yahoo! stopped using Google-powered results and embarked on their own search product. It's been one heck of a journey.

Yahoo! highlighted the following milestones on their blog:

Opened search infrastructure and index to outside developers with BOSS.
Opened search results page to outside innovation with SearchMonkey.
Launched Search Assist, still the most sophisticated query assistance technology on the Web.
Launched a suite of mobile search products including Yahoo! oneSearch.
Acquired, grew, and improved Delicious, a social bookmarking tool.
Launched Site Explorer to help site owners to manage their presence on Yahoo! Search.
Protected users from potential viruses, spyware, and spam with SearchScan.
Integrated music and video players directly on the search results page.

Many of the above things were rolled out over the past, tumultuous year that began with an unsolicited (and ultimately unsuccessful) acquisition attempt by Microsoft and ended with Jerry Yang stepping down as CEO and Autodesk Chairman Carol Bartz stepping in to lead the purple people.

Will she successfully guide them to achieve the following, future-thinking goals?

Continuing to open search results page and infrastructure to improve search and encourage innovation in the industry.
Focusing on detecting and responding better to query intent.
Breaking the ten-blue-links paradigm by developing a richer, more adaptive search results page.
Making it easier to conduct and share online research with Search Pad.
Delivering a new and better advertising experience that improves relevance for users and ROI for advertisers.

I, for one, would love to see Yahoo! Search rise and take more search market share. I love Autodesk as a company (my husband is an AutoCAD programmer for a commerical kitchen hood company) and if anyone can bring a innovativeboost to Yahoo!, it's Carol Bartz. Innovation, which is about the only way anyone will steal market share from Google, is always great for consumers.

Viva la Yahoo! and may the next 5 years be good to the Sunnyvale search engine.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An Open Letter to the Woman Who Sued Yahoo Over Results for Her Name

Dear Woman,

Like you, I have an unusual name. In fact, I've only been able to find one other person with my name and she works in the public schools in Philadelphia (last time I checked).

I really wish I had a chance to speak with you before you filed suit. It's not Yahoo's fault that your name turned up results for porn and malware. Yahoo only crawl's the sites that are out there, and that would have been easier to change than filling out legal paperwork.

When I got married and acquired the last name Johnson, I decided to have a little fun and get the first page of Google results to rank for me instead of the woman in Philadelphia. It didn't take long. The poor woman is now banished to the last result on page 3 of Yahoo and nowhere on the first 5 pages of Google (I got tired of looking).

"Nathania Johnson" is not exactly a competitive keyword phrase and neither is was your name, "Beverly Stayart." All you had to do was get a bunch of social media accounts and put your full name on it. That's what I did. Blogspot and Flickr are good ones. Heck, having an account on SEOmoz will rank. Commenting on popular blogs helps, too.

Buying the URL with your name in it and publishing some fresh content helps big time.

If you really want to go the extra mile, you could have gotten all your friends to link to those sites with your name being the anchor text. Don't do too many all at once or the search bots will get suspicious. Then again, they also wouldn't have cared so much about such a little searched term as your name.

Now, a search for your name is filled with a bunch of links to sites talking about your legal case. It only took a day for that to happen, but going forward, it will be very difficult to change that. Ask any company with a negative result in the search for their name and they'll tell you how difficult it is to change this. That's why we do posts on reputation management.

I'm sorry that your name returned porn and malware sites. There is a reason Yahoo is number 2 - and I mean a distant number 2 - when it comes to search engine share.

I'm afraid you're likely to use your case. But if your true goal is to have better results for your name, do read the posts you find here at Search Engine Watch on a regular basis.

Sincerely, Nathania Johnson

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:02 AM | Permalink

February 16, 2009

Yahoo! Gives Update on Home Page Testing

Yahoo! says they're at the end of the first stage of testing their home page. As a result, they're making 25 additional apps available for the "My Apps" section. Included are apps for Forbes.com and Wired.com.

In the works are ways to more easily access email and instant messaging. Also, the dark color that was initially used on the left sidebar didn't test well, so now they're testing other colors.

Testing for the new home page began last fall. Apps were actually added to the Yahoo! home page last September. An eBay app was made available last November.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 11, 2009

Yahoo! to Charge Developers for BOSS; Releases Structured Data

Yahoo! has announced that they will begin charging developers for their use of BOSS. It won't take effect until sometime in the second quarter at the earliers. They also won't be charging for the first 10,000 API calls per day (depending on the call).

Yahoo! is also releasing SearchMonkey structured data to BOSS developers. Yahoo! gets this data by crawling microformats and RDF, which include embedded semantic markup. Now, API users can access this data. BOSS was launched last year and it gives web developers the ability to build search engines for websites using Yahoo's search technology.

SearchMonkey was also launched last year to let site owners develop custom listings for search results. So far, several of these listings (aka apps) have been set to default in Yahoo's listings including Yelp, LinkedIn, and Wikipedia.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 10, 2009

Yahoo Runs Heart Border Along Valentine's Day Searches

Yahoo is running a heart border along the left side of search ads in their search results for Valentine's Day. They're hoping that the hearts will bring more attention to the ads and increase clicks and conversions.

So far, I've only been able to get the heart border to show up on a search for the exact term "Valentine's Day." Add flowers or candy and no hearts appear. If the hearts really do increase clicks and conversions, it would seem a good idea to run the hearts along those broader searches as well.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 4, 2009

Yahoo is Testing SearchPad for Online Research Notetaking

Yahoo is testing a new research aid called SearchPad. It allows users to take and save notes on various areas of research, from trips to product research to pretty much anything you want!

SearchPad can detect when your searches on Yahoo look like research. It will prompt users conduct such behavior to see if they want to take notes.

Here's a video demonstrating SearchPad:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 29, 2009

Yahoo's Search Ad Share Drops 40% in UK for Q4 2008

Yahoo's Q4 UK search advertising share dropped from 13.9 percent in 2007 to 8.4 percent in 2008, a 40% decline. Making things worse is that UK search ad spend actually increased by 11% during the fourth quarter.

Advertisers apparently shifted their dollars to Google, who saw an increase from 82.6 in 2007 to 88.2 in 2008. Microsoft held steady, coming in with a 3.4 percent share in 2008.

These numbers were released by Efficient Frontier and include contextual advertising. Yahoo's dismal performance may be one reason they decided to shut down their Content Match program in Europe earlier this month.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 28, 2009

Data Privacy Day Exhibit Differences in Approach from Google and Yahoo

When it comes to privacy - and overall service/product offering - there is a big difference in how Google and Yahoo relate to searchers and customers. Google often strikes me as user-centered while Yahoo should seriously consider checking out Bryan Eisenberg's We-We.

Today is Data Privacy Day and the way Google and Yahoo are commemorating the awareness campaign brings those differences to light even more.

With Yahoo, it seems like they're for the user. They blogged a bunch of tips that users can do to protect their own data. But Google inserts a different tone: What *they* are doing for users.

Sure, Google shares tips for users, too, but they mix it with showing the great lengths they are going to, to ensure privacy on their end.

Yahoo's tone, of course, is symptomatic of a greater problem of not putting the user first. They're lashing out at bloggers for their own rule change in their search marketing service and overestimated themselves in the past year during the Microsoft acquisition attempt.

Of course, there's a new sheriff in town in Carol Bartz, the new CEO. Let's hope for Yahoo's sake that she can create a new tone and remind the purple people that the success of her company depends on putting the user first.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Yahoo's New Era

President Obama received a warm welcome with record-breaking fanfare, but I just didn't see the outpouring of joy for Yahoo's new chief executive. I suppose one could argue the United States is in much worse shape than Yahoo, but the lack of enthusiasm I've seen for Bartz (among the digerati) is disappointing. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Yahoo's New Era," Kevin Ryan notes that new CEO Carol Bartz has exactly what Yahoo needs to turn things around.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 15, 2009

Yahoo Adds Wikipedia SearchMonkey App as Default

Beginning today, searchers on Yahoo! will find Wikipedia results displayed in their new SearchMonkey app form.

If you remember, Yahoo! launched SearchMonkey last year to allow customization of search results. Yahoo! has already set Yelp, LinkedIn, and Yahoo! Local SearchMonkey apps as default, as well as Citysearch and Zagat.

Users can also check out the Yahoo! SearchMonkey Gallery to select other apps they'd like to see in their searches.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 6, 2009

Yahoo Gives Itself Permission to Change Your Search Marketing Campaigns

If you conduct search advertising through Yahoo, you just got a brand spanking new addition to your search marketing team: Yahoo.

Through an update to their terms and conditions, Yahoo gives itself permission to hijack your search marketing campaigns. Check out the new language:

Sponsored Search 3. OPTIMIZATION. In the U.S. only, for those advertisers not bound by an Insertion Order, we may help you optimize your account(s). Accordingly, you expressly agree that we may also: (i) create ads, (ii) add and/or remove keywords, and/or (iii) optimize your account(s). We will notify you via email of such changes made to your account(s), and can also include a spreadsheet of such changes upon your written request. If you would like any of such changes reversed, please reply to such email within 14 days of the change(s), and we will make commercially reasonable efforts to reverse the change(s) you specifically identify. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you remain responsible for all changes made to your account(s), including all click charges incurred prior to any reversions being made. It is your responsibility to monitor your account(s) and to ensure that your account settings are consistent with your business objectives.

Actually, Yahoo began invading its customers' personal space about a month ago. Al Scillitani was alarmed when he got an email from Yahoo saying they had made changes to his account - after the fact.

Now, it's just official.

This is kind of like a fast food restaurant going into your burger after you've take a bite and removing or adding pickles, ketchup and cheese. Or your cable company going into your DVR and choosing which programs to record.

Have you received the new Terms and Conditions? Has Yahoo made changes to your account? Let us know in the comments!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

January 2, 2009

Apple Should Buy Yahoo: Why I'm Now Convinced

I'm not the first to ponder this, but I would never have given it true consideration until today's earlier speculation about Google Android netbooks. Should Google head in that direction, it would make the company not just a search engine but an operating system provider. Simply competing in just the mobile handset market isn't enough, but getting on mini laptops - that's an

They would be the opposite of Microsoft, which was first all about operating systems and later about search.

That would leave Apple and Yahoo, one an operating system provider and computer manufacturer and the other the second place search engine with a wealth of solid web properties (finance, sports, news, etc.)

Apple has built its business on providing the awesome alternative to existing products that are already quite decent. The iPod, iPhone, and all of Apple's laptops weren't the first, but they were an impressive addition to existing markets. In the case of the iPod and now the iPhone, they took the markets they entered into a whole new level.

Search is waiting for the next level. Apple is noted for its great file search on its laptops, though iTunes search sucks so bad, it needs some definite help. Apple has the corporate culture to innovate search. Perhaps what it needs is talent.

Yahoo has that in droves, but management has been holding it back.

Now, I know that the natural response is that Apple has close ties with Google. But I'm not sure how long those will last. Already, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who sits on Apple's board, leaves board meetings when the iPhone comes up due to the conflict of interest with Google Android.

If Android hits the netbook market, how could Schmidt legitimately remain on Apple's board at all?

Another caveat is that if Apple were to acquire Yahoo!, the brand Yahoo! would likely cease to exist. This would become more acceptable if Yahoo!'s stock drops to $2-3 a share, which is the only likely scenario in which Apple would actually pick up Yahoo.

At that point, they would very likely have to fight Microsoft to do it. Microsoft's cash reserves are deeper than Apple's, and Microsoft would want to beat out Apple on both search and operating system fronts.

But almost no one sees Yahoo as thriving under Microsoft. The second and third search engines would be consolidated, but increasing search market share would be a big IF.

Apple right now is the only viable, visible shot search has at innovating - unless there's another genius building the next great thing in a dorm room at Stanford. But they'll have to be very forward thinking and beat Microsoft to the punch at just the right moment. With their increasing share of the pc market as of late, they might just be able to pull it off.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

December 17, 2008

Yahoo! to Anonymize Data After 90 Days

Yahoo! will begin anonymizing the data it collects after just 90 days, according to a statement released by the company. The data includes search logs, page views, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks.

"In our world of customized online services, responsible use of data is critical to establishing and maintaining user trust," said Anne Toth, Yahoo!'s Vice President of Policy and Head of Privacy. "We know that our users expect relevant and compelling content and advertising when they visit Yahoo!, but they also want assurances that we are focused on protecting their privacy."

Personally, I wish the search engines would do a better job of informing the public about how their data collection really isn't the privacy issue that so many make it out to be. I don't think anyone at Yahoo! or Google is sitting around looking at what *I'm* doing on the internet. They have millions of people using their services. They don't have the time to sit around and watch what each individual is doing. Search engines were built on a system of automation, partially for this reason. From their perspective, I'm just a number that contributes (or doesn't) to trends and behavior.

But that's just my opinion. What do YOU think? Leave a comment and let us know.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

December 16, 2008

Yahoo! Unveils Social Inbox and Open Features for Key Products

Following quite closely in the footsteps of AOL's Bebo, Yahoo! has unveiled a new version of their email inbox, which incorporates social media. Starting with a limited beta release, Yahoo is opening Mail up to third-party applications such as Flixter, Wordpress, and Xoopit.

Continuing on the theme of opening up products, Yahoo also announced advancements in the following products:

My Yahoo! - Starting today, My Yahoo! can be enhanced by adding applications created by third-party developers. The aps will range from productivity tools to games, and will infuse My Yahoo! with new social relevance. A new My Yahoo! Theme API lets third-party designers create themes for My Yahoo! pages
Yahoo! Toolbar - Next year's new toolbar will be available for a sneak preview later this week at toolbar.yahoo.com and will provide constant access to online tasks and news. Features include:
- Apps for checking new email from Yahoo! and other popular Web-based email providers, monitoring or searching for items on eBay, and finding local movie showtimes
- Alerts that notify a user about Updates from their personal connections - including their friends' recent activity across the Yahoo! network and eventually, elsewhere on the Web.
- Personal search suggestions that surface the sites a user has visited and provide vertical search results directly from the Toolbar.
Yahoo! Updates - This new feature will allow users to quickly check their updates across the Yahoo! network, such as a recently Buzzed article, a hotel review in Yahoo! Travel, adding a new app to My Yahoo!, or a rating on Yahoo! TV. Earlier this fall, Yahoo! has already begun displaying activity updates in Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Buzz. Activity updates from other social sites across the Web will be included in the coming months. The Yahoo! Updates platform is also available as an open API.

What do you think of the Yahoo! announcements? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 11, 2008

Yahoo Shareholder Wants Search Sold to Microsoft

Ivory Investment Management LP is calling for Yahoo to sell its search to Microsoft. Ivory owns 1.5% of Yahoo shares.

Ivory is smart to call for only selling search to Microsoft, as Steve Ballmer has repeatedly made clear that he's no longer interested in buying the whole enchilada.

However, Microsoft has already snagged two Yahoo acquisitions in the form of executives who know a thing or two about search. Is there any incentive left for Microsoft to return to its scorned lover for another negotiation?

Tell me your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

December 5, 2008

Rich Riley to Head Yahoo! Europe and Canada

Yahoo! is filling the void left by Europe and Canada head, Toby Coppel, by hiring from within. Rich Riley, head of Yahoo!'s Advertiser & Publisher Group in Europe, has been tapped to fill the role. He will be based in Rolle, Switzerland, where Yahoo! Europe's headquarters are located.

Rich Riley has been at Yahoo! for almost ten years, joining the company with the acquisition of his startup, Log-Me-On.com. He rose up through the ranks and at one point led the U.S. Small and Medium Business Division.

Sue Decker, president, Yahoo! Inc., said, "The appointment of Rich Riley represents the next phase in the evolution of our European and Canadian businesses, enabling us to build on the great foundations laid by Toby Coppel. We are committed to continuing our growth as a leader in Europe and Canada."

Commenting on his new role, Rich Riley, said, "Yahoo! is one of the leading global internet companies and a leader in both Europe and Canada. With our focus on creating brilliant starting points for consumers and being a must buy for advertisers, we will continue to grow these key businesses. I look forward to leading these businesses and driving Yahoo! forward in Europe and Canada at this exciting time."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 3, 2008

UPDATE: Jonathan Miller Seeks Funds for His VC Firm, Not Yahoo

It turns out yesterday's news about former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller trying to gather money to buy Yahoo was false. Miller has been raising money, but it's for his own venture capital firm, not for buying Yahoo.

Miller's firm is Velocity Interactive Group and it does invest in digital media.

This is the second false rumor in a week regarding a purchase of Yahoo. Over the weekend, media reported that a new Microsoft-Yahoo deal had been reached.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 2, 2008

Former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller Trying to Raise Funds to Buy All or Part of Yahoo

This is breaking news and it is literally just a headline from the Wall Street Journal at this point. Jonathan Miller, former CEO of AOL, is trying to raise funds to buy all or part of Yahoo.

It was suspected that Miller would have been tapped to run things if Microsoft had indeed acquired Yahoo earlier in the year, but of course they didn't.

Miller may have trouble coming up with the funds with credit markets in their current dried up state.

Just yesterday, we learned that Carl Icahn bought 7 million more shares of Yahoo. Was that move a little too coincidental in light of today's news?

Have your say in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

December 1, 2008

Yahoo and Ask.com Reveal Top Searches for 2008

Top searches lists are beginning to roll out and today, both Yahoo and Ask.com revealed the hottest searches for 2008 on their respective engines.

Over at Yahoo!, entertainment was the name of the game:

Britney Spears
WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment)
Barack Obama
Miley Cyrus
RuneScape
Jessica Alba
Naruto
Lindsay Lohan
Angelina Jolie
American Idol

Ask.com's Top 10 list was a little less shallow

Dictionary
MySpace
Google
YouTube
Facebook
Coupons
Cars
Craigslist
Online degrees
Credit score

To drill down into specific niches such as politics and news, check out the breakdown of top searches for Yahoo here and Ask.com here.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Icahn Buys More Yahoo Stock; European Head Out

Carl Icahn has increased his investment in Yahoo by purchasing nearly 7 million shares. This comes on the heels of the announcement that Jerry Yang will be stepping down as CEO, once a new one has been tapped.

While some may see this as a sign of "Carl in Charge," I wonder if this move is just a bit risky on Icahn's part. If the stock drops lower and Yahoo goes to Microsoft in a fire sale, Icahn will lose even more money than the millions he's already lost this year. Icahn bought a nice chunk of shares earlier this year in order to have a stronger voice as a shareholder. He later became a member on Yahoo's newly expanded board.

Meanwhile, and unrelated, Yahoo's European Head Toby Coppel is leaving his post. Stepping up is SVP of Europe's Advertiser & Publisher Group Rich Riley.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 21, 2008

Yahoo! Introduces Glue Pages to the U.S., With a Slight Twist

Earlier this year, Google began testing Glue Pages in India. Glue Pages simply offered a different look for search results. The normal text results were returned, but they were joined by different modules, including images, videos and other multimedia and social media information.

Now, Yahoo is bringing Glue Pages to the U.S., but the idea is a little different. Only select topics will initially be given Glue Pages, and they will use an algorithm to determine the most relevant information. You cannot drag and drop the modules like the initial test of the Indian Glue Pages.

Here's a screenshot of the Glue Page for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who currently has the third most popular Glue Page.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo! Adds eBay Application to Home Page Test

Yahoo! has been testing a new home page design. Last week, we saw images and learned more about the user interface.

This week, Yahoo! has announced the addition of an eBay application to the home page test. The app is included on the left hand sidebar along with tabs for stocks, movies, local events, etc.

Check it out:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 20, 2008

Ballmer on post-Yang Yahoo! Acquistion: What Part of No Did You Not Understand?

After news came that Jerry Yang would be stepping down as Yahoo!'s CEO, the immediate reaction by analysts, Wall Street, and your neighbor's cat was: MICROSOFT ACQUISITION TIME!

But Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, is saying: Not so fast.

Ballmer has said time and again that Microsoft has moved on from the possibility of returning to the good ol' days of negotiating a Yahoo! acquisition.

And while it's tempting to think that he's just waiting for that stock to drop to around $2-3 a share (hey, only $6-7 more to go!), consider this: Yahoo's VP of Search Technology, Sean Suchter is leaving the Sunnyvale search engine. And I hope he likes rain and coffee, because rumor has it that he's headed to Microsoft.

That rumor was reported by none other than Kara Swisher, who is pretty much never wrong. The only thing I'm wondering is: Where's the noncompete agreement?

Amidst the rumors and denials, one thing is for sure. No matter how much Ballmer would like the speculation to end, it won't.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 19, 2008

Yahoo! Search BOSS Enables Key Terms

Yahoo! Search BOSS is now allowing developers to use a feature called Key Terms. The feature is derived from technology that is used in Search Assist.

Yahoo! says developers can use Key Terms to create refinement terms for their own search applications as well as creating semantic analysis or new relevancy models.

In releasing Key Terms, Yahoo! is introducing a new universal parameter: "view." The Yahoo! Search blog gave the following example for a search for the new President-elect:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 17, 2008

Jerry Yang to Step Down as Yahoo! CEO

Yahoo! has announced that Jerry Yang will step down as CEO once his replacement has been found. Yang will remain on board as Chief Yahoo!

Yang became CEO in June 2007 at the request of the Board of Directors. Board Chairman Roy Bostock will lead the search for a new CEO. Here's his official corporate-speak on the matter:

"Over the past year and a half, despite extraordinary challenges and distractions, Jerry Yang has led the repositioning of Yahoo! on an open platform model as well as the improved alignment of costs and revenues. Jerry and the Board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level. We are deeply grateful to Jerry for his many contributions as CEO over the past 18 months, and we are pleased that he plans to stay actively involved at Yahoo! as a key executive and member of the Board."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 12, 2008

New Yahoo! Home Page Includes Updated User Interface

The new Yahoo! front page went into testing a couple months ago. The redesign effort also coincides with the new user interface, YUI 3.

Here's a peek:

Nicholas Zakas of the Yahoo! User Interface team expanded on the UI efforts by explaining the goals for the framework of YUI 3:

Eliminate global dependencies. We wanted each part of the page to operate separately from all of the others. Each part should have no knowledge of what else is on the page and therefore can't depend on objects to be globally available. The 2.x library is based on the global YAHOO object, which we would have had to abstract away; the 3.x concept of YUI instances that could be individually manipulated worked perfectly to achieve this goal.
Make it small, make it fast. The Front Page can't afford to be slow, so we needed to have as little code as possible to get everything up and running. YUI 3 impressed us with its organization into small, atomic units that allowed us to specifically include parts of the library that we wanted while eliminating parts that were unnecessary. Further, one of the goals of YUI 3 was to optimize for runtime execution and make it faster than the 2.x version. Once again, YUI 3's approach was directly in line with the Front Page's goals.
Create version independence. From the start, we didn't want to have dependencies on specific versions of YUI components as this can lead to maintenance issues. What we really wanted was for each part of the page to be able to use whatever version of the components that they wanted. The sandboxing feature of YUI 3 opened up the possibility of having two (or more) YUI instances each loading different versions of various components while not interfering with each other.
Allow code portability. Having worked at Yahoo! for a combined five years, Steve and I knew that anything we put on a Yahoo! property could be a candidate for porting to someplace else. We knew that this possibility meant the code had to stand on its own and not make assumptions about the environment in which it was placed. We thought about the most difficult environment possible: a locked-down browser environment where the JavaScript code has no direct access to the DOM. Since YUI 3 can abstract away the DOM through its Node interface, we had the entrypoint necessary to make this requirement a reality.
Be forward compatible. The project to create a new Front Page is an incredibly long one and we wanted to be as forward-looking as possible. We knew that if we created the framework on YUI 2.x that we'd be hard pressed to get time to upgrade later on. By building on YUI 3 from the start, we eliminated the need for developing an upgrade path later on.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 6, 2008

Yang Says Microsoft Deal is Best Bet for Yahoo

Jerry Yang told attendees at the Web 2.0 Summit yesterday that a deal with Microsoft is still the best option for Yahoo.

To which I say: Then why didn't you accept the $31 per share acquisition offer made earlier this year?

And then I read this: "People who know me know I don't have an ego about remaining independent versus not remaining independent."

Wow. I have to admit that asking for $35-37 per share earlier this year seemed a bit egotistical on the "Let's stay independent front."

To be fair, with both sides having slung a fair amount of mud, it is difficult to know what really went down. And really, any CEO who isn't at least somewhat egotistical about his own company isn't worth his weight in gold.

Matters of ego aside, it seems that a white flag might be flying over the Sunnyvale campus. Now, we'll wait to see just how low that Yahoo stock goes before the white knight of Microsoft comes by to do the rescuing.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

November 5, 2008

Over Before It Started: Google and Yahoo Search Ad Deal Canceled

Google is ending its search advertising partnership with Yahoo. It was never even implemented. Concerns over antitrust issues rose fast and furious since Google + Yahoo = an enormous chunk of the search ad market.

Groups of advertisers spurred on by Microsoft lobbied the Department of Justice to oppose the deal. But they might have just facilitated the search market going from 5 major engines to 4, providing less competition.

Yahoo is in dire straits and desperately needed this influx of cash. It's looking more and more likely that their stock could drop (fairly or unfairly) to single digits, at which point Microsoft could get a great deal on a company they once offered $31 a share for.

Take that number 4 and reduce it to 3 if a Yahoo-AOL merger occurs before the (inevitable?) acquisition.

Both Google and Yahoo are saying that the cancellation of the deal won't affect their commitment to search innovation.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 4, 2008

Yahoo! Live to Go Dark

Yahoo! Live, a live streaming video product build on Brickhouse, will stop broadcasting December 3, 2008. In a statement on the Yahoo! Live blog, the Keith Thornhill said:

Our mission here on the Brickhouse team is to quickly develop product ideas that can add value to Yahoo! as a whole. To do this effectively we constantly evaluate our early-stage products and sometimes have to make the hard decision to move on, in order to continue exploring new territory and developing new products.

I, for one, will always hold dear a Yahoo! Live memory from this past summer. My family had (finally) just gotten a Nintendo Wii and my daughter and I live broadcasted our earliest Wii Sports matches.

On the other hand, I won't miss the creepy people who had less than the best intentions with live streaming.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google and Yahoo Revise Ad Partnership in Hopes of Winning Over DOJ

Google and Yahoo have revised their search advertising partnership in the hopes of winning over the DOJ. Primarily, the deal has been reduced from 10 to 2 years and a cap has been placed that would restrict Yahoo to only being able to bring into 25% of their search advertising revenue from the deal with Google.

It's unlikely that shortening the deal will qualm the fears of advertisers. Robert Liodice, president of the Association of National Advertisers, which opposes the deal, told the New York Times, “If a deal can't survive long-term scrutiny, what's the benefit of allowing it for the short term?”

Still, keeping Yahoo alive as the second place competitor in the search market is ultimately good for advertisers. As Mike Masnick over at TechDirt wrote, "We're still waiting for a clear explanation of how this deal will actually negatively impact consumers, but some people still insist it will. For those who believe so, let's ask a simple question: how is this any worse than Yahoo disappearing from the marketplace? Because if the company doesn't do something soon that may be what we're looking at."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 31, 2008

SearchMonkey Allows Apps to Go Experimental

SearchMonkey is a developer's platform released by Yahoo earlier this year. But in order for searchers to make use of the apps, they must first be approved by Yahoo.

Now Yahoo is letting developers find an early audience by allowing apps to be classified as experimental before they're approved. Searchers can use the apps like they're a hotel swimming pool - i.e. at their own risk.

Want to test out some experimental apps? Click 'Show Experimental Enhancements' at the bottom of the SearchMonkey Gallery applications directory page.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Election Tools from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL

I'm sure I don't have to remind you that election day is next Tuesday. Whether you're observing or you're breaking out the campaign gear for some hardcore get out the vote effors this weekend, here are some tools to help you keep up with the news and your efforts:

Google Earth

You can download a KML file that lets you search results from past elections, since 1980. The data is broken down and can show you how different regions of the country voted - even by county. I used to work as a political consultant, and let me tell you - this kind of data is heavily relied on. It's a bit of a late release for campaigns, who already have this data. But it's great for political junkies.

Google News

Trying to remember what a candidate said on an issue? Just type their name into Google News. If Google has indexed a quote by that person, it will appear on top of the search results in the one box.

Google Mobile

Want to know your precinct location? The Google Mobile team has created a special tool just for that purpose. Go to m.google.com/elections on your mobile phone, type in your address and you'll be directed to your precinct.

The tool did not point me to early voting locations, which in my state are not the same as Election Day precinct locations.

As cool as that is, always verify with your local elections office. Google even helps you do that. They have a box where you enter your state's abbreviation, and it will pull up relevant links to voting information.

Yahoo Elections Hub and Political Dashboard

Yahoo makes the most of its successful portal platforms with its Elections Hub and Political Dashboard. The dashboard is a super slick map showing the latest poll results. Hopefully they update it with real time results on election night. I can totally see myself keeping the dashboard open while watching results come in on the tv.

Microsoft Live Search xRank

xRank, Live Search's buzz tool, has a politician section. It's no surprise that the Rep and Dem presidential and vice presidential candidates take the top 4 spots today. The rest of the top 20 is filled with senate and gubernatorial races, with Hillary Clinton and George Bush thrown in for good measure.

MSN Election Live Q&A

Q&A is Live Search's answer product, and over at the MSN Election Guide, you can find the Election Live Q&A. It's pretty straightforward. You can ask and answer questions about the election in real time.

AOL Elections Toolbar

AOL has a toolbar for IE and Firefox that can keep you up to date with election news. If you like to surf the net while watching TV - this could be an ideal toolbar for you come Tuesday night.

Well, hopefully that's enough to keep you busy and up to date.

Got any tools to share? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Regulators to Prevent Google from Bailing Out Yahoo?

Washington is on a bailout binge lately, so you would think they'd hop on board when it looks like the private sector could actually manage to work things out on their own.

Like, I don't know, the search advertising deal between Google and Yahoo. Yes, there are concerns from the advertisers. But Yahoo keeps posting dismal profits. So, unless something magical happens to Yahoo (like an acquisition by Microsoft - oh wait), then antitrust issues won't even matter.

But Google has been dropping hints that it might walk away from the deal because of regulations they don't want to comply with, like caps.

It's been projected that the deal with Google could infuse $800 million of cold hard cash into Yahoo in a year's time. That certainly wouldn't hurt. Of course, Yahoo would need to manage that influx well, and therein lies the problem. Perhaps regulators don't think the deal, which could hurt advertisers, would ultimately save Yahoo.

Adding fuel to that fire is that regulators have been lobbied hard by Microsoft, who is probably looking to watch Yahoo's stock fall into the single digits before coming back to pick it up. Microsoft may be struggling to grow its search market share, but as a whole, they have a ton of cash on hand and will weather the economic storm. Acquiring Yahoo (especially if a merger with AOL takes place) could create a stronger second place finisher in the search engine market, which would reduce anti-competitive concerns, indeed.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 30, 2008

New AOL.com Launches; Due Diligence on Yahoo Merger Reported

When I read that AOL.com launched a new homepage, I naturally hopped on over there to see what the new look, um, looked like. It looked the same, except with dark blue trim and web 2.0 stripes in the background for good measure.

Otherwise, it still holds the same basic design as....Yahoo. I then came across a story by Reuters which says Yahoo and AOL are conducting "due diligence" on a possible (probable?) merger by the two web companies. I was not at all surprised.

Something else to know about the new AOL is that it incorporates a new social element. What the new feature allows you to do is sign into social networks like Facebook and Bebo directly from the homepage.This is a smart move and will blend nicely with Yahoo's push toward open source should the merger occur.

“As the Web becomes more fragmented, consumers want choice and relevance in their Web experiences. AOL.com is the first traditional big portal to offer access to popular social networking sites all in one place,” said Bill Wilson, Executive Vice President, AOL Programming. “Now consumers can connect with their numerous networks and information sources all from AOL.com. We have already seen success by opening up AOL.com to other e-mail providers. We will continue to enhance the appeal of our portal with the changes we are making today by adding more relevant programming, customization opportunities, greater integration of third party content, improved design and access to social networks directly from AOL.com."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 29, 2008

Rep. Barton Suspicious of Google/Yahoo Deal

It turns out that the concern over the Google/Yahoo search advertising partnership is bipartisan. Earlier this month, Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisc) urged caution in a letter to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett.

Now, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) has written a letter to Barnett expressing his concern. Barton's beef is with what he feels is Yahoo's inadequate response to questions regarding the deal.

Barton represents a district that includes Fort Worth as well as suburbs of Dallas. The area is home to many search advertisers. It's no surprise that Barton is raising concern on their behalf.

Google and Yahoo have tried to assure both the DOJ and advertisers that prices will not go up as a result of the deal, but fears remain. Both companies have said that advertisers set the pricing through the bidding process, but when you're thinking about bidding for a term on the top 2 search engines, it's understandable to think that prices will go up - even if Google and Yahoo do not set them higher. What remains is uncertainty, which is not exactly comforting in a volatile economy.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo Gains Search Share While Microsoft and Google Drop

Bloomberg News reports the monthly search numbers for September have Yahoo gaining while Google and Microsoft have dropped.

"Yahoo! Inc. handled a larger chunk of U.S. Internet searches last month while Microsoft Corp. lost market share, according to researcher ComScore Inc.

Yahoo had about 20.2 percent of queries in September, up from 19.6 percent in August, Reston, Virginia-based ComScore said today in an e-mail. Microsoft's share fell to 8.5 percent from 8.9 percent. Google Inc. handled 62.9 percent, compared with 63 percent in August" Bloomberg reported.

Posted by Frank Watson at 6:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 23, 2008

Yahoo's Inquisitor Plugin Now Available for Firefox and Internet Explorer

Earlier this year, Yahoo acquired the Inquisitor plugin, which is a search suggestion plugin for Safari. A few months later they updated it, but it still remained for the Safari browser.

Now, the plugin is available for Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers.

Included with the release are algorithm enhancements, and IE users will get a bookmark-based retrieval feature.

Writing on the Yahoo Search blog, Ariel Seidman says "Beyond these enhancements, the focus of Inquisitor, regardless of browser platforms, remains squarely on providing you with instant web results that get you to your destination faster, the best query formulation assistance and a richer, more personalized search experience. Now you don't have to decide between your favorite browser and your favorite search experience - you can have both."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 22, 2008

Yahoo Q3 2008 Earnings: It Ain't Pretty

Yahoo had its third quarter earnings call yesterday and the news wasn't pretty. I'm not really sure how much the economy can really be blamed for how dismal the news was. Search advertising should be one of the last sectors within advertising as a whole to be affected by the economy.

Here's something else to consider: While companies are looking to streamline their operations in order to save costs, they often look to technology. Companies like Google who are investing in cloud computing or other technologies that create efficiencies are making the most of this unique opportunity and coming out ahead. They beat the street with their Q3 earnings. Apple had a good earnings call yesterday with their sales of laptops and iPhones.

So when you read the quote by Jerry Yang blaming the economy, don't be surprised if your eyes roll.

We already know that Yahoo is cutting 10% of its workforce. But many have been saying for a long time that the workforce was already bloated. I feel for the Yahoo's because it is maddening to work at a place where layoffs are imminent. Productivity goes down and everyone speculates whose job is safe and who needs a box for their things.

The press release with all the data points for the earnings is below. All the major news organizations are focused squarely on the 64% decline in net income.

Yahoo! Reports Third Quarter 2008 Financial Results

Revenues - $1,786 Million Operating Income - $70 Million Operating Income Before Depreciation, Amortization, and Stock-Based Compensation Expense - $410 Million

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – October 21, 2008 - Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) today reported results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2008.

"As economic conditions and on-line advertising softened in the third quarter, we remained highly focused on our 2008 strategy to invest in initiatives that enhance not only our long term competitiveness, but also our ability to deliver for users and advertisers in this more difficult climate. We have been disciplined about balancing investments with cost management all year, and have now set in motion initiatives to reduce costs and enhance productivity," said Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief executive officer, Yahoo! Inc. "The steps we are taking this quarter should deliver not only near-term benefits to operating cash flow, but should also substantially enhance the nimbleness and flexibility with which we compete over the long term. We enter this slowing market with competitive advantages as the destination of choice for consumers and a leader in providing online advertisers with the broadest set of advertising management tools and products in the industry. We plan to continue building on those strengths."

Third Quarter 2008 Financial Results

Revenues were $1,786 million for the third quarter of 2008, a 1 percent increase compared to $1,768 million for the same period of 2007.
Marketing services revenues were $1,563 million for the third quarter of 2008, a 1 percent increase compared to $1,544 million for the same period of 2007.

Marketing services revenues from Owned and Operated sites were $1,002 million for the third quarter of 2008, a 9 percent increase compared to $923 million for the same period of 2007.
Marketing services revenues from Affiliate sites were $561 million for the third quarter of 2008, a 10 percent decrease compared to $621 million for the same period of 2007.

Fees revenues were $224 million for the third quarter of 2008, compared to $224 million for the same period of 2007.
Revenues excluding traffic acquisition costs (“TAC”) were $1,325 million for the third quarter of 2008, a 3 percent increase compared to $1,283 million for the same period of 2007.
Operating income for the third quarter of 2008 was $70 million, a 53 percent decrease compared to $150 million for the same period of 2007.

Operating income for the third quarter of 2008 includes incremental costs of $37 million incurred for outside advisors related to Microsoft's proposals to acquire all or a part of the Company, other strategic alternatives, including the Google agreement, the proxy contest, and related litigation defense (collectively, the “strategic alternatives and related matters”).

Operating income before depreciation, amortization, and stock-based compensation expense for the third quarter of 2008 was $410 million, a 12 percent decrease compared to $466 million for the same period of 2007.

Operating income before depreciation, amortization, and stock-based compensation expense for the third quarter of 2008 includes the incremental costs related to the strategic alternatives and related matters noted above.

Cash flow from operating activities for the third quarter of 2008 was $347 million, a 24 percent decrease compared to $457 million for the same period of 2007.
Free cash flow for the third quarter of 2008 was $215 million, a 31 percent decrease compared to $310 million for the same period of 2007.
Net income for the third quarter of 2008 was $54 million or $0.04 per diluted share compared to $151 million or $0.11 per diluted share for the same period of 2007.
Non-GAAP net income for the third quarter of 2008 was $123 million or $0.09 per diluted share compared to non-GAAP net income of $153 million or $0.11 per diluted share for the same period of 2007.

"Despite a tougher revenue climate, we were able to stay focused on our strategic objectives, launching several major product initiatives that have been underway for many months,” said Sue Decker, president, Yahoo!, Inc. “These include the beta release of our new home page, which will leverage one code base globally; our new universal profile management tool at profiles.yahoo.com which is the first step toward rewiring the social graph on Yahoo!; and the launch of APT from Yahoo!TM, a transformative digital advertising platform. We delivered on our product roadmap with high quality and lower expenses than originally anticipated. Now we are conducting a deep review of our cost structure to identify more opportunities to enhance efficiency and build a stronger and more profitable Yahoo!."

Third Quarter 2008 Segment Financial Results

United States segment revenues for the third quarter of 2008 were $1,280 million, a 7 percent increase compared to $1,195 million for the same period of 2007.
International segment revenues for the third quarter of 2008 were $507 million, a 12 percent decrease compared to $573 million for the same period of 2007.
United States segment operating income before depreciation, amortization, and stock-based compensation expense for the third quarter of 2008 was $291 million, a 14 percent decrease compared to $338 million for the same period of 2007.

United States segment operating income before depreciation, amortization, and stock-based compensation expense for the third quarter of 2008 includes the incremental costs related to the strategic alternatives and related matters noted above.

International segment operating income before depreciation, amortization, and stock-based compensation expense for the third quarter of 2008 was $119 million, a 7 percent decrease compared to $128 million for the same period of 2007.

“An increasingly challenging economic climate and softening advertising demand contributed to revenues this quarter coming in at the low end of our outlook range. While we are disappointed with our results, we're pleased that we continue to benefit from the aggressive cost management efforts we have pursued during the year. These efforts helped our adjusted operating cash flow come in above the midpoint of our outlook range for the quarter, despite significant investments in our strategic objectives,” said Blake Jorgensen, chief financial officer, Yahoo! Inc. “We have the balance sheet strength, liquidity, and free cash flow we need to continue to make progress on our core strategies as we address this slowdown.”

Cash Flow Information

In addition to free cash flow of $215 million for the third quarter of 2008, Yahoo! generated $14 million from the issuance of common stock as a result of the exercise of employee stock options. This was offset by $29 million used for acquisitions and $16 million used to acquire intellectual property rights. Cash, cash equivalents, and investments in marketable debt securities were $3,299 million at September 30, 2008 as compared to $3,219 million at June 30, 2008, an increase of $80 million.

Cost Reduction Initiatives

During the third quarter, Yahoo! began implementing a series of cost reduction initiatives that contributed to the Company's adjusted operating cash flow exceeding the midpoint of its outlook for the quarter. The Company's goal is to reduce its current annualized cost run rate of approximately $3.9 billion by more than $400 million before the end of 2008. The Company anticipates that both headcount and non-headcountrelated costs will be reduced by these actions. Because the majority of expenses are headcount-related, Yahoo! expects to reduce its global workforce by at least 10 percent during the fourth quarter of 2008.

Yahoo! also plans to implement additional cost-cutting measures aimed at achieving additional structural efficiencies over the next year. The Company anticipates these will result in substantial additional cost savings. The goal of these measures is to position Yahoo! for long-term, sustainable growth.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Explanations of the Company's non-GAAP financial measures and the related reconciliations to the GAAP financial measures the Company considers most comparable are included in the accompanying “Note to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income,” “Reconciliations to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income,” and “Reconciliation of GAAP Net Income and GAAP Net Income Per Share to Non-GAAP Net Income and Non-GAAP Net Income Per Share.”

Quarterly Conference Call

Yahoo! will host a conference call to discuss third quarter results at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time today. A live webcast of the conference call, together with supplemental financial information, can be accessed through the Company's Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/results.cfm. In addition, an archive of the webcast can be accessed through the same link. An audio replay of the call will be available for one week following the conference call by calling (888) 286-8010 or (617) 801-6888, reservation number: 99117465.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 21, 2008

Yahoo To Cut Workforce By 10%

During their third quarter financial report call today, Yahoo announced they will be cutting their employee numbers by 10 percent.

Unfortunately, the employees will not have much coming from any of their Yahoo stocks which are at 52 week lows and the poor financial report will not help improve the numbers. Yahoo closed at 12.07 but in after hours trading following the call the stock was up over 5%.

Posted by Frank Watson at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 20, 2008

Yahoo, Zillow to Cut Jobs

Yahoo and real estate search site are both planning to cut jobs. While Yahoo has been said to have a bloated work force, Zillow's problems are due to the mortgage crisis and a decreased need for home valuations.

A Microsoft acquisition might not have saved these Yahoo jobs. Mergers are notorious for job cuts and many would have walked away. Much was said about the differences in the cultures of the two companies as being a reason against the merger. Of course, fewer people care about corporate culture when the economy is horrible and your company's stock has plunged. Still, hindsight is 20/20.

Meanwhile, there's just no way around the matter for Zillow. No one's talking about bailing out real estate search and home valuations sites. It's clear that the housing market was a giant bubble and that businesses built around it are going to suffer or need a new business model.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 17, 2008

Yahoo Updates Social Profiles, Adds Local SearchMonkey Apps to Default

Seems Google wasn't the only one with some updates to release at the end of this week. Yahoo gets in on the action by updating social profiles and setting some SearchMonkey apps for local content to default.

First up, Yahoo profiles are going universal. In other words, you can manage your Yahoo profile from various Yahoo properties. The goal is to eventually be able to manage your profile from non-Yahoo sites embracing OpenSocial.

It will be nice when that happens, because I much prefer Yahoo's minimalistic and easy-to-use profile than most social networks:

Meanwhile, Citysearch and Zagat are having their SearchMonkey apps set to default. That means all users will see their uniquely coded results (when relevant, of course) during Yahoo searches. Here's how the Citysearch one will look:

In August, Yahoo set Yelp, LinkedIn and Yahoo Local apps to default.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Is Yahoo Being Undervalued by Wall Street?

Despite Yahoo's decline in the search market as of late, some are beginning to cry foul, saying Wall Street is punishing YHOO just a little too much. Prices dipped below $11 a share this week, almost half the value when Microsoft made its acquisition offer for $31 per share.

A couple of points in defense of Yahoo:

Its decline in search market share is slight. They're still #2. They're comparable to the Apple of the search world if you're just looking at the numbers.
The stock is being brought down by the greater market. Even Google's stock is down to the mid-300s, despite beginning the year in the high 500s. But Google posted an increase in revenue and beat the pessimistic Street yesterday. Their stock is on the rise at this hour, while the Dow Jones is on the decline again.
They have a bunch of strong properties, including Yahoo Sports, which had a stellar August thanks to the Olympics. They're also number 1 in email.

A couple of points in defense of Wall Street:

Jerry Yang is no Steve Jobs (or at least not anymore).
The search advertising partnership with Google has been delayed while they attempt to work things out with a wary DOJ.
The economy has everyone holding their wallets tight.

Jerry Yang and the gang need to refocus on the customer instead of executive bonuses, while Wall Street needs to understand that while advertising in general may decline, search advertising is an attractive option for advertisers looking to maximize budgets.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, Microsoft remains a scorned lover.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 15, 2008

Eric Jackson to Yahoo: I Can Quit You, and I Did

One of the most outspoken investors during the Microsoft-tries-to-buy-Yahoo debacle was Eric Jackson. Mr. Jackson leads a group 146 shareholders that owned a collective 3.2 million Yahoo shares. Those shares were sold last month.

Though Mr. Jackson did approve of the Yahoo-Icahn agreement that expanded Yahoo's board by 3 members, including Carl Icahn, it apparently was not enough. Jackson, it turns out, has been right about Yahoo all along. He was one of the first to vocalize fears that Yahoo shares would drop significantly without a Microsoft buy. I, myself, was skeptical. But Jackson was right.

While Yahoo is the number 2 search engine, number 1 in email and the owner of several strong web properties, it's still not enough. Jackson identifies why when he said, "Leadership matters."

Writing at SeekingAlpha.com, Jackson explained: "I believed that with better oversight from a new board and management, Yahoo could finally capitalize on its many strengths. We've had no significant changes at either level. The company is still muddling ahead with just as many priorities, just as many staff and just as many boxes on the organizational chart. I came to the conclusion that this company is doomed to failure with the current board and leadership."

YHOO was trading at $12.34 at the time of this post.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 14, 2008

Google, Yahoo Trying to Work It Out with the DOJ

Google and Yahoo are attempting to avoid an antitrust lawsuit by working with Department of Justice on their search advertising partnership, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Details are vague, but the search engines are willing to put extra measures in place per negotiations with the DOJ in order to get the deal to go through.

Google and Yahoo have already delayed the implementation of the advertising deal, after going on offense in August and September about going through with the deal in October no matter what.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo Begins Offline Advertising Campaign for Search

Yahoo is beginning an aggressive advertising campaign in order to get people to use it (again) for search.

Expect to see display ads (like the one below) and hear radio ads as the campaign unfolds.

The Yahoo Search blog posted a radio ad on its blog. It uses the concept of searching the web as a jungle and that users need Yahoo's security measures to protect them from the dangerous and even wacky stuff on the web.

What do you think of the new advertising push by Yahoo? Leave your first impressions in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Yahoo Sets Q3 2008 Earnings Call for Tuesday, October 21, 2008

With shares dipping below $13 last week and yesterday's rally only boosting the price to $13.49, Yahoo's third quarter earnings will be watched pretty closely.

Next Tuesday at 5:00pm EST, after the bell (which may or may not mean much during this volatile market), Yahoo will announce its Q3 2008 earnings via phone and webcast.

What do you think Yahoo's earnings will show? Debate your predictions in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 13, 2008

Yahoo Updates Contextual Advertising Solution

Yahoo has updated its contextual advertising solution, Content Match. They say you won't notice cosmetic changes, but what you will notice is that "It just works better."

So, what works better? Yahoo says new technology is better at the actual matching of ads to content. As a result, they say they are seeing higher click-through rates. Of course, all of this is still dependent on ads, keywords, and settings chosen.

Are you using Content Match? Have you noticed any improvements? Leave a comment and tell us about it!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 10, 2008

Yahoo Stock Plummets to $13, Investor Proposes Microsoft Acquisition at $22

Hindsight is always 20/20, and that Microsoft acquisition offer for Yahoo earlier this year is looking sweeter by the moment looking in the rear view mirror. Too bad Yahoo rejected the $31 per share offer, because their stock has plummeted to $13 a share this week.

To be fair, some of the drop is due to the greater markets. Even Google is down to the mid-$300s after being up around $580 earlier this year. Another major factor is that Google and Yahoo have delayed the implementation of their search advertising deal.

Yesterday, Brian Sullivan at Fox Business was asking "Where's the shareholder outrage?" While the markets are offering plenty of outlets for a variety of shareholder outrage, at least one Yahoo investor, Mithras Capital, is proposing a new Microsoft-Yahoo deal.

The deal would have Microsoft buying Yahoo for $22 a share. We know why the investor wants this: They want to recoup some of their losses.

But at this point, what's in it for Microsoft? Yahoo continues to lose search market share and seems to be more concerned with securing the proving grounds of executives than building a business model based on users.

We know by now that banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were structuring their businesses to benefit executive bonuses. We also know that Yahoo did the same thing to throw a wrench into the Microsoft deal.

Is their really any faith left that Yahoo is on the mend? The Google advertising partnership only works if Yahoo starts regaining market share. But without innovation in search, that's not going to happen.

I firmly believe that there are plenty of bright minds at Yahoo, but like far too many companies, management gets in the way.

A merger with AOL still might be a good idea though. Yahoo has strong portal properties, including Sports and Finance. AOL's Platform-A consistently performs as the top ad network. AOL has also been making tiny gains in search. If you put their strengths together, you just might have something worth saving.

For the time being, though, it looks like investors should have sold their stock long ago. Microsoft has to be prepared for tough economic times, and I'm not sure throwing billions away on Yahoo's flailing search product is a wise investment at this point.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

October 9, 2008

Yahoo Rebrands IndexTools as Web Analytics; Launches Limited Release

Last April, Yahoo acquired web analytics company IndexTools and indicated that the enterprise version would be made available for free.

This week, Yahoo is rebranding the tool as Yahoo Web Analytics and beginning to roll it out to more users. The tool is already available for advertisers who use Yahoo to build micro-sites as well as third party developers of mini-apps and widgets. The next to get access are Yahoo's 13,000 hosted e-commerce customers.

For more information on Yahoo Web Analytics, click here.

Have you tried Yahoo Web Analytics? Let us know your experience by leaving a comment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 2, 2008

Yahoo's Search for a Cause to Raise Funds for Breast Cancer Research

Yahoo has introduced "Search for a Cause," which was designed to support effort during October's Breast Cancer Awareness month. Search for a Cause is a SearchMonkey app that directs affiliate commissions for popular shopping sites to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

For every searcher who uses the app, Yahoo will donate $1, up to $25,000.

via Yahoo! Search blog

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 30, 2008

Yahoo Also Launches Site Defending Search Ad Deal with Google

Last week, Google launched a site that explained what they feel are the facts behind their search advertising agreement with Yahoo. Now, Yahoo is doing the same.

The site does not offer much new in the way of arguments supporting the partnership. Yahoo reiterates the point that advertisers set the price of search ads through the bidding process, and that there will be no price setting between Google and Yahoo.

But that argument hasn't seemed to calm many fears. It's almost like saying, "Hey, if the price goes up, it's your own fault."

There has been no denying that the price could, indeed, rise as a result of the deal. If there was such assurance, that would mean that Yahoo and Google are, in fact, price setting. That would go against Google's business model that has brought them so much success.

Most of this just chalks up to bad timing. The economy is what it is right now, emotions are high, fears are high. It's a bad time to defend this deal, whether it has merit or not.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 29, 2008

Yahoo's Sue Decker Weighs In on the Defense of the Search Ad Deal with Google

Yahoo President Sue Decker took to the Yahoo Anecdotal blog to defend the search advertising deal her company struck with Google a few months ago.

Google has been doing the heavy lifting when it comes to defending the deal to the critics. So, it was about time we heard from Yahoo again on the deal.

But Decker started off with a sarcastic tone. Her first paragraph ended with:

Since the critics clearly don't understand the deal and what it means for Yahoo!, Google, advertisers, and users, it's time for some myth-busting.

Sue, if you want to win friends to your side, you shouldn't alienate these critics. Many of them are AdWords customers!

But Decker devolves even further by saying making her two points about what the deal does for Yahoo instead of making it about the customer:

Yahoo! will use this agreement to help us become a stronger competitor in all aspects of online advertising; and
Yahoo! is not exiting the sponsored search business. We plan to remain a strong player in sponsored search.

I know that Decker has probably been consumed with trying to save a flailing Yahoo. But the fact that she's going after this argument by defending the business aspirations of Yahoo might show why this company is struggling in the first place.

Companies succeed when they focus on the customer. But Yahoo is focused on stock prices and board preservation. This is not the way to win the hearts of search advertisers or investors.

Otherwise, Decker made points that Google has made. She says there will not be price setting between Yahoo and Google because advertisers set the prices through the bidding process. The price is related to the value which is based on demand.

Decker even played on Google's unofficial motto "Do no evil" by saying the partnership would be implemented through respect for the Hippocratic Oath "first, do no harm."

To be fair, Yahoo probably needs this deal in order to bring in some extra income. What they need to do what that income is invest in innovation that brings a better search experience to users. That's what the search industry needs right now. And it's the only way to truly compete with Google.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 26, 2008

Collins Stewart Analyts Puts YHOO Value at $21

I guess Yahoo possibly talking with AOL again and launching a brand new advertising platform were not enough to ease opinions on the current state of Yahoo. Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Agrawal does not have a lot of faith in Yahoo right now. He maintains his hold status on the stock, and places the value at $21. That's quite a bit less than the $31 Microsoft was offering to acquire Yahoo earlier this year.

Agrawal writes, “We believe that the fundamentals at YHOO are deteriorating. On the one hand, economic headwinds and turmoil in the financial markets are causing weaker display ad revenues. On the other hand changes with the minimum bid with search and a possible GOOG/YHOO deal are causing an outcry among many advertisers. To further complicate the situation is an ongoing loss of talent which might accelerate with renewed restructuring efforts. We don't see any near-term upside in the shares of YHOO on a fundamental basis.”

Sounds like deal or no deal, Yahoo is screwed at the moment. What do you think?

via Barron's h/t AllThingsD

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 25, 2008

Yahoo Rebrands AMP as APT and Launches

Last April, Yahoo unveiled details of a forthcoming online display advertising platform called AMP, to be released in the third quarter of 2008. Well, it's Q3 and AMP was launched this week at Advertising Week in New York. Except, it's not called AMP anymore. It's been rebranded as APT.

Jon Hamm, star of the AMC Drama Mad Men which is based on a 1940s ad firm, was on hand to celebrate. This really excited Jerry Yang.

"The advertising landscape has changed dramatically since the days when Don Draper was roaming the halls of Sterling Cooper," said Jerry Yang. "While Mad Men celebrates the Madison Avenue of 40 years ago, APT from Yahoo! clearly represents the future."

APT is being touted as a streamlining of the display advertising process, from planning to buying and optimizing.

APT will undergo a phased roll-out. Select newspapers get the first stab at it, specifically publishers the San Francisco Chronicle of Hearst Newspapers and San Jose Mercury News of MediaNews Group.

Features include:

Guaranteed cross-selling with pre-defined selling rules
Ad Exchange for non-guaranteed inventory
Advanced audience targeting techniques based upon behavior and geography
Inventory lookup and forecasting across individual and partner sites
Creative workflow automation and personalization
Powerful rate card tools for improved yield management
Filters for better controls around creatives
Flexible and powerful APIs
Federated ad call to support multiple ad formats

"One of the major benefits of APT from Yahoo! is the fact that it's an open system, designed to enable advertisers to reach their audiences in their favorite places across the Web, and publishers to monetize inventory across the broadest possible demand channels," said Sue Decker. "As we transform the advertising marketplace, we're excited to have key members of the Newspaper Consortium, the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News, lead the way in this historic journey."

APT (as AMP) has often been one of Yahoo's defenses about the strength of its company. Yahoo has undergone much scrutiny in the past year, especially since Microsoft attempted to acquire it. They've placed high hopes on AMP, and now it's go time.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 24, 2008

New Yahoo Board Approves Talks with AOL

Yahoo's new board of directors met on Tuesday and approved new talks with Time Warner regarding a possible sale of AOL. Yahoo recently expanded its board to 11 members, adding investor Carl Icahn in a settlement after his attempt to takeover the company with a new board. Frank Biondi and John Chapple also joined the board.

AOL has also been going through some changes, refocusing its business model on media and not on internet access. Subscriptions to its internet access product have declined in recent years due to the increased (and ironic for the Time Warner-owned AOL) broadband high speed internet subscriptions via cable companies.

No talks are currently underway. Tuesday's decision simply approves a move to proceed with them.

via Financial Times

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 22, 2008

Yahoo Redesigns SearchMonkey Template

Yahoo has redesigned the SearchMonkey template. The new design features deep links horizontally underneath the title. The reason for the change is that testing showed the new format was more easily scanned by users and increased the click-through rate for app developers.

Here's a before and after shot:

What do you think of the change? Give your impression in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 20, 2008

Has YouTube Passed Yahoo in expanded searches?

Back on July 20, 2008, I asked: "Is YouTube about to pass Yahoo in expanded searches?" Well, I've just had a chance to digest the latest data from comScore for August 2008 and its appears that YouTube has passed Yahoo -- if you look at "expanded" search queries instead of "core" search queries.

First, what's the difference between an expanded and a core search query? According to comScore, a "core" search query is one that occurs on "the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers."

If you expand the definition of a search query to include searches on YouTube, MapQuest, MySpace eBay, Craigslist.org, Facebook.com, or Amazon, then you get a different picture.

Google had 7.4 billion core search queries and 7.6 billion expanded search queries in August to lead no matter how you define a "search query." Yahoo! had 2.3 billion core search queries and 2.4 billion expanded search queries that month. But "YouTube/All other" Google sites had 2.6 billion expanded search queries that month. Microsoft sites had 977 million core search queries and MSN-Windows Live had 988 million expanded search queries.

So, depending on your definition, the top three search engines are either (1) Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, or (2) Google, YouTube, and Yahoo! That is a distinction with a big difference.

By the way, comScore Video Metrix reports that YouTube accounts for more than 98 percent of all videos viewed at Google sites. (This means Google Video accounts for less than 2 percent of all vides viewed at Google sites.)

So, if you've optimized the pages on your website that contain videos, you've optimized them for Google Video and other video search engines. They won't help them get discovered, watched or shared on YouTube.

YouTube doesn't crawl the web trying to index videos posted on millions of websites. Instead, users are now uploading 13 hours of new video to YouTube every minute. So, getting your video found in about 2.6 billion expanded searches a month means uploading and optimizing video for YouTube, not Google Video.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

September 12, 2008

Yahoo is Planning Home Page Redesign

Yahoo is planning an overhaul of their homepage design, and will open up to third party developers. The design will incorporate widgets, and Yahoo Music will open up to iTunes and Amazon.

This continues a pattern of Yahoo opening up various products and services to third party developers. Earlier this year, Yahoo launched SearchMonkey, which lets developers manipulate how search results are displayed within Yahoo and later BOSS (Build your Own Search Service), which allows people to use Yahoo technology to fuel custom search sites.

The news wasn't enough to impress Wall Street analysts. Jeffries & Co. lowered their target stock price for Yahoo to $26 from $28. The stock was at $19.07 at the time of this post.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 8, 2008

Association of National Advertisers Opposes Yahoo-Google Deal

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) have written a letter to U.S. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett expressing their opposition to an advertising deal between Yahoo and Google. The deal, which has come under much scrutiny from the US Department of Justice and a U.S. Senate committee, has Yahoo using Google ads in their search results.

Google has said they will proceed with the deal in early October. So far, there has been no action against the deal from the federal government.

Do you agree or disagree with the ANA? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

via Reuters

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 29, 2008

Google Proceeding with Yahoo Deal in Early October

Google is proceeding with its deal to serve ads on Yahoo's search results. CEO Eric Schmidt told Bloomberg TV that they were moving forward on the deal despite regulatory concerns.

"We are in the process of talking to the government. They've not indicated one way or the other how they're dealing with us," said Scmidt.

Do you think the Google-Yahoo deal will be stopped? Let us know in the comments.

via Reuters

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

August 21, 2008

Yahoo Wins Gold Medal for Online Olympic Traffic

As U.S. workers continue to check out the Olympics online during the work week, Yahoo is beating the competition in drawing eyes to its Olympic content. But if your in management, don't freak out. Peak time for your employees' daily Olympic fix is lunch time. Check out this data from Nielsen Online.

Now, if you'll excuse me, the gold medal match for women's soccer is about to begin - US versus Brazil. Should be a good one!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 15, 2008

Frank Biondi and John Chapple Join Yahoo Board of Directors

In accordance with the terms of the settlement with Carl Icahn, Yahoo has added two more board members to complete the expansion to 11. Frank Biondi and John Chapple, who previously were members of Icahn's proxy board, have been appointed just two weeks after Icahn's appointment was made official. 8 of Yahoo's previous board stayed on for the deal.

Here's the lowdown on the new dudes:

Frank Biondi has served as senior managing director of WaterView Advisors LLC, a private equity limited partnership focused on media and entertainment, since 1999. From April 1996 to November 1998, Mr. Biondi served as chairman and chief executive officer of Universal Studios, Inc. From July 1987 to January 1996, Mr. Biondi served as president and chief executive officer of Viacom, Inc. Mr. Biondi is a director of Amgen, Inc., Cablevision Systems Corporation, Hasbro, Inc., The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation and Seagate Technology.

John Chapple has served as president of Hawkeye Investments LLC, a privately-owned equity firm investing primarily in telecommunications and real estate ventures, since October 2006. Prior to forming Hawkeye, Mr. Chapple served as president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Nextel Partners from January 1998 to June 2006, when the company was purchased by Sprint Communications. From 1995 to 1997, Mr. Chapple was the president and chief operating officer for Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment in Vancouver, B.C., which at the time owned and operated Vancouver's National Basketball Association and National Hockey League sports franchises in addition to the General Motors Place sports arena. From 1988 to 1995, he served as executive vice president of operations for McCaw Cellular Communications and subsequently AT&T Wireless Services following the merger of those companies. Mr. Chapple serves on the board of directors of several telecommunications companies: Cbeyond, Inc. (Nasdaq: CBEY) an integrated service telephone company, and privately held companies Seamobile Enterprises, which provides integrated wireless services at sea, and Telesphere Networks, Inc., a VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) company providing service in 44 states. In addition, he has served as a member of Syracuse University's board of trustees since 2005 and as chairman since 2008.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 13, 2008

Yahoo Adds Speed, Smarts, and Languages to Safari Plug-In, Inquisitor

Just 3 months after acquiring the assets of the Safari search plug-in, Inquisitor, Yahoo is announcing updates to the add-on.

Using the recently launched BOSS technology, Inquisitor is now faster in providing Yahoo results. Eight additional languages can use Inquisitor now, as well. They are Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and German.

The Inquisitor client got a fresh redesign and so did the home page for the plug-in.

What do you think of these updates? Do you use Inquisitor? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo Launches Location-Based Open Source Application, Fire Eagle

With the onslaught of the iPhone and the increasing popularity of mobile search and social networking, platforms that aid the development of location-based applications are highly useful to the process.

Yahoo is throwing its hat into the ring with the release of a new open source program, FireEagle. Yahoo sees FireEagle as making geo-location apps easier for developers by eliminating the need to build the location-aware infrastructure. Users will benefit from the ability to turn on and off the location-aware feature.

"Fire Eagle is about making everything on the Internet more useful, fun or interesting by adding the element of location," said Tom Coates, head of product at Yahoo! Brickhouse. "We're here to help people take their location to the Web by giving them the ability to control how much detail about their location they want to share and which applications they want to share it with."

You can check out FireEagle here.

What do you think about FireEagle? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 11, 2008

Yahoo Snags Search Ad Marketshare Gain at Google's Expense

Analytics firm Covario says Yahoo gained paid search advertising at the expense of Google in the second quarter of 2008.

Covario also said that paid search has gone through a "compression" period, where growth has declined from 52% to 43%.

“Our client roster inspired us to launch this analysis series due to our customers' unique positions in the advertising ecosystem – they are US-based, but also global in the scope regarding their paid search advertising programs, so they tend not to be retailers or ecommerce vendors who focus on one geographic region,” said Craig Macdonald, vice president of marketing and product management at Covario. “It is very exciting for us to be able to observe first-hand such trends as the bucking of the biggest losing streak in the paid search market – the loss of market share by Yahoo to Google.”

Of course, Google has seen a decline in clicks and search ads they attribute to increasing quality of their ads. That reasoning worked for Q1 results, which blew away Wall Street expectations, based largely on analytical data. Q2 disappointed the street, but so did Microsoft and Yahoo.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Sits Out Olympic Search Results; Microsoft , Yahoo Take Home Medals

On Saturday night, while watching the Olympics, I learned that there is a British swimmer named Hannah Miley. As a mom of a 10 year old, I found this amusing as my daughter has been thoroughly obsessed with the Disney show Hannah Montana where the lead character is played by Miley Cyrus.

I was curious as to how the search engines would handle a search for Hannah Miley. Would the results be completely dominated by the increasingly scandalous teen queen? Or would there at least be one mention of the Olympic athlete?

First, I checked out Google. After all, they're the best search engine in the world and everyone knows it except people in China (who prefer Baidu) and southeast Asia (who prefer Yahoo). Perhaps we should learn something from this year's Olympic hosts and their neighbors.

Google had ZERO results for Hannah Miley the swimmer on their front page. They didn't even pull results from their news search product, which does have results about the swimmer - during the Olympics! Tsk. Tsk.

Next, I moved onto Microsoft's Live Search. I was greeted with an photo of an Olympic event as the background and part of their new home page design. The first result for Hannah Miley was about the British swimmer!

The main link was to NBCOlympics.com, who is partnering with Microsoft for the Olympics. Then there were several site search links below to send searchers automatically to more detailed information they might be looking for.

You might say that's cheating, that it's not part of some supreme algorithm. I say, it's useful and relevant information for searchers and most will not particularly care how it got there.

Plus, Microsoft did include a link to Hannah Miley's wikipedia page as part of their "regular" result, something the googlebot ignored.

Last, I headed to Yahoo. They served up some news results for the Hannah Miley search. The first one was for the British swimmer and the second was for the Disney star. Then the organic results are dominated by the latter, save for one result from Zimbio.com about the athlete.

So that's how the "big three" search engines are handling the 2008 Olympics. Microsoft clearly takes the gold, Yahoo is half-heartedly participating, and Google is sitting out the games altogether.

And if you think it's unfair of me to use a search for "Hannah Miley" as the basis for such a statement. Check out the screenshots below for a search for American superstar swimmer Michael Phelps and tell me who's serving up the best results. (This time Yahoo wins the gold!)

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

August 8, 2008

New Yahoo BOSS Applications: Smells Like Cuil Spirit

Yahoo recently launched BOSS, aka Build your Own Search Service. Third party developers wasted no time making use of the API to build their version of what search should look like. Yahoo featured four BOSS applications on their Yahoo Search blog.

The first one was 4 Hour Search. Named for how long it took developer Sam Pullara to build the BOSS API/YUI design mashup. It looks a lot like newly launched search engine Cuil.

And just like Cuil, 4 Hour Search is experiencing errors this morning. The above screenshot is Yahoo-supplied. And that's not the only BOSS app that was struggling.

Newsline didn't work for me at first. I conducted a search comparing the coverage of the situations in South Ossetia, Georgia and the coup in Mauritania. At first, I got error pages. Then, I was able to get results, but not that many from today or the past week. And that's after I found the current news. The page brings up a dynamic timeline (which is cool), but it loaded news from 2 years ago front and center.

3D visualization search app Tianamo crashed my Firefox browser, then loaded just a dark blue screen in IE. But here's the screenshot Yahoo posted:

There was one app that did just fine - PlayerSearch. This BOSS app is great for sports fans - especially Fantasy Sports fanatics. This site worked just fine. Have at it, sports junkies.

It's likely that the developers weren't prepared for so much traffic to come their way, but Yahoo should have known better before it told the world about the new apps.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 7, 2008

Let the Games Begin: Yahoo and Icahn Make it Official

Yahoo has officially appointed Carl Icahn to its board of directors, and board member Robert Kotick has officially resigned. The moves were all part of a previously reached agreement by Yahoo and Icahn following months of drama resulting from an unsolicited bid by Microsoft to buy Yahoo.

But with the track record of Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostick, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, Icahn and Microsoft, this game is not nearly over. Instead, the first six months of 2008 were more like announcing the starting lineups at the NBA championships.

Or maybe an elementary schoolyard where the bullies are picking teams.

Either way, expect to see more posturing and smear campaigns, not unlike this year's presidential election.

via Reuters

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 6, 2008

Perhaps Paris Hilton Should Run Yahoo

If you keep up with politics, then you know that a recent McCain ad portrayed as Obama as simply a celebrity, and included pictures of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

Paris Hilton has responded to the ad with a hilarious video on FunnyOrDie.com, a popular online video sharing and voting site, where many celebrities have appeared before.

Hilton broke from her normal persona to reveal the intelligent side of herself. Yes, you read that correctly. She was poised (albeit in a bathing suit by the pool), and spoke with more clarity about politics than any Washington official.

But her energy plan is where the genius is truly revealed. Perhaps, Paris Hilton should run Yahoo? Hey, Carl Icahn is looking for a two people to join him on the expanded board, especially after TimeWarner nixed Jonathan Miller's chances of being part of Icahn's coup d'Ã©tat. After watching this video, I'm convinced Paris could broker a deal with Microsoft that will leave everyone happy. Well, except Bostock and Yang. But they had their chance.

See Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad and more funny videos on FunnyOrDie.comSee more funny videos at Funny or Die

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo Confirms Vote Error, Yang and Bostock Not Liked So Much After All

Yahoo has confirmed that a 'tabulation error' occurred in the shareholder vote count conducted by Broadridge Financial Solutions, the independent firm hired to do the job. Turns out, just over half of the shareholders felt the need to vote Chairman Roy Bostock and CEO Jerry Yang. It's probably a good thing (for them) that they reached that settlement with Carl Icahn, or else the vote may have turned a worse outcome for the two.

Here's the new tally:

Here's the old tally:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Woohoo for Yahoo

Even after the vote re-count, a majority of shareholders voted Yahoo's board in, and Carl Icahn settled for the right to propose two board seats and a spot for himself. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Woohoo for Yahoo," Kevin Ryan asks what, at the end of the day, is more important than rebuilding the Web's biggest brand?

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 5, 2008

Yahoo's Right Media Exchange to Feature LucidMedia Contextual Advertising

Today, Yahoo announced that Right Media Exchange will feature LucidMedia's patented ClickSense contextual advertising. The targeted ad solution has been testing since May, culminating in a partnership between the two. Buyers and publishers will be able to contextually categorize 60 vertical channels in Right Media Exchange's display advertising inventory.

"LucidMedia's ClickSense technology will significantly help increase the prospective yield of a publisher's available inventory and improve an advertiser's ability to contextually target ads to relevant content and categories through the Right Media Exchange," said Bill Wise, General Manager, Right Media. "We are excited to bring this capability to Exchange participants and look forward to working with the LucidMedia team to deepen the use of ClickSense across the Exchange."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes, There is a New Yahoo Update

If you're noticing changes in your Yahoo rankings, you're not alone. Yahoo has released an update to their search index.

The last update was released about a month ago.

One commenter on the Yahoo Search blog said that Yahoo's results look a lot like Microsoft's Live Search results. What are you seeing?

Leave a comment and tell us what you're seeing!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Will Yahoo Be Counting Hanging Chads?

With so much disappointment in the Yahoo board among shareholders, how did Chairman Roy Bostock and CEO Jerry Yang manage to get more votes this year than at last year's shareholders meeting? That's a question on the minds of Capital Research & Management, which sent proxy committees to represent its two funds that own a big chunk of Yahoo stock. The proxy committees recommended that votes for Bostock and Yang be withheld in order to demonstrate their disapproval of Microsoft's bid.

Capital Research & Management has talked with Broadridge Financial Solutions about investigating the vote to see if some votes were not counted. The way the votes stand now, it would appear that if CR&M's votes were counted - and they withheld them, they were among the only to vote against Bostock and Yang, which seems a bit odd given the current climate

Additionally, fewer votes were cast than last year, which only adds to the drama. On the one hand, perhaps fewer people wished to vote when they were so disappointed with the current board. On the flip side, wouldn't more people want to show up during such an important year and make their voice heard? An investigation into the vote count could answer this question.

Yahoo has said they have played no part in a possible error in the count. Yahoo doesn't perform the vote count, but instead a third party is required to do so.

via BoomTown

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 4, 2008

'Twas the Monday After the Yahoo Shareholder Meeting

The Yahoo shareholder meeting has come and gone without much fanfare, thanks to the settlement between the Yahoo board and Carl Icahn to keep the current board but expand it by 3 seats post-meeting. But there are a few interesting tidbits you'll want to know.

Firstly, TimeWarner has stepped in to prevent Jonathan Miller from joining the expanded Yahoo board. Yahoo had requested that Miller be placed on a list created by Carl Icahn for 2 of the expanded seats, the other one taken by Icahn of course. TimeWarner says Miller is under a no-compete contract with AOL.

And even though the current board was re-elected, that doesn't mean shareholders have been appeased. Many are still furious with Yang and the gang for turning down Microsoft's sweet $33 per share deal. The stock, once up in the high 20's has gone back down to the $19-20 level, where it was when Microsoft initially made its offer.

At least one shareholder, the outspoken Eric Jackson, is holding out hope for an eventual Microsoft buyout. He believes the software giant will come back for another grab in 2009.

But will the offer be as sweet? Tell us your predictions for the Microsoft-Yahoo saga in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

August 1, 2008

Yahoo Sets Yelp, LinkedIn, and Yahoo Local SearchMonkey Apps to 'Default On'

Last month, Yahoo launched the SearchMonkey gallery, where searchers can go and add applications to their Yahoo search. Now, Yahoo is making three of those apps automatic for all users.

The Yelp, LinkedIn, and Yahoo Local SearchMonkey apps are now set to 'default on.' The three apps have been part of a test Yahoo conducted where they set the app to default on for select users. Yahoo says they saw click-through rates increase as much as 15% as a result.

Yahoo has also added a sharing feature with the apps, so you can email results to friends.

SearchMonkey, which allows third party developers to develop applications for Yahoo's search product, launched in May.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 29, 2008

Cloud Computing Unites Yahoo, HP, Intel

Yahoo, Intel and Hewlett Packard announced an alliance to advance "cloud computing," backing a global trend that threatens Microsoft's iron-fisted grip on packaged software installed on computers.

Earlier this year Google and IBM teamed up to advance research into providing SAAS (software as a service) on the Internet hosted by data centers.

Cloud computing isn't as futuristic as it sounds. Web-based email (Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail) offered by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft is an example of cloud computing. Google has expanded its online software offerings to include word documents, spread sheets and more under the Google Docs brand.

The cloud computing initiative falls in line with Yahoo's goal of open systems. Results of research done at the centers will be made public to make it easier for software developers to write applications for cloud computing.

"We believe this collaboration will do a great deal to take the research to the next level," Yahoo Research chief Prabhakar Raghavan said during the conference call.

"We are really fueling the ecosystem here... Inevitably an application developer will build more readily for the cloud."

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

T. Boone Pickens Sells Entire Yahoo Stake, 10 Million Shares

I was literally in the middle of writing a post entitled "All Quiet on the Yahoo Front" when news broke about T. Boone Pickens selling off his entire stake in Yahoo.

I was pondering whether or not the calm was more like a relaxing day at the spa or an eerie moment in a M. Night Shyamalan movie when the famed Texas oilman took the latter route.

Pickens, known most recently for his alternative energy plan, bought 10 million shares back in May when he decided to throw his support behind Carl Icahn.

Now that Carl Icahn is somewhat in cahoots with Yahoo, with the announcement that he will join an expanded Yahoo board, Pickens is selling of his shares.

Telling the San Francisco Chronicle, "I think that Yahoo management was pathetic," Pickens was adamant about Yahoo agreeing to Microsoft's offer to buy the company.

Yahoo's annual shareholders meeting will be held this Friday.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

July 23, 2008

Yahoo Researcher Seeks to Combine Semantic Search Methods

Yahoo researcher Peter Mika has written up an extensive article on semantic search. First he talks about the limitations to syntax-based search:

It is almost impossible to return search results that relate to the secondary sense of a term—especially if a dominant sense exists—for example, try searching for George Bush the beer brewer as compared to the President
The capabilities of computational advertising, which is largely also an IR problem (for example, retrieving matching ads from a fixed inventory), are clearly impacted because of the sparsity of advertisements.
When no clear key exists, search engines are unable to perform queries on descriptions of objects. For example, try searching for the author of this article with the keywords ‘semantic web researcher working for yahoo.'
Current search technology is unable to satisfy any complex queries requiring information integration such as analysis, prediction, scheduling, etc. An example of such integration-based tasks is opinion mining regarding products or services. While there have been some successes in opinion mining with pure sentiment analysis, it is often the case that users like to know what specific aspects of a product or service are being described in positive or negative terms and to have the search results appear aggregated and organized. Information integration is not possible without structured representations of content.
Multimedia queries are also difficult to answer, as multimedia objects are typically described with only a few keywords (tagging) or sentences. This is typically too little text for the statistical methods of IR to be effective.

Mika says there are two approaches to semantic search: Natural Language Processing (NLP) and the Semantic Web.

Natural Language Processing "builds on the automatic analysis of text." Semantic search company hakia is an example of natural language processing. Interestingly, hakia uses Yahoo search technology, including the recently announced Yahoo's BOSS (Build Your own Search Service). Powerset, which was recently acquired by Microsoft, is another example of NLP. These NLP semantic search providers "extract entities from text, disambiguate them against large-scale background knowledge sources (PowerSet uses Freebase, Hakia has its own ontology), and then record the relationships as found in the text." Users can query by asking full questions, though many still use keywords.

Semantic Web "aims to make the web more easily searchable by allowing publishers to expose their metadata." Mika says most publishers are willing to share their data if it results in increased traffic. Plus, semantic web allows publishers to avoid costs and quality issues associated with NLP. But last year, Yahoo researcher Mor Naaman declared the Semantic Web dead. Naaman's reasoning was the limitation of microformats, but Mika says that the new RDFa standard would have greater capabilities.

What Mika wants to do is to integrate the best of NLP and semantic web. He says Yahoo's SearchMonkey platform allows for this integration to occur.

To dig into all the technical nitty gritty, check out Mika's full article, "Semantic Search Arrives at the Web."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 22, 2008

Yahoo Q2 2008 Disappoints Wall St.

Yahoo Second Quarter 2008 Financial Results • Revenues were $1,798 million for the second quarter of 2008, a 6 percent increase compared to $1,698 million for the same period of 2007.

• Marketing services revenues were $1,587 million for the second quarter of 2008, a 7 percent increase compared to $1,486 million for the same period of 2007.

“Yahoo!'s transformation gained momentum in the second quarter as we announced new product initiatives and partnerships along with solid financial results,” said Sue Decker, president Yahoo! in a statement. “We advanced our position with users by opening up Yahoo! through new innovative offerings like SearchMonkey and BOSS in search and have seen great improvements with Buzz in the freshness of content on our home page. Our commercial agreement with Google is another great example of our open strategy and we expect it will strengthen our competitive position as a leading provider of search and display advertising. On the advertising side, our growing list of major agency partners including Publicis, WPP, Havas and premier publishing partners including walmart.com, and CNET and Turner are great examples of our ability to be the partner of choice across search and display advertising. We remain confident that our efforts will lead to a stronger and more profitable Yahoo!.”

o Marketing services revenues from Owned and Operated sites were $1,016 million for the second quarter of 2008, a 14 percent increase compared to $892 million for the same period of 2007.

o Marketing services revenues from Affiliate sites were $571 million for the second quarter of 2008, a 4 percent decrease compared to $594 million for the same period of 2007.

• Fees revenues were $211 million for the second quarter of 2008, a less than 1 percent decrease compared to $212 million for the same period of 2007.

• Revenues excluding traffic acquisition costs (“TAC”) were $1,346 million for the second quarter of 2008, an 8 percent increase compared to $1,244 million for the same period of 2007.

• Operating income for the second quarter of 2008 was $101 million, a 45 percent decrease compared to $185 million for the same period of 2007.

o Operating income for the second quarter of 2008 includes incremental costs of $22 million incurred for outside advisors related to Microsoft's proposals to acquire all or a part of the Company, other strategic alternatives, the proxy contest, and related litigation defense costs. • Free cash flow for the second quarter of 2008 was $231 million, a 30 percent decrease compared to $328 million for the same period of 2007.

• Net income for the second quarter of 2008 was $131 million or $0.09 per diluted share compared to $161 million or $0.11 per diluted share for the same period of 2007. “Despite a difficult economic environment, we posted solid results in line with the ranges we indicated in April,” said Blake Jorgensen, chief financial officer, Yahoo! in a statement. “GAAP revenue was $1.8 billion, with operating cash flow on a normalized basis coming in at $449 million. Our diverse advertiser base and compelling value proposition for our customers were key factors behind Yahoo!'s strong second quarter performance.”

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yang to Yahoos: One Team, One Voice

We're not sure what the long-term implications of the Yahoo-Yang-Icahn settlement will be. In the short term, though, the agreement that ended the impending proxy fight appears to have inspired Jerry Yang to use capital letters in his memos to employees.

Here's the full text of Jerry Yang's take on the Icahn affair. Today, Yahoo! moves past a distracting proxy contest. This morning we announced a settlement with Carl Icahn which will enable Yahoo! to put an end to this challenging chapter in our history, and allow us to get back to the business at hand – building our business and maximizing value for all stockholders.

Over the past few weeks we've made progress communicating with investors, helping them to better understand our roadmap for long-term growth, our valuable combination of assets, and our solid position in the converging search and display marketplaces. These discussions have been productive for everyone.

Under the terms of the settlement with Mr. Icahn, he has withdrawn his nominees for consideration at the annual meeting, and has agreed to vote his Yahoo! shares in support of the Board's nominees. At our annual stockholder meeting on Aug. 1, we'll ask stockholders to re-elect eight of our current directors. (In connection with the settlement of the proxy contest, Bobby Kotick has notified the Company that he will not stand for re-election to the Board.) After the annual meeting, Mr. Icahn will be appointed to our Board. We've also agreed to expand our Board to make room for two additional members to be chosen by the Board upon the recommendation of the Board's Nominating and Governance Committee from a list that includes the rest of Mr. Icahn's slate and Jon Miller, former Chairman and CEO of AOL.

We're pleased that both parties were able to work together productively to accomplish this settlement, and we look forward to working with the new Board members and benefiting from their fresh perspective.

Yahoo! is now moving forward with one team and one voice, and we're excited about what the future holds.

Jerry Yang CEO and Chief Yahoo

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Barely Inches Out Yahoo for Top Web Property; Platform-A Top Ad Network for June 2008

comScore has released the top 50 ad networks and top 50 web properties for June 2008.

In ad networks, AOL's Platform-A takes the top spot, reaching 90% of American internet users. Yahoo comes in second, reaching 83% and Google comes in third with 81%. Here's the full list:

In web properties, Google leads the pack 140.2 million unique visitors, but Yahoo comes in a very close second at 140.1 million. This past April, Google's sites beat Yahoo's properties for the first time. Microsoft trails in third with 119 million. AOL is in 4th with 110 million and Fox Interactive rounds out the top 5 with 85 million. Here's the chart:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 21, 2008

Yahoo Settles with Icahn - Yang Keeps Job; Icahn to Join Board

Jerry Yang threw Carl Icahn a bone today. So Carl Icahn called the dogs off.

Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO),announced today that it has agreed to settle with Carl Icahn to avoid a proxy contest related to the Company's 2008 annual meeting of stockholders.

* Jerry Yang will remain CEO. * Carl Icahn will join the board. * Eight Board members will face re-election.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, eight members of Yahoo!'s current Board of Directors will stand for re-election at the 2008 annual meeting: Roy Bostock, Ronald Burkle, Eric Hippeau, Vyomesh Joshi, Arthur Kern, Mary Agnes Wilderotter, Gary Wilson and Jerry Yang. Robert Kotick has decided not to stand for re-election to the Board at the 2008 annual meeting.

After the 2008 annual meeting, the Yahoo! Board will increase to 11 members. Carl Icahn will be appointed to the Board and the remaining two seats will be filled by the Board upon the recommendation of the Board's Nominating and Governance Committee from a list of nine candidates recommended by Mr. Icahn, which includes the eight remaining members of the Icahn slate of nominees and Jonathan Miller, currently a partner in Velocity Interactive Group and former Chairman and CEO of AOL.

As part of the settlement agreement, Mr. Icahn, who owns an aggregate of 68,786,320 shares, or 4.98% of Yahoo! common stock, has agreed to withdraw his nominees for consideration at the annual meeting and to vote his Yahoo! shares in support of the Board's nominees.

"We are gratified to have reached this agreement, which serves the best interests of all Yahoo! stockholders," said Yahoo! Chairman Roy Bostock in a statement. "We look forward to working productively with Carl and the new members of the Board on continuing to improve the Company's performance and enhancing stockholder value. Yahoo! is a world-class company with an extremely bright future, and collaborating together, I believe we can help the Company achieve its ambitious goals."

"This agreement will not only allow Yahoo! to put the distraction of the proxy contest behind us, it will allow the Company to continue pursuing its strategy of being the starting point for Internet users and a must buy for advertisers," said Yahoo! Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang in a statement. "No other company in the Internet space has our unique combination of global brand, talented employees, innovative technologies and exceptional assets, attributes that will help us take advantage of the large and growing opportunity ahead of us. I look forward to working together with our new colleagues on the Board to make that happen."

Mr. Icahn said in a statement, "I am very pleased that this settlement will allow me to work in partnership with Yahoo!'s Board and management team to help the Company achieve its full potential. While I continue to believe that the sale of the whole Company or the sale of its Search business in the right transaction must be given full consideration, I share the view that Yahoo!'s valuable collection of assets positions it well to continue expanding its online leadership and enhancing returns to stockholders. I believe this is a good outcome and that we will have a strong working relationship going forward. Additionally, I am happy that the board has agreed in the settlement agreement that any meaningful transaction, including the strategy in dealing with that transaction, will be fully discussed with the entire board before any final decision is made."

Yahoo intends to file the full text of the settlement agreement later today with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and will also file and mail to its stockholders, supplemental proxy material.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo and Carl Icahn Agree to Settlement

Yahoo has announced that it has forged an agreement with Carl Icahn. Here's the details.

Yahoo's board will expand to 11 members, but only 8 of the current board will stay on. They are:

Roy Bostock Ronald Burkle Eric Hippeau Vyomesh Joshi Arthur Kern Mary Agnes Wilderotter Gary Wilson Jerry Yang

Robert Kotick is the remaining board member. He's decided to step down.

The expansion will occur AFTER the August 1 shareholders meeting. Carl Icahn will become a board member, and then 2 more will be added from a list of 9 that Icahn will supply. The list will be the 8 remaining members of Icahn's now-cancelled proxy board plus Jonathan Miller, partner in Velocity Interactive Group and former Chairman and CEO of AOL.

Icahn owns an aggregate of 68,786,320 shares, or 4.98% of Yahoo! common stock. He will vote his shares for the current board at the August 1 shareholders meeting.

Here's the corporate-speak:

"We are gratified to have reached this agreement, which serves the best interests of all Yahoo! stockholders," said Yahoo! Chairman Roy Bostock. "We look forward to working productively with Carl and the new members of the Board on continuing to improve the Company's performance and enhancing stockholder value. Yahoo! is a world-class company with an extremely bright future, and collaborating together, I believe we can help the Company achieve its ambitious goals."

"This agreement will not only allow Yahoo! to put the distraction of the proxy contest behind us, it will allow the Company to continue pursuing its strategy of being the starting point for Internet users and a must buy for advertisers," said Yahoo! Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang. "No other company in the Internet space has our unique combination of global brand, talented employees, innovative technologies and exceptional assets, attributes that will help us take advantage of the large and growing opportunity ahead of us. I look forward to working together with our new colleagues on the Board to make that happen."

Mr. Icahn said, "I am very pleased that this settlement will allow me to work in partnership with Yahoo!'s Board and management team to help the Company achieve its full potential. While I continue to believe that the sale of the whole Company or the sale of its Search business in the right transaction must be given full consideration, I share the view that Yahoo!'s valuable collection of assets positions it well to continue expanding its online leadership and enhancing returns to stockholders. I believe this is a good outcome and that we will have a strong working relationship going forward. Additionally, I am happy that the board has agreed in the settlement agreement that any meaningful transaction, including the strategy in dealing with that transaction, will be fully discussed with the entire board before any final decision is made."

What do you think of this settlement? Sound off in the commments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 20, 2008

Is YouTube about to pass Yahoo in expanded searches?

On Friday, comScore announced that Google retained its lead in the U.S. core search market capturing 61.5 percent of the searches conducted in June 2008. By and large, the press coverage focused on the fact that Google's share of core searches was down slightly from May, while Yahoo! and Microsoft's share of core searches were up slightly from the previous month.

But, farther down the comScore press release was data on the "expanded search queries" for June. This includes the top properties where search activity is observed -- like YouTube. And here's what comScore qSearch 2.0 found: -- 7.3 billion expanded search queries were conducted at Google in June; -- 2.5 billion expanded search queries were conducted at Yahoo that month; -- 2.3 billion expanded search queries were conducted at YouTube and other Google sites; -- 1.1 billion expanded search queries were conducted at MSN-Windows Live.

And the month to month growth of expanded search queries at YouTube was 15%, while it was 8% at Yahoo!

So, let the countdown begin. How many months do you think it will take before YouTube passes Yahoo!?

According to comScore Video Metrix, 82.2 million viewers watched 4.1 billion videos in May on YouTube.com -- that's an average of 50.4 videos per viewer. It's also worth noting that YouTube.com accounts for more than 98 percent of all videos viewed at Google Sites, whic h means that Google Video is now round off error.

Okay, to be fair, expanded searches includes ones for mapping and local directories as well as user-generated video sites. So, YouTube and Google Maps are being combined in the comScore data.

Nevertheless, the media world still seems focused on core searches, which doesn't count about 5.1 billion expanded searches a month.

So, it's important to remember that vertical search engines are ... search engines, too. And getting found in all the right places increasingly means optimizing video for YouTube as well as web pages for Google, Yahoo! Search and Live Search.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 18, 2008

Legg Mason Continues Support Yahoo's Current Board

In April, before Microsoft's ultimatum for Yahoo to accept its bid came to pass, Legg Mason threw its support behind Yahoo. Now the investor group is continuing its support of Yahoo and plans to vote for the current board at the upcoming August 1 shareholders meeting.

However, Legg Mason did advise Yahoo and Carl Icahn to bury the hatchet by the time of the meeting. Icahn has submitted a proxy board to replace the current board and has been in talks with Microsoft for a deal should his board win.

Legg Mason owns 60.7 million shares of Yahoo, adding up to 4.4% of the total shares.

via Reuters

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 17, 2008

Yahoo's Latest Letter to Shareholders: We'll Sell for $33 Per Share

In a letter that is likely to believed by almost no one, Yahoo regurgitated much of the same old statements about Microsoft and Carl Icahn - and then slipped in something about selling the entire company for $33 a share. Of course, that's only "if Microsoft will negotiate a transaction that delivers certainty of value and certainty of closing. This is the simplest, most straightforward way to maximize value for you."

Rumor had it that Yahoo wanted somewhere in the neighborhood of $35-37 per share in the spring when the deal went south. Both sides have accused the other of walking away prematurely.

Then Carl Icahn created a proxy board and subsequently called for Yahoo to sell for $34.375 a share. Now Yahoo says it will go for $33 per share.

If I were Microsoft, I would just sit back, relax and continue to watch the price drop. If I were Google, I'd continue laughing all the way to the bank.

Here's the full letter:

Dear Fellow Stockholder:

The recently-formed Carl Icahn-Microsoft alliance continues to make misleading statements about their plans for Yahoo!. Your Board of Directors believes strongly that the Icahn-Microsoft agenda -as presented to us jointly last week - will destroy stockholder value at Yahoo!, serving only their very narrow special interests, clearly not your interests.

Your Board continues to work to maximize value for you and is taking the following steps to do so:

-- Moving forward with our strategic plan and strategies to lead in online advertising - with both search and display;

-- Preparing to implement our recently signed commercial agreement with Google that will increase cash flow;

-- Continuing to explore other ways to unlock value and return value to you such as unlocking the value of our Asia assets; and

-- Remaining open to negotiating a value creating transaction (including with Microsoft) that provides real and certain value - not just the possibility of value.

In contrast, let's review Carl Icahn's brief involvement with the Company to date.

Carl Icahn bought his stock two months ago for an estimated average cost of less than $25 per share. He is well-known as a corporate agitator with a short-term approach to his investments. His short-term approach gives Mr. Icahn a strong incentive to strike any deal with Microsoft that enables him to recover his investment and get back his money quickly, even a deal that does not provide full and fair value to you. Is that in the interests of all stockholders? Clearly, it is not.

Mr. Icahn has severely handicapped himself in his ability to negotiate a favorable transaction with Microsoft. Why?

-- Mr. Icahn has made it clear that his only objective is to sell part or all of Yahoo! to Microsoft. That fact, combined with his lack of an operating plan going forward, means that he will have no leverage to negotiate a fair deal with Microsoft. He has set himself up for failure.

-- Second, Mr. Icahn and his slate lack the working knowledge of Yahoo! and its Internet business needed to do two things that are required to successfully deliver a value-enhancing transaction for Yahoo! stockholders. First, they do not have the detailed knowledge to negotiate a complex restructuring of a large, innovative high technology company in a rapidly changing environment. Second, they do not have the hands-on experience to manage and lead Yahoo! during the approximately one year period estimated to be required to gain regulatory approval for a deal or to manage and lead the remainder of the Company (non-search) after a transaction is completed. Don't take our word for that. Mr. Icahn will be calling the shots if his slate wins and yet Mr. Icahn himself told the Wall Street Journal last fall: "Technology hasn't really been one of the things I've focused on too much before" and "It's hard to understand these technology companies." That's why you need a knowledgeable, experienced and independent board to represent your interests vis-a-vis Microsoft.

Mr. Icahn can't make up his mind about what he thinks will work for Yahoo!. He bought his position believing that he could bring Microsoft back to buy all of Yahoo!, at one point suggesting we publicly offer to sell Yahoo! to Microsoft for $34.375. But he didn't do enough due diligence to determine what your Board already knew: that it was Microsoft's decision to walk away and that it had rebuffed repeated efforts by your independent directors to get a whole company acquisition back on the table. Recognizing that a sale to Microsoft might not be an option, Mr. Icahn said as an alternative that we should enter into an agreement with Google (which we were already negotiating and subsequently signed), and that we should walk away from Microsoft's search-only proposal (which we did after careful evaluation of that proposal). Then, in an extraordinary flip flop, Mr. Icahn teamed up with Microsoft and embraced their latest joint search-only proposal--even though it involved significant execution and operational risks and was fraught with flaws that made the "headline value" asserted by Microsoft and Mr. Icahn more illusion than reality.

How can Yahoo! stockholders trust Mr. Icahn to deliver what he claims he can deliver when his actions have been so contradictory -and when all he has delivered so far is a risky proposal of questionable value from his new friends at Microsoft? Yes, the Microsoft/Icahn proposal is somewhat of an improvement over Microsoft's last search-only proposal, but no one should confuse a modestly improved offer with a good offer. The Icahn/Microsoft proposal was more "smoke and mirrors" than objective reality.

Now let's turn to the recent marriage of convenience between Microsoft and Mr. Icahn.

This "odd couple" collaboration - between two parties with keenly different agendas - is indeed perplexing. Why does Mr. Icahn believe he can count on Microsoft to complete a transaction? Certainly Microsoft is a well-respected and successful company and we have been clear that we are fully prepared to do a deal with them. But Microsoft's flip flops and inconsistencies over the past five months are so stupefying that one can only conclude that Microsoft was never fully committed to acquiring Yahoo! either because:

-- Microsoft can't decide what is and isn't strategically important to its online business; or

-- Microsoft is more interested in destabilizing a key competitor so that it can either enhance its competitive position or buy our highly valuable search business--and the enormously desirable intellectual property associated with it --at a bargain basement price.

Microsoft desperately needs to improve the performance of its online services business (consisting of its search and display assets) which, cumulatively since 2003, has lost money despite billions of dollars of investment. And yet Mr. Icahn would ignore this track record and its implications for his fellow Yahoo! stockholders, swallowing a deal that leaves Yahoo!'s future dependent, in part, on Microsoft's ability to monetize search. And, as Mr. Icahn has himself pointed out, it would eliminate any opportunity we may have to sell the entire Company for an attractive premium.

In contrast to the conflicting and confusing statements emanating from the Icahn-Microsoft alliance, your Board and management have been crystal clear about our position.

First, we will sell the entire Company to Microsoft for $33 per share or more if Microsoft will negotiate a transaction that delivers certainty of value and certainty of closing. This is the simplest, most straightforward way to maximize value for you.

Second, we remain open to selling only search to Microsoft as long as it provides real value to our stockholders and resolves the substantial execution and operational risks associated with the separation of our search and display businesses.

Third, your Board takes seriously its obligation to examine all value-creating steps it could take and continues to actively examine many of these now, including a potential spin-off of our Asia assets and a return of cash to stockholders. These are steps Yahoo! could take, if we determine they are feasible and in our stockholders' best interests, without any "help" from Microsoft or Mr. Icahn. But they are complex steps that require care and prudence. These should not be adopted simply because Mr. Icahn and Microsoft are trying to dress up Microsoft's inadequate search-only proposal.

While your Board continues to evaluate the foregoing avenues, your current Board and management continue to execute on our strategy to grow the value of our unique collection of assets. That strategy is working and we believe it can result in substantial double digit growth in operating cash flow as we move forward. Our recently executed search advertising agreement with Google reflects our commitment to achieving our strategic goals, while preserving flexibility to pursue a sale of the Company or even, on the right terms, a sale of our search business.

Please compare and contrast the straightforward, responsible actions and positions of your Board of Directors with the behavior of Mr. Icahn and Microsoft.

There you have the situation, as we see it, put as simply and clearly as we can. We believe the Icahn slate and agenda present significant risk to your investment in Yahoo!. We believe you cannot count on Microsoft to bail out Mr. Icahn's misguided agenda, at least not on terms that are in the best interests of Yahoo! stockholders.

In contrast, your Board remains fully prepared to represent your interests aggressively and conscientiously in the effort to maximize value--whether that takes the form of negotiating a transaction that provides full and fair value, with certainty; finding other ways to unlock and return value to you; or moving forward with our accelerated strategies to lead in online advertising.

Your Board of Directors remains committed to maximizing stockholder value. It is--and will remain--our number one priority. Do not be fooled into thinking otherwise by Carl Icahn.

We strongly urge you to vote your WHITE Proxy Card today for your current Board of Directors.

Thank you for your support.

Roy Bostock Jerry Yang Chairman of the Board Chief Executive Officer

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 15, 2008

Congressional Judiciary Committees Look into Yahoo-Google Ad Partnership

Last week the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on online advertising and privacy. Today, the Judiciary Committees of the Senate and House get in on the action as it relates to the recent Yahoo-Google deal.

The Senate hearing began at 10:30 am, but is largely eclipsed by a speech by the President as well as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's umteenth appearance on Capitol Hill. You can watch it live by clicking on "Live Webcast" here.

The House hearing begins at 1:30pm and the site has links to webcast video, though I personally couldn't get them to work on my laptop. If you're in the DC area, head on over to 2141 Rayburn House Office Building to observe the hearing for yourself.

Google Senior VP for Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond will be appearing at both hearings and is planning to touch on the following:

The agreement will be good for Internet users (who will see ads that are better targeted to their interests); advertisers (whose ads will be better matched to users' interests, allowing them to reach potential customers more efficiently), and website publishers (who will see increased revenue from better-matched ads on their websites).
Google and Yahoo! will remain vigorous competitors, and that competition will help fuel innovation that is good for users and the economy. Commercial arrangements between competitors are commonplace in many industries. Antitrust regulators in the US have recognized that consumers can benefit form these arrangements, especially when one company has technical expertise that enables another company to improve the quality of its products
The agreement will not increase Google's share of search traffic, because Yahoo will continue to run its own search engine and compete in online search.
Yahoo! will make its instant messaging network interoperable with Google's. This will mean easier and broader communication among a growing number of IM users, and enable users to choose among competing IM providers based on the merits and features of the services.
A number of steps have been taken in the Yahoo! agreement to protect user privacy. As Google supplies ads to Yahoo! and its partners, personally identifiable information of individual Internet users will not be shared between the companies. Yahoo! will anonymize the IP address of a searcher's computer before passing a search request to Google.

Also scheduled to appear are:

Michael Callahan, General Counsel, Yahoo!
Brad Smith Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Microsoft
Matthew Crowley, Chief Marketing Officer, Yellowpages.com
Tim Carter, President and CEO, Askthebuilder.com

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 14, 2008

Vote WHITE: Yahoo's Bastille Day Response to Carl Icahn

In language much more formal than his blasting of Icahn and Microsoft in interviews, Yahoo's Jerry Yang responded -- with capital letters -- to the proposed board of directors designed to unseat him. Today on Bastille Day, Yahoo's fighting its own revolution.

There was no mention of liberte, egalite or fraternite, but Yang could have easily addressed his shareholders:

"Chers Les Miserables,"

Yahoo Inc. mailed this letter to stockholders.

July 14, 2008

Dear Fellow Stockholder:

We have written to you before to explain why we believe your Board of Directors has the knowledge, experience, independence and commitment to best represent the interests of all Yahoo! stockholders. We have also told you why we believe the slate of directors advanced by Carl Icahn is not the right answer for Yahoo!.

When Mr. Icahn began his proxy contest he had no articulated plan for Yahoo! other than a sale of the Company to Microsoft. Today he still lacks a plan that makes sense for Yahoo! stockholders. On Monday, July 7, Mr. Icahn announced that he and Microsoft had engaged in conversations he claimed could lead to a transaction between Yahoo! and Microsoft if his slate is elected. In what was clearly a coordinated approach, Microsoft promptly followed Mr. Icahn's announcement with its own press release, stating that if – but only if – a new Board of Directors is elected, it might be interested in discussing either a transaction involving only Yahoo!'s valuable search assets or an acquisition of the entire Company (something Microsoft had refused to discuss with your Board for months).

The fact that Microsoft and Icahn had indeed teamed up to serve their own ends became entirely clear the evening of Friday, July 11, when Microsoft and Mr. Icahn jointly proposed a new complex restructuring of Yahoo! that would include the acquisition of Yahoo!'s search business by Microsoft. Your Board of Directors was given less than 24 hours to accept the proposal, the fundamental terms of which Microsoft and Mr. Icahn made clear they were unwilling to negotiate. After reviewing the proposal with our legal and financial advisors, your Board of Directors determined that accepting the proposal is not in the best interests of our stockholders.

The Board's rejection of the new proposal was based on a number of factors, including the following: • 1. Yahoo!'s existing business plus its recently signed commercial agreement with Google has superior financial value and less complexity and risk than the Microsoft/Icahn proposal. • 2. The Microsoft/Icahn proposal would preclude a potential sale of all of Yahoo! for a full and fair price, including a control premium. • 3. The major component of the overall value per share asserted by Microsoft/Icahn would be in Yahoo!'s remaining non-search businesses which would be overseen by Mr. Icahn's slate of directors, which has virtually no working knowledge of Yahoo!'s businesses. • 4. The Microsoft/Icahn proposal would require the immediate replacement of the current Board and removal of the top management team at Yahoo!. Your Board believes these moves would destabilize Yahoo! for the up to one year it would take to gain regulatory approval for this deal.

We believe that this odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo!'s stockholders in mind. Clearly, Microsoft, having failed to advance in search, is aligning with the short-term objectives of Mr. Icahn to coerce Yahoo! into selling its core strategic search assets on terms that are highly advantageous to Microsoft, but disadvantageous to Yahoo! stockholders. It is ludicrous to think that your Board would accept this "take it or leave it" proposal – under which we would restructure the Company and hand over to Microsoft Yahoo!'s valuable search business and to Carl Icahn the rest of the Company – with less than 24 hours to respond. We remain open to any transaction that delivers full value to our stockholders – we just do not believe such a transaction should be dictated by Microsoft and a single short-term investor.

In addition, Microsoft's position that it would not deal with, or otherwise engage with, Yahoo!'s management to reach agreement on this proposal or to implement it, is completely absurd and irresponsible given the complexity of the deal – one that requires the removal of half of Yahoo!'s business from Yahoo! and then its integration into Microsoft.

In contrast, your Board of Directors points out that a transaction to acquire the whole Company would be much more straightforward and involve far less risk than the new proposal or any similar alternative. The Board believes a whole company transaction could be negotiated and executed prior to August 1st . In communicating with Microsoft and Mr. Icahn our position with regard to their search and restructuring proposal, your Board not only repeated its offer to sell the entire Company to Microsoft for at least $33 per share, but also offered to negotiate an improved search only transaction. Microsoft rejected both offers.

Ironically, Mr. Icahn, who jointly with Microsoft developed and presented this proposal, had previously urged Yahoo! not to sell its search business to Microsoft. Specifically, in an interview on CNBC's Fast Money program, on June 4, 2008, Mr. Icahn said, "... it's crazy for this company now to do this alternative deal and give the store away, because obviously, an alternative deal is a poison pill because once you've done an alternative deal and given the search to Microsoft, you don't need Microsoft to buy you anymore. So, that would be a poison pill...."

Significantly, the Board also believes Microsoft and Mr. Icahn are overstating the value their search and restructuring proposal would deliver to Yahoo! stockholders and substantially understating the risks. A transaction that would separate the Company's search and display businesses is an undertaking of great complexity. While this most recent proposal contains a number of improvements over Microsoft's earlier proposal, your Board's conclusion that the current proposal is not in the best interests of stockholders is based on the following factors in addition to those we set forth above:

The revenue guarantees suggested, which are conditional and subject to reduction, are well below the search revenue that the Company is expected to generate on its own and in association with its announced commercial agreement with Google. That agreement alone is estimated to generate $250 to $450 million of incremental operating cash flow for the first twelve months following implementation, while allowing Yahoo! to remain a principal in paid search; • The success of the remaining Company is critically dependent on Microsoft's ability to effectively monetize search; • Microsoft/Icahn's proposed traffic acquisition costs rates are below market; • The proposal calls for Yahoo! to sell its industry-leading algorithmic search business and its related strategic and valuable intellectual property portfolio for no incremental consideration; and • Many of the components of the headline value that Mr. Icahn and Microsoft put forward, such as the spin-off of Yahoo!'s Asian assets and the return of cash to stockholders, are steps that could be taken by Yahoo! on its own, and the Board continues to evaluate these options.

The choice for Yahoo! stockholders is clear: turn your Company and its uniquely valuable combination of assets over to Carl Icahn and his nominees and allow Microsoft and Mr. Icahn to dismantle the Company and deliver our search business to Microsoft on terms that would be disadvantageous to Yahoo! stockholders, or re-elect your experienced and dedicated Board with a clear strategy and a demonstrated commitment to create value for Yahoo! stockholders. We are prepared to let you, our stockholders, not Microsoft and Carl Icahn, decide what is in your best interests and we look forward to the upcoming vote.

We strongly urge you to vote your WHITE Proxy Card today for your current Board of Directors.

Thank you for your support.

Roy Bostock Chairman of the Board

Jerry Yang Chief Executive Officer

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Another Microsoft Offer, Another Yahoo Rejection

Recently, Microsoft and Carl Icahn got quite cozy, and the budding relationship spawned a new Yahoo offer. Despite Yahoo's insistence that they remain open to an offer from Microsoft, they have, once again, rejected the software giant.

The new deal would split up Yahoo, selling the search portion to Microsoft. That sale would be overseen by Carl Icahn and his board.

The new proposal was rejected for the following four reasons:

Yahoo!'s existing business plus its recently signed commercial agreement with Google has superior financial value and less complexity and risk than the Microsoft/Icahn proposal.
The Microsoft/Icahn proposal would preclude a potential sale of all of Yahoo! for a full and fair price, including a control premium.
The major component of the overall value per share asserted by Microsoft/Icahn would be in Yahoo!'s remaining non-search businesses which would be overseen by Mr. Icahn's slate of directors, which has virtually no working knowledge of Yahoo!'s businesses
The Microsoft/Icahn proposal would require the immediate replacement of the current Board and removal of the top management team at Yahoo!. The Yahoo! Board believes these moves would destabilize Yahoo! for the up to the one year it would take to gain regulatory approval for this deal

Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo! said, "This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo!'s stockholders in mind. Clearly, Microsoft, having failed to advance in search, is aligning with the short-term objectives of Mr. Icahn to coerce Yahoo! into selling its core strategic search assets on terms that are highly advantageous to Microsoft, but disadvantageous to Yahoo! stockholders. Yahoo's Board of Directors will not allow that to happen. Yahoo!'s Board remains open to any transaction that delivers full value to our stockholders - we just do not believe such a transaction should be dictated by Microsoft and a single short-term investor."

What do you think of Microsoft's latest offer? Was it just posturing in advance of Yahoo's Aug 1 shareholders meeting? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 11, 2008

Google CEO Affirms Stance on Independent Yahoo

In the wake of Carl Icahn's declaration that Microsoft would buy a Yahoo run be a different board (and Microsoft's affirmation of the claim), Google CEO Eric Schmidt hasn't changed his position on what should happen with Yahoo. Speaking to reporters in Idaho yesterday, he reiterated that he believes an Independent Yahoo is best for the industry.

Schmidt called Microsoft's bid for Yahoo "anti-competitive," something Google has been saying from the beginning. He also said that the Redmond-based software giant has a history of being anti-competitive, and that's evidence enough of their intentions with acquiring Yahoo.

Of course, Google is facing its own anti-competitive issues with its recently announced search advertising deal with Yahoo. Despite the partnership being non-exclusive, the Justice Department formally opened their antitrust investigation into the matter earlier this month.

Still, it's no doubt that the search ad deal fuels Schmidt's desire for Yahoo to remain independent. That and a Microhoo would mean a stronger second place competitor in the search ad marketplace. Though, most would agree that second place is definitely first loser in a Google-dominated search industry.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 9, 2008

Where My Ads At? Yahoo Knows

Now you see it. Now you don't. If you conduct search advertising over at Yahoo, your experience may feel a bit like hide and seek at first. But Kastle Waserman, Communications Manager, managed to find the time and wherewithal at troubled Yahoo to answer this very problem on their Search Marketing Blog.

Our system is designed to check your click charges to see how close you are to your spending limit, and adjusts the display of your ads to ration your spending throughout the day. That way, your whole budget isn't blown in the first few hours that the ad is online.

So what do you do when your ads aren't displayed as often as you like? If your ads are not being displayed as often as you like, it may be time to take a look at how your spending limits and bids are set. To help get your ads displayed more often, consider increasing your spending limits. If that's not possible, there are ways to work within your means and still compete with the deep-pocket competition.

What do you think of Kastle's tips? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo's Yang Rips Microsoft and Icahn

CEO Jerry Yang accused Microsoft of trying to destabilize Yahoo without intending to complete a deal, according to the Wall St. Journal. Yang also fired back at billionaire investor Carl Icahn and his selection of a new Yahoo board.

What ticked Yang off? Microsoft said publicly it would restart buyout talks and partial acquisition discussions if Icahn succeeds at replacing Yahoo's board of directors in a proxy battle.

"To trust Mr. Icahn and his board is really a bad choice," Mr. Yang said in an interview with the WSJ.

Of course, Icahn would replace Yang so it's clear why Jerry wouldn't trust him.

Yang said Yahoo would look at any deal Microsoft proposed, and he called Microsoft's apparent unwillingness to negotiate further "baffling." Microsoft and Yahoo advisors spoke last week, but there are currently no formal conversations between the companies, he said.

Microsoft had no comment on Yang's remarks. A spokesperson referred to Monday's statement, which read: "We have concluded that we cannot reach an agreement with them. We confirm, however, that after the shareholder election, Microsoft would be interested in discussing with a new board a major transaction with Yahoo."

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 7, 2008

Yahoo Responds to Icahn's Latest Letter

Yahoo has responded to the letter Carl Icahn issued this morning. Here's the statement

Yahoo!'s Board of Directors continues to stand ready to enter into negotiations with Microsoft Corporation for an acquisition of Yahoo!. Indeed, as recently as June, Yahoo!'s independent directors and management approached Steve Ballmer about just such a transaction, only to be told that Microsoft was no longer interested even in the price range which they had previously proposed. Now Mr. Ballmer and Mr. Icahn have teamed up in an apparent effort to force Yahoo! into selling to Microsoft its Search business at a price to be determined in a future "negotiation" between Mr. Icahn's directors and Microsoft's management. We feel very strongly that this would not lead to an outcome that would be in the best interests of Yahoo!'s stockholders. If Microsoft and Mr. Ballmer really want to purchase Yahoo!, we again invite them to make a proposal immediately. And if Mr. Icahn has an actual plan for Yahoo! beyond hoping that Microsoft might actually consummate a deal which they have repeatedly walked away from, we would be very interested in hearing it.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Carl Icahn Returns to Letter-Writing; Microsoft Open to Deal with a New Yahoo Board

The rumors of Microsoft still being open to a deal with Yahoo are true - with a caveat. The deal would have to be struck with a new board, not with Jerry Yang and his current set of cohorts. It could include a full acquisition or an alternative deal for just search. The software giant released the following statement:

"Despite working since January 31 of this year, as well as in the early part of last year, we have never been able to reach an agreement in a timely way on acceptable terms with the current management and Board of Directors at Yahoo!. We have concluded that we cannot reach an agreement with them. We confirm, however, that after the shareholder election Microsoft would be interested in discussing with a new board a major transaction with Yahoo!, such as either a transaction to purchase the “Search” function with large financial guarantees or, in the alternative, purchasing the whole company."

Of course, it's not just any new board. Microsoft's Ballmer has been talking to Carl Icahn, who has put together a proxy board to take over Yahoo. The talks prompted Icahn to break out the quill, and compose his latest edition in his series of letter-writing expeditions:

Carl C. Icahn ICAHN CAPITAL LP 767 Fifth Avenue, 47th Floor New York, NY 10153

July 7, 2008

Dear Yahoo! Shareholders:

During the past week I have spoken frequently with Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. Several of our conversations have lasted as long as an hour. Also, a few of our discussions have taken place while other top executives, such as Kevin Johnson, participated. Our talks centered on the industry in general but, more importantly, on how Yahoo! and Microsoft can do a transaction together. Steve made it abundantly clear that, due to his experiences with Yahoo! during the past several months, he cannot negotiate any transaction with the current board. His logic is simple. If and when a transaction was consummated, Microsoft would be guaranteeing a great deal of capital at closing. However, a transaction could take at least nine months and perhaps longer to obtain regulatory clearance in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere. During that period, if the current board and management team of Yahoo! mismanage the company (and their recent track record is far from reassuring), Microsoft would be putting its money at risk and a great deal could be lost.

For example, in a transaction to purchase the whole company, a very large amount of capital would be due at closing. Even in an "alternate" transaction, where just the "Search" assets were purchased, large guarantees would have to be made and, again, large sums could be lost if the company was mismanaged. Microsoft perceives this risk may be quite high with the current board and management in place. However, Steve made it clear to me that if a new board were elected, he would be interested in discussing a major transaction with Yahoo!, such as either a transaction to purchase the "Search" function with large financial guarantees or, in the alternative, purchasing the whole company. He stated that Microsoft would be willing to enter into discussion immediately if the new board that has been nominated were elected. While there can be no assurance of a future transaction, as many of you know, I have negotiated successfully a large number of transactions over the past years. If and when elected, I strongly believe that in very short order the new board would, subject to its fiduciary duties, be presenting to shareholders either a purchase offer for the whole company or a very attractive offer to purchase "Search" with large guarantees. I hope to continue to be speaking to Steve over the next few weeks; however, since I do not as yet represent the Yahoo! board, both Steve and I do not wish to get into details over price, or even which of these transactions makes the most sense.

Much has been said about how badly the Yahoo! board has "botched up" negotiations with Microsoft over the past months. There is no need to keep pointing out the mistakes I believe Yahoo! made by not immediately taking a $33 offer made by Microsoft. But one thing is clear -- Jerry Yang and the current board of Yahoo! will not be able to "botch up" a negotiation with Microsoft again, simply because they will not have the opportunity.

Our company is now moving toward a precipice. It is currently losing market share in its "Search" function; our current Board has failed to bring in a talented and experienced CEO to replace Jerry Yang and return Jerry to his role as Chief Yahoo!, and currently it is witnessing a meaningful exodus of talent. It is no secret that Google (which hired a great operator as CEO) continues to dramatically outperform Yahoo!. According to publicly available information, Google's income from operations grew 59% per year over the last two years while Yahoo!'s shrank 21% per year. However, none of the above has caused the Yahoo! board to hesitate in paying themselves $10,000 per week. IT IS TIME FOR A CHANGE.

If elected, I have little doubt that the new board, subject to its fiduciary duties, will do what the current board will not do, i.e.,

-- Immediately start negotiation with Microsoft to sell the whole company or, in the alternative, sell "Search" with large guarantees.

-- Move expeditiously to replace Jerry Yang with a new CEO with operating experience.

Sincerely yours,

CARL C. ICAHN

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 3, 2008

Search Sold Separately: Breaking Down Yahoo's Parts

Despite a search advertising deal with Google, Yahoo shares are down and rumors are on again about Microsoft buying just the search chunk of Yahoo. But just how big is that chunk? Would it destroy Yahoo as a whole if sold separately? Not necessarily, according to Hitwise Vice President of Research, Heather Hopkins.

Hopkins analyzed the US internet hits for the top 20 Yahoo properties in the month of June. Yahoo Mail by far saw the most traffic, at 37.47%. Yahoo.com saw 30.62%, and remember that's a portal not just a search page like Google.com. Yahoo Search came in third but only saw 12.10%. The remaining 17 made up a combined 19.83%. Here's the full breakdown of Yahoo's top 20 properties.

Hopkins also took a look at what search referrals look like for the above 20 properties. Yahoo Answers, Finance, My Yahoo, Mail, Flickr, Fantasy Baseball, Hot Jobs, Sports, and Groups all received more referrals from Google search than from Yahoo search. Check out the full chart below.

These numbers are only for the U.S., and Yahoo is more popular in Asia. Attempts to reach Hitwise for Asian data were not immediately returned.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 2, 2008

Yahoo Gives Upcoming a Makeover

Just in time for the Fourth of July, Yahoo has given Upcoming a new look. They've also increased the scope of events searchable on the local events site. New event types include farmers markets, craft fairs and street festivals.

Events for over 8,000 cities can be found on Upcoming and the results are also integrated into other Yahoo products, including My Yahoo!, Travel Guides, Music, and Local. Last October, Yahoo announced that Upcoming would be blended into its search results, along with Flickr and Yahoo Answers.

If you already have an account on Upcoming, then you'll still have access to your communities. Check out the screenshot below to see the new look:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 27, 2008

Microsoft to (Finally) Acquire Powerset? Should Someone Tell Icahn?

Microsoft must have been putting on a good poker face a week ago when it said they weren't looking at any internet-based acquisitions in the wake of failed talks with Yahoo. Venture Beat is now reporting that Microsoft is poised to acquire semantic search company Powerset in the neighborhood of $100 million.

Meanwhile, Carl Icahn is still living his proxy dreams. He's calling on Microsoft to not make an alternative deal with Yahoo unless a $33 per share guarantee is in place, according to Reuters.

The question is: Which of Microsoft's bluffs should we call? The one where they said they weren't interested in acquisitions? Or the one where they're buying Powerset (to once again put pressure on Yahoo)?

Call bluffs in the comments!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 25, 2008

Microsoft and Yahoo: Are They or Aren't They?

Yesterday, TechCrunch reported that Microsoft and Yahoo were talking again. I was immediately skeptical. Recently, All Things Digital had called out TechCrunch as conducting piggyback reporting instead of doing their own heavy-lifting. While I thought that was a bit harsh (All Things Digital is a project of the Wall Street Journal, and quite frankly - who has their connections?), it came as no surprise that TechCrunch would attempt to break a big story.

Still, the mainstream press ran with the story. Surely, they had done their homework.

Maybe not.

This morning, Kara Swisher of All Things D explained why she didn't run with the story: she couldn't corroborate it. I read her story with a firm sense of "I thought so" until she said that her Yahoo and Microsoft sources "emphatically went out of their way yesterday–which is not so typical–to deny any talks were going on..."

Sounds like Ms. Swisher's sources are protesting a little too much.

If talks have resumed, it sounds like they might be doing it the right way this time - keeping the conversation behind closed doors instead of blasting rhetoric through the press. But that might be a big IF.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 16, 2008

Former Search Technologist and Yahoo Investor Mark Nelson Supports Icahn

Even though Carl Icahn has said the Yahoo-Google deal might have merit, former search technologist Mark Nelson has announced his support for Icahn's proxy board, according to Barron's. Nelson founded search technology company Ovid Technologies and sold it to Wolters Kluwer for $200 million in 1998.

Today, Nelson is a partner at Mithras Capital, which holds 1.7 million shares of Yahoo.

In a letter addressed to Jerry Yang, Susan Decker and Roy Bostock, Nelson explained the reasoning behind his difficult decision to sell a company he built:

"Despite my emotional commitment to the company, and despite 10 years of enviable growth and profitability, in 1998 the Board and I came to the conclusion that selling the company was the best way to fulfill our fiduciary responsibility to maximize value for all shareholders."

The letter continued on with much of the same arguments we've heard from Icahn in his letters, including references to the poison pill.

Earlier, investor Eric Jackson announced his support for a combo board, that would keep 5 of Yahoo's current board and bring in 4 from Icahn's board. Jackson leads a shareholder group with 3.2 million shares.

Former Search Technologist and Yahoo Investor Mark Nelson Supports Icahn

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 12, 2008

Yahoo on MicroHoo: Stick a Fork In It - We're Done

MicroHoo is dead. RIP Microsoft-Yahoo. Today Yahoo made the official announcement that they've concluded discussions with Microsoft. The possibility of a full acquisition or a partical acquisition are nil.

What's more, Yahoo indicated that an independent search business will be critical to its strategic future and would not be in the best interests of Yahoo! stockholders. That casts doubt on the veracity of the TechCrunch rumor.

Full Text: Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) today announced that discussions with Microsoft regarding a potential transaction -- whether for an acquisition of all of Yahoo! or a partial acquisition -- have concluded. The conclusion of discussions follows numerous meetings and conversations with Microsoft regarding a number of transaction alternatives, including a meeting between Yahoo! and Microsoft on June 8th in which Chairman Roy Bostock and other independent Board members from Yahoo! participated. At that meeting, Microsoft representatives stated unequivocally that Microsoft is not interested in pursuing an acquisition of all of Yahoo!, even at the price range it had previously suggested.

With respect to an acquisition of Yahoo!'s search business alone that Microsoft had proposed, Yahoo!'s Board of Directors has determined, after careful evaluation, that such a transaction would not be consistent with the company's view of the converging search and display marketplaces, would leave the company without an independent search business that it views as critical to its strategic future and would not be in the best interests of Yahoo! stockholders.

Yahoo! remains focused on maximizing value for stockholders by continuing to execute on its strategy of being the "starting point" for the most consumers on the Internet and a "must buy" for advertisers. The online advertising industry is projected to grow from $40 billion in 2007 to approximately $75 billion in 2010 and the company believes it has the right assets, strategic plan, Board of Directors and management team to capitalize on this growth opportunity.

UPDATE: Microsoft has issued a response: "In the weeks since Microsoft withdrew its offer to acquire Yahoo!, the two companies have continued to discuss an alternative transaction that Microsoft believes would have delivered in excess of $33 per share to the Yahoo! shareholders. This partnership would ensure healthy competition in the marketplace, providing greater choice and innovation for advertisers, publishers and consumers.

"As stated on May 3rd and reiterated on May 18th Microsoft was not interested in rebidding for all of Yahoo!. Our alternative transaction remains available for discussion."

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 9, 2008

Yahoo's Call for Search Developers: Bad Timing?

In the midst of preparing for a proxy board fight brought on by Carl Icahn, the Yahoo! Search team has put out a call for new employees. A recent post on the Yahoo! Search blog implores, "We're looking for the brightest technical minds in the business to help us build the next generation of search."

The timing is curious. Any developer that's paying attention must be wondering if signing on with Yahoo will ultimately have them at Microsoft. Or perhaps have them out the door in a "last hired first fired" scenario resulting from inevitable staff cuts that follow most mergers and acquisitions.

On the flip side, Yahoo is needing to show its strength more than ever if Jerry Yang and the current Board of Directors hope to come out victorious at the August 1 shareholders meeting. Then again, their call for developers may be part of the strategy. Visiting the Yahoo! Jobs page feels like a tour of the latest talking points in the quest to remain independent.

Visitors are greeted with a big image demonstrating just how many people are using Yahoo:

Not so sure the "Think Purple" appeal is going to go over well with the male-dominated pool of software developers, but to each his own.

Then the site is peppered with these gems:

"With 1 out of every 2 people online visiting Yahoo!, we need some seriously big thinkers to fill these positions. Are you up for the challenge?"

"It would take 7,000 years for all the photos on Flickr to be developed at a one-hour photo!"

What do you think of Yahoo's recruitment of developers for its search team? Bad timing or marketing to shareholders? Sound off in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 6, 2008

Yahoo Response to Icahn: You're Not the Boss of Me!

Below for your reading enjoyment we offer the full text of the Yahoo! Inc. Statement on Carl Icahn's Letter of June 6, 2008.

Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) today issued the following response to Carl Icahn in response to his letter dated June 6, 2008:

Leaving aside Mr. Icahn's inaccurate interpretation of our retention plan, we again note that he has no credible plan to operate Yahoo!. We believe that Mr. Icahn's suggestion that we cancel our retention plan would have a destabilizing impact on Yahoo! and would clearly not be in the best interests of our shareholders. Furthermore, his suggestion that we put out a price publicly to see if Microsoft will alter its stated position is ill-advised. As we have stated numerous times publicly and privately, we are open to any transaction including a sale to Microsoft if it is in the best interests of shareholders.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Icahn Wants Yahoo to Offer Itself Up for $34.375 Per Share

Hardly a Friday goes by without a good dose of Microhoo drama leading into the weekend. Today, Carl Icahn released his second letter in a week to Yahoo's Chairman Roy Bostock. He responded to yesterday's Yahoo response to his earlier letter ripping Yang. Plus, he suggests that Yahoo publicly offer itself to Microsoft for $34.375 per share.

Hey Carl, just one suggestion. That second paragraph is a doozy. Next time, chop those sentences up into more pretty paragraphs, ok?

Anyway, Icahn also outlined 5 steps his board would take if successfully elected at the shareholders meeting on August 1. Check out the letter in its entirety below.

Carl C. Icahn ICAHN CAPITAL LP 767 Fifth Avenue, 47th Floor New York, NY 10153

June 6, 2008

Roy Bostock Chairman Yahoo! Inc. 701 First Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Dear Roy:

While you may take issue with the content of my letter, I take issue with your oversight of Yahoo! Again, I stand by my characterization of your "poison pill" severance plan and I find it humorous to see you attempt to defend it.

Roy, it is you who "misrepresents and misstates the details" of the plan. Much like the rhetoric in many well known political campaigns, you keep repeating misstatements in the hopes that by repeating misstatements enough times it will convince your shareholders that these misstatements are valid. For example, you repeated, "the plan was fully disclosed at the time of its adoption and should be no surprise to anyone at this point." This is simply not true. The egregious magnitude of the dollar amount cost of the plan was never fully disclosed, nor was the email from your compensation advisor calling the plan "nuts." While you keep repeating that the severance plan was in the "best interests of shareholders", you neglect to mention that the financial cost of the plan could be immense. The documents obtained during discovery and released in the shareholder complaint show that Yahoo! estimates the maximum change in control severance expenses to be a staggering $2.4 billion if Microsoft bids $35 per share for Yahoo! You neglected to mention that the true cost to an acquirer may be even higher as the perverse change in control severance incentives may diminish the work effort of Yahoo! employees. In case you do not understand the plan, in addition to the $2.4 billion of severance expenses, I believe the plan will negatively impact employee behavior and degrade the ability of an acquirer to successfully integrate the acquisition. In the event of a change of control, the employee may decide not to work as hard in the hopes of cashing in on a robust severance package that awards up to two years salary and benefits, $15,000 of outplacement expenses, and accelerated vesting of stock options and restricted stock units. To make matters worse, it is not just the acquirer firing the employee that can trigger the severance package but the employee who may decide on his or her own to resign for "good reason" at any point within two years of a change in control. It is quite obvious to me that this plan impacts the price an acquirer would pay. Is it any wonder than an acquirer, once fully comprehending this plan, might not wish to negotiate any further? I again call upon you to honor your fiduciary duty to your shareholders and rescind this "poison pill" severance plan.

You asked, "what exactly would happen to our Company if you and your nominees were to take control of Yahoo!" I will give you my perspective on that.

-- First, I would work to have the board replace your "poison pill" severance plan with an acceptable alternative.

-- Second, I intend to ask our new board to hire a talented and experienced CEO (attempting to replicate Google's success with Eric Schmidt) to replace Jerry Yang and return Jerry to his role as "Chief Yahoo". Indeed, it was much speculated that Jerry would serve in the CEO role temporarily until a permanent CEO was hired after the board asked Terry Semel to resign.

-- Third, I intend to ask our new board to inform Microsoft that unless any alternative transaction can insure a $33 or higher stock price (of which I am skeptical) all talks of alternative transactions are over.

-- Fourth, I will ask our new board to offer publicly to sell Yahoo! to Microsoft in a friendly and cooperative transaction.

-- Fifth, to the extent Microsoft does not want to make a proposal, I will ask our new board do a deal on search with Google, but only if it contains termination provisions that would in no way impede a subsequent acquisition by Microsoft.

Now let me ask you a couple of questions, Roy:

-- Why don't you, now that you have the opportunity, remove the "poison pill" severance plan that I find to be ridiculous and thereby remove a major obstacle to a Microsoft acquisition?

-- In my opinion, Microsoft does not believe you will ever sell the entire company on a friendly basis. So why don't you stop dancing around the subject and publicly offer to sell the company to Microsoft for $34.375 per share and promise to cooperate completely?

-- Why are you still giving hope to Microsoft that there is a possible "alternative deal"? As long as there is the possibility of an "alternative deal", isn't it obvious that Microsoft will not make a bid for the whole company?

Sincerely yours,

CARL C. ICAHN

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 5, 2008

Yahoo Responds to Carl Icahn's Allegations

Yahoo wasn't too thrilled about Carl Icahn's recent allegations that they hadn't taken the Microsoft acquisition offer seriously. So they're attempting to clear things up with their latest response letter.

Here it is for your reading enjoyment. Who needs daytime television with drama like this?

Dear Carl:

We are in receipt of your letter of June 4th and take issue with its content.

Your letter seriously misrepresents and manipulates the facts regarding the recent events pertaining to Microsoft and Yahoo!. You rely on, as "facts," a series of unsubstantiated allegations from a complaint filed in a Delaware court which grossly misstate the very clear record and position established by the Yahoo! Board. Let me elaborate:

You make reference to our employee retention plan but you significantly mischaracterize its purpose and its effect. In fact, you refer to it as a "Poison Pill" which could not be further from the truth. To set the record straight, the employee retention program is designed to protect the Company's assets and value during a time of uncertainty. The claim that the plan gives each of Yahoo!'s employees "the right to quit his or her job and pocket generous termination benefits at any time during the two years following a takeover..." is just plain wrong. In fact, our plan has a "double trigger" which means that in order for an employee to be eligible for benefits under our plan, there would need to be a change of control AND the employee would need to be terminated "Without Cause" or resign for "Good Reason." That means that in contrast to your assertions, an employee who simply quits his or her job would receive nothing under our plan.

The retention plan is intended to help us preserve and enhance shareholder value by allowing Yahoo! to continue to attract and retain the industry's best talent, and to allow employees to stay focused on implementing Yahoo!'s business strategy. In fact, the plan was adopted in order to protect the value of Yahoo! in anticipation of a possible acquisition by Microsoft which would have resulted in a lengthy regulatory review and a significant period of uncertainty for our employees. In adopting this plan, we believe Yahoo! did the right thing for its employees and its shareholders alike.

This plan was fully disclosed at the time of its adoption and should be no surprise to anyone at this point. It was disseminated to employees, publicly filed and extensively covered by the media. Significantly, as you note, Microsoft had indicated that it was prepared to spend $1.5 billion on retention incentives indicating that they too recognized that the retention of Yahoo! employees would have been critical if there had been an acquisition.

Finally, you significantly misrepresent the events of the recent past. Notably, you accuse us of turning down a $40 per share offer and "sabotaging" a $33 per share offer. Again, this is patently untrue. Yahoo!'s Board of Directors has at all times been focused on maximizing shareholder value. As has been well documented, Yahoo! has engaged in thorough discussions with Microsoft over a series of months culminating in Microsoft's decision to walk away from a potential acquisition of Yahoo!. Throughout this process, which has included an exploration of multiple strategic alternatives with multiple parties, the Board has repeatedly stated that it is open to any transaction, including a sale to Microsoft, as long as it is in the best interests of shareholders.

You seem to be under the impression that somehow Microsoft will come back to the negotiating table for a full acquisition of Yahoo!. This is puzzling as I know you are aware that we have reached out to Microsoft proactively and met with them many times in the last several weeks. During this period, their message to us and to the markets has been and remains that they are not interested in pursuing a full acquisition of Yahoo!.

Conspicuously absent from your letter is any credible plan for Yahoo! other than a repetition of your insistence that the Company should sell itself to Microsoft. Indeed, your stated view that "the only way to salvage Yahoo! in the long if not short run is to merge with Microsoft" demonstrates that you have no other plan and causes one to wonder what exactly would happen to our Company if you and your nominees were to take control of Yahoo!.

Sincerely,

Roy Bostock Chairman of the Board

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 4, 2008

Yahoo Sets Aug 1 Shareholder Meeting, Icahn Wants Yang Out

In the ongoing saga of Microhoogle, two major announcements have been made amidst the rumors and the ever-present speculation.

First up, Yahoo has set an August 1, 2008 date for its postponed shareholders meeting. That gives them almost two months to ready the troops to fight Icahn's proxy board.

And Jerry Yang has more reason than ever to fight and fight hard. Carl Icahn has announced that he wants Yang out as CEO of Yahoo. The news came in the wake of unsealed court documents claiming Yang had not given serious consideration to Microsoft's offer.

What do you want to happen? Do you even care anymore? Should the world be caring about two search engines that trail Google by such a wide margin? Sound off in the comments!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 29, 2008

Yahoo to File White Proxy Card with SEC

Yahoo is urging its shareholders to use the white proxy card to vote for the current board, which the company has nominated to continue serving for the coming year. Additionally, Yahoo is advising shareholders to read the proxy statement that will be filed with the SEC.

Here's the statement from the Yahoo corporate blog:

Yahoo! will be filing a definitive proxy statement and accompanying WHITE proxy card with the SEC in connection with the solicitation of proxies for its 2008 annual meeting of stockholders. Stockholders are strongly advised to read Yahoo!'s 2008 definitive proxy statement when it becomes available because it will contain important information. Stockholders will be able to obtain copies of Yahoo!'s 2008 definitive proxy statement and other documents filed by Yahoo! with the SEC in connection with its 2008 annual meeting of stockholders at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or at the Investor Relations section of Yahoo!'s website at yhoo.client.shareholder.com. Yahoo!, its directors, and certain of its officers may be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies from stockholders in connection with Yahoo!'s 2008 annual meeting of stockholders. Information concerning Yahoo!'s directors and officers is available in its preliminary proxy statement filed with the SEC on May 22, 2008.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 23, 2008

Yahoo Nominates Current Board but Postpones Shareholder Meeting

Yahoo has nominated 9 of the 10 current board members for re-election this July. But the shareholders meeting has been postponed. Originally scheduled for July 3, the meeting is now expected to occur in late July.

Who the delay ultimately ends up helping remains to be seen. On the one hand, the delay could help Carl Icahn in his proxy board fight. Or the time could help the current board negotiate a deal with Microsoft or an ad deal with Google.

In order for that to happen, Jerry Yang will need to cooperate. Kara Swisher is reporting that Yang is no longer going it alone in negotiations. Roy Bostock, Yahoo's Chairman, is assuring shareholders that "others" including independent directors to make sure the renewed talks with Microsoft go a little better.

But at least one current board member is trading in the drama for a more peaceful life. Edward Kozel is retiring from the board to spend more time with his family. He will not be replaced. Yahoo is only nominating the remaining 9 members.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 15, 2008

Delving into the SearchMonkey

Yahoo announced today the general public availability of their SearchMonkey program. This is a program that has been in beta testing with limited partners. It allows the partner to provide Yahoo with structured data that provides advanced information about a web page. This information is then used by Yahoo to influence the presentation of organic search listing results for that page.

This is a very powerful concept in that a modified search listing can surely influence click through rates. Imagine your search listing with an image and several related links built in. Let's look at a quick example:

You can see additional examples in my interview with Yahoo Chief Scientist Andrew Tomkins. The interview was published this past Monday and focuses on SearchMonkey.

The basic process for creating SearchMonkey applications is straightforward. SearchMonkey supports multiple formats, including microformats, RDFa, eRDF, XML feeds, and APIs such as OpenSearch, so publishers have many options for exposing the data.

In addition, developers can build sophisticated applications into the search results. An example of this is the notion of an InfoBar. With an InfoBar, you can actually put an active control in your search listing result. When users click on the control, you mini application will run and can present additional data that displays inline right on the Yahoo search results page.

Here is what it looks like:

The InfoBar provides a very powerful mechanism for managing complex interactions with users right on the Yahoo search results screen. This should have significant value from a branding and click through perspective.

Here is a summary of the development process:

Application Type – Decide what type of app you want to build (Enhanced Result or Infobar) and enter basic info such as application name, description, and icon.
Trigger URLs – Decide the URL patterns that will trigger your app.
Data Services – Data Services are the structured data on which SearchMonkey apps are based. They can be created using data available in the Yahoo! Search index (via data feeds or page mark-up such as microformats or RDF) or by using APIs or page extraction.
Appearance - Use PHP to configure how structured data should appear in the application.

Commentary

Note step 2, the one in which your application gets activated. A critical part of the program will be determining when and where you would like your enhanced result to show up.

One key element of the program is that creating an enhanced result, or an InfoBar, does not mean that all users will be exposed to them. Users need to enable the enhanced listings on a publisher by publisher basis. In addition, users can change their minds later and remove your SearchMonkey application from their results.

I spoke to Amit Kumar, Director of Product Management at Yahoo, this past Tuesday, and he indicated that in the future that select SearchMonkey applications may get exposed to all comers. Applications that are adopted by lots of users, and not remove by many at all would be more likely to make this leap to general availability. This however, is not a certainty.

Amit also told me that Yahoo is going to setup a Gallery of such applications for users. This will be a place where the user can go to select an application and enable it. It will be interesting to see how much exposure the Gallery gets. This will play a critical role in the rate of adoption of these types of results. The publisher can, of course, promote their own application, and try to drive people to sign up for it.

Another thing that Amit emphasized during our conversation was that the effort level for developers to engage with SearchMonkey is quite low. The platform makes it really easy for them to engage. This could play a critical role in broadening adoption.

One thing I learned in my interview with Andrew, and also from his presentation at SES New York, is that building SearchMonkey applications will not help you improve your rankings. The program is not intended to be used for that purpose.

Personally, I'd like to see a stronger move towards exposing some of the applications to all users. This maybe a difficult thing to implement at some level, and it makes it far more susceptible to spam. But it would certainly accelerate the exposure of these types of applications to the general public.

The early action (in terms of users) will likely be driven by early adopters. Then we will need to see how widely it penetrates the market, and how aggressively Yahoo pushes it forward.

That said, this is exciting stuff. I have long been a believer that search engines should get more information from the publishers, in a structured format. Yahoo has taken a big step in that direction with this program.

Posted by at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Icahn Trumps Yahoo Board: "You're Fired!"

Yahoo may need to fight off Carl Icahn Syndrome by Proxy today.

Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSP) is a type of factitious disorder which appears strikingly similar to the Icahn strategy. MSP is a mental illness where a person acts as if an individual he's caring for has a physical or mental illness when the person is not really sick.

Is Yahoo sick? No. That won't stop dissident investors, though, from acting as if the company is.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who's invested more than a billion dollars in Yahoo, will initiate a proxy contest to oust Yahoo Inc.'s board of directors, according to the WSJ, a move designed to jumpstart the stalled MicroHoo merger.

Icahn (pictured here in a conservative blue suit) hasn't won every proxy war he's waged: Marvel Comics, for example, stands out as a success story after the superhero company defeated Icahn and his minions.

People with MSP assume the role of a sick person indirectly by lying about illness in another person under their care. We're not calling Icahn a liar but we don't think the Yahoo board is crazy for declining the Microsoft takeover bid.

In a proxy battle, Icahn would nominate 10 directors to replace Yahoo's board before today's deadline. The new slate of directors is said to include former Viacom Inc. CEO Frank Biondi, an Icahn proxy war ally.

Of course, the reason for the proxy battle differs from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, which is not done to achieve a concrete benefit, such as financial gain. For Icahn, it's all about the Benjamins. In Sunnyvale, he'll be known as the Yahooligan.

Like Baron von Munchausen, who rode a cannonball behind enemy lines then rode one back when he decided it wasn't such a good idea, Icahn can enter enemy territory without suffering a scratch from Microsoft or Yahoo. His proxy board will wage the war for him.

Icahn has some big wins under his belt: he spurred Motorola's decision to spin off its mobile phone business in March. He has also led a campaign by video-store chain Blockbuster to purchase electronics retailer Circuit City Stores.

If that deal doesn't go through, Icahn has stated he'll buy Circuit City.

No word on whether he'd buy Yahoo.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 5, 2008

Yang's Yahoo Answers "OK, so now what?"

"OK so now what?" is the headline of Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang's blog post this morning at Yodel Anecdotal, the official Yahoo! blog. Yahoo must face the future with Microsoft at its doorstep and Google as the dominant search engine.

Yang outlines the furious pace of Q1 when the search engine bought another company, launched new products, added partners, and opened new R&D labs:

* Acquired Maven Networks. * Launched Yahoo! Buzz, OneSearch 2.0, mobile voice search, Flickr video, Shine. * Previewed AMP and SearchMonkey. * Addied Newspaper Consortium members. * Opened new R&D labs in India and Israel.

All very impressive (along with a solid first quarter) but the blog post doesn't address the number one question on everyone's mind - and the most important one: What will Yahoo! do with search?

Yahoo has some innovative plans for improving search results but no plans for increasing market share.

OK, so now what for Google? Now that Microsoft is on the sidelines, does Google have any incentive to do an outsourcing deal with Yahoo?

The reality? No. Google share of searches continues to grow. Yahoo and Microsoft have been weakened further by the merger distractions.

Everything's not OK in Sunnyvale today.

Without a Google deal in hand, Jerry Yang faces a very black Monday.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:37 AM | Permalink

May 4, 2008

Microsoft-Yahoo Mashup Scrapped: Hidden Winners and Losers

On Saturday, Microsoft formally withdrew its proposal to acquire Yahoo. With the Microsoft-Yahoo mashup scrapped (for now), who are the hidden winners and losers?

I'm not talking about the stockholders, advertisers, employees, CEOs, management teams, boards of directors or other stakeholders of Google, Yahoo or Microsoft. They are the obvious winners and losers.

No, I'm talking about the hidden winners and losers – or, at least the ones that have been hidden in plain sight. I may have missed some. I've been busy. (I've got a day job.) But, here are the ones I was able to find on Sunday:

Hidden Winners of the Scrapped Microsoft-Yahoo Mashup

The biggest hidden winner is AP photographer Mark Lennihan. His May 4, 2007 file photo of a Times Square news ticker flashing a headline about Microsoft above a billboard for Yahoo became one of the most used images in Google News to illustrate stories about Microsoft's unsolicited bid for Yahoo.

Another hidden winner is the Flickr group photo pool, "Microsoft: Keep You Evil Grubby Hands Off Our Flickr." Its About Us statement reads, “THIS GROUP WILL STOP MICROSOFT FROM BUYING YAHOO! AND DESTROYING THE FLICKR WE KNOW AND LOVE OR WE WILL DIE TRYING.” Put down the camera, son. It's over.

Kevin Ryan on the Microsoft Yahoo bid (Associated Press)

The final hidden winner is Kevin Ryan, the global content director for Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch. His comments to AP on what the possibility of a Microsoft-Yahoo conglomerate means for the online marketplace ranks #1 in YouTube if you search for the two-word term, Microsoft Yahoo.

Hidden Losers of the Scrapped Microsoft-Yahoo Mashup

The biggest hidden loser is the Y-Que T Shirt Superstore. While it ranks #1 in Google Product Search for MicroHoo, that wasn't as popular at term as "Microsoft Yahoo," according to Google Trends. And now it's stuck with a bunch of funny t-shirts commemorating the takeover of Yahoo by Microsoft.

Another hidden loser is Kevin Heisler, executive editor of Search Engine Watch. What was he doing Saturday night at 9:59 p.m.? He was posting a story to the Search Engine Watch Blog entitled, “Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Offer; Yahoo Responds.” He should have been out watching Iron Man, like Deborah Richman.

Steve Ballmer going crazy

The final hidden losers are the Rapid Response Team at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide and the staff at Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher. Do a search for Steve Ballmer on Google. See the YouTube video of Steve going crazy? I've got four words for public relations professionals: Search Engine Reputation Management.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 3:31 PM | Permalink

May 3, 2008

Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Offer; Yahoo Responds

Microhoo bid raised aloft; Google-Yahoo Kool-Aid quaffed. "No Mas" cried Ballmer's Microsoft.

Yahoo drank the Google paid search Kool-Aid to fight off Microsoft, leading the Redmond giant to retract its higher bid to acquire the Sunnyvale search engine. Microsoft reportedly offered $33 a share, and Yahoo held fast at $37 a share. That was too rich for Steve Ballmer's blood. The prospect of Yahoo outsourcing its paid search to Google was also too much for Ballmer to stomach.

So Microsoft walked. In a letter to Jerry Yang (full text below), Steve Ballmer cited Yahoo's intention to outsource search as the primary reason he decided to scotch the deal.

Of course that doesn't mean enraged Yahoo! shareholders won't sue Yahoo.

Ballmer wrote, "I hereby formally withdraw Microsoft's proposal to acquire Yahoo!."

Here's why, according to Microsoft's business logic:

Advertisers would use Google rather than Yahoo! Panama to manage paid search, fragmenting not only PPC but display advertising and the Yahoo! advertising ecosystem. Yahoo then wouldn't be able to retain talented engineers working on advertising systems - engineers whom Ballmer considers a key aspect of Yahoo's attractiveness.

The decision would also create a morass of regulatory and legal problems that no acquirer - especially Microsoft - would want to slog through. Ballmer believes search market share of the combined Yahooo-Google deal would reduce competition and advertiser choice.

Ballmer took the argument one step further, stating the deal would "effectively enable Google to set the prices for key search terms on both their and (Yahoo!) search platforms and, in the process, raise prices charged to advertisers on Yahoo.

While it would be hard to prove a keyword-auction would enable Google or any search engine to "set prices," the deal would increase keyword prices based on Google's ability to monetize inventory more efficiently.

Yahoo responded by promising (again) to maximize shareholder value and pursue strategic opportunities. Yahoo still maintains Microsoft undervalued the company.

Yahoo! banged the drum (again) about:

"-- a refined strategic focus to drive enhanced volume and yield;

-- reorganized to focus its efforts on its most promising products and services;

-- invested in innovations designed to revolutionize display advertising and facilitate closing the competitive gap in search; and

-- enhanced expense and resource management to support improved profitability."

As Jerry Seinfeld might have said, "Yadda, Yadda, Yadda, Yahoo."

Be prepared Monday for Yahoo shares to plummet back to earth. (Full text of Steve Ballmer's statement after the jump.)

Below is the text of the letter from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang.

May 3, 2008

Mr. Jerry Yang CEO and Chief Yahoo Yahoo! Inc. 701 First Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Dear Jerry: After over three months, we have reached the conclusion of the process regarding a possible combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!.

I first want to convey my personal thanks to you, your management team, and Yahoo!'s Board of Directors for your consideration of our proposal. I appreciate the time and attention all of you have given to this matter, and I especially appreciate the time that you have invested personally. I feel that our discussions this week have been particularly useful, providing me for the first time with real clarity on what is and is not possible.

I am disappointed that Yahoo! has not moved towards accepting our offer. I first called you with our offer on January 31 because I believed that a combination of our two companies would have created real value for our respective shareholders and would have provided consumers, publishers, and advertisers with greater innovation and choice in the marketplace. Our decision to offer a 62 percent premium at that time reflected the strength of these convictions.

In our conversations this week, we conveyed our willingness to raise our offer to $33.00 per share, reflecting again our belief in this collective opportunity. This increase would have added approximately another $5 billion of value to your shareholders, compared to the current value of our initial offer. It also would have reflected a premium of over 70 percent compared to the price at which your stock closed on January 31. Yet it has proven insufficient, as your final position insisted on Microsoft paying yet another $5 billion or more, or at least another $4 per share above our $33.00 offer.

Also, after giving this week's conversations further thought, it is clear to me that it is not sensible for Microsoft to take our offer directly to your shareholders. This approach would necessarily involve a protracted proxy contest and eventually an exchange offer. Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make Yahoo! undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft.

We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a "hostile" bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo! today. In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo! undesirable to us for a number of reasons:

-- First, it would fundamentally undermine Yahoo!'s own strategy and long-term viability by encouraging advertisers to use Google as opposed to your Panama paid search system. This would also fragment your search advertising and display advertising strategies and the ecosystem surrounding them. This would undermine the reliance on your display advertising business to fuel future growth.

-- Given this, it would impair Yahoo's ability to retain the talented engineers working on advertising systems that are important to our interest in a combination of our companies.

-- In addition, it would raise a host of regulatory and legal problems that no acquirer, including Microsoft, would want to inherit. Among other things, this would consolidate market share with the already-dominant paid search provider in a manner that would reduce competition and choice in the marketplace.

-- This would also effectively enable Google to set the prices for key search terms on both their and your search platforms and, in the process, raise prices charged to advertisers on Yahoo. In addition to whatever resulting legal problems, this seems unwise from a business perspective unless in fact one simply wishes to use this as a vehicle to exit the paid search business in favor of Google.

-- It could foreclose any chance of a combination with any other search provider that is not already relying on Google's search services.

Accordingly, your apparent plan to pursue such an arrangement in the event of a proxy contest or exchange offer leads me to the firm decision not to pursue such a path. Instead, I hereby formally withdraw Microsoft's proposal to acquire Yahoo!.

We will move forward and will continue to innovate and grow our business at Microsoft with the talented team we have in place and potentially through strategic transactions with other business partners.

I still believe even today that our offer remains the only alternative put forward that provides your stockholders full and fair value for their shares. By failing to reach an agreement with us, you and your stockholders have left significant value on the table.

But clearly a deal is not to be.

Thank you again for the time we have spent together discussing this.

Sincerely yours, /s/ Steven A. Ballmer

Steven A. Ballmer Chief Executive Officer Microsoft CorporationFrom the article, "...Yahoo is planning to launch its own online music service later this year, despite its US$160 million purchase of Musicmatch announced last week, according to music industry sources...Yahoo is developing its own music player software, backed by MusicNet-provided downloads and subscriptions, that it plans to run alongside the recently purchased Musicmatch. The double-barreled strategy could help shoot Yahoo to the top of the music service business, but does have its risks. Yahoo still plans to launch that home-built package by the fourth quarter of this year, despite its recent purchase of Musicmatch, those sources said."

Posted by Gary Price at 8:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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