July 27, 2007

Yahoo Names Former Microsoft SVP To Board of Directors

Maggie Wilderotter, former senior vice president at Microsoft, was named to the Yahoo Board of Directors. She is currently the CEO of Citizens Communications Company - the second largest local exchange telephone company in the United States and has worked extensively in the communications and media industries.

The Yahoo press release on the event states:

Yahoo! Inc., today announced the appointment of Maggie Wilderotter to the company's Board of Directors. Wilderotter brings extensive experience in technology, communications and business operations to Yahoo!. Currently she is chairman and chief executive officer of Citizens Communications Company, a full-service communications provider and the second-largest local exchange telephone company in the country. Wilderotter oversees all functional areas of Citizens Communications and is responsible for its overall corporate strategy and execution of its vision, mission and business priorities.

"With more than 25 years of experience in telephone, wireless, cable television, computers and interactive media, Maggie's broad range of leadership qualifications and proven track record make her an extremely valuable addition to our team," said Jerry Yang, chief executive officer, Yahoo!. "Her unique and in-depth understanding of consumers, business, and technology will make her instrumental in helping to provide valuable insight for Yahoo!'s key initiatives across the entire organization. We're excited to welcome her to the Board."

Wilderotter remarked, "Yahoo! has the technology, talent and resources to make every customer experience a great one. I believe that the company is committed to specific, strategic, customer-focused actions that will enable it to build on its position as one of the most powerful and influential companies on the Internet. I look forward to working with Jerry Yang and the rest of the team at Yahoo!."

Previously Wilderotter served as senior vice president of the worldwide public sector division at Microsoft Corporation, where she was responsible for strengthening customer and partner outreach in the government and education markets, as well as working across Microsoft's business divisions to develop and coordinate forward-looking strategies.

Prior to Microsoft, Wilderotter was president and chief executive officer of Wink Communications Inc., executive vice president of national operations for AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and chief executive officer of AT&T's Aviation Communications Division. She also served as senior vice president of McCaw Cellular Communications Inc. and was a regional president managing the company's California, Nevada, and Hawaii regions.

Wilderotter has received national recognition for her contributions to the communications industry. She was twice honored with the Vanguard Award for Distinguished Leadership awarded by the National Cable Television Association, the 1999 Outstanding Mentor Award from the Women in Cable and Telecommunications Foundation and its Top 10 Women in Cable & Telecommunications Award.

She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Xerox Corporation and holds a bachelor's degree in Economics and Business Administration from the College of the Holy Cross.

Posted by Frank Watson at 10:01 AM | Permalink

May 14, 2007

The Greening of Search Engines

Call it a sign of the times, a cheap marketing ploy or both mixed together. Search engines are touting their environmental friendliness in many ways, vying for the hearts of users by tapping into their desire to save the world.

The latest ploy comes from Yahoo is trying to find the "Greenest City in America" with its Be a Better Planet initiative, which aims to find the most environmentally conscious city and reward it with a fleet of taxicabs. Cities earn points when their citizens ask and answer environmental questions on Yahoo Answers, conduct environmental searches on OneSearch, or take the "Green Pledge" on the new Yahoo Green mini-site.

To kick off the contest, Yahoo co-founder David Filo, Global Green CEO Matt Peterson, and actor Matt Dillon will make an appearance in New York City today, announcing the donation of a fleet of hybrid taxis to the city.

Google, no slouch in the environmentally friendly marketing department, has long touted its commitment to use solar energy to power its headquarters and datacenters. Its Summer of Green site launched last summer with environmentally friendly hotels and vacation spots highlighted on Google Maps.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 9:55 AM | Permalink

April 30, 2007

Yahoo Is Better: Or That's What They Are Branding

Following their push to build niched portals, Yahoo announced the start of a new campaign: "Be A Better ..."

I like this, mainly because it will constantly group Yahoo and Better, going beyond being a better Fanatic (sports fans), Guru (knowledge from Yahoo Answers), Fashionista, Shutterbug, Traveler and Best Friend.... it constantly reinforces Yahoo with Better... hey if conventional weapons are not working go for subliminal advertising.

The scrolling words that roll like a slot machine suggest other categories to come... or maybe Jetsetter, TailGater and Explorer have positive thoughts and were used for effect.....

Either way I think Yahoo's best chance to make inroads into the Google search numbers are from creating large scalable communities and have the loyalty move to them.

For more about the new branding campaign check the site out. They have cool commericals.

Posted by Frank Watson at 5:04 PM | Permalink

November 9, 2006

Yahoo Shows Off Selected Contributions From The Time Capsule

RedOrbit reports that Yahoo has presented selected contributions from the Yahoo Time Capsule project at the ancient pueblo of Jemez in New Mexico. The 15-hour presentation showed off pictures, videos, poems and stories from thousands of people who have uploaded files up to the Yahoo Time Capsule. The contributions were also "sent into space via a digital laser light beam from the canyon" in New Mexico. Reportedly, over 70,000 multimedia files were submitted to the Yahoo project since opening up on October 10th.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:21 AM | Permalink

October 24, 2006

New Yahoo Publisher Network Home Page

Yahoo has redesigned and reorganized the Yahoo Publisher Network home page. With the redesign comes integration of the most recent YPN Blog entries, public access to enhance your site, drive traffic to your site, build your site and earn money on your site. There is also a new flash tutorial to explain all about it. JenSense has more details and I have the forum coverage.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:08 AM | Permalink

October 13, 2006

Stanford University Keeps Yahoo's $1M After Strong Criticism

Mercury News updates us that despite the fact that Stanford University criticized Yahoo for helping China, and Danny pointing out they may accept the $1M was again criticized, Stanford will be keeping the $1 million grant. The director of the fellowship program said they are "considering holding a forum to engage Yahoo and other media companies about operating in repressive countries."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:36 AM | Permalink

Doritos & Yahoo's Consumer Generated Super Bowl Commercial

Yahoo Video along with Doritos launched Crash the Super Bowl, a site where consumers can send them homemade Super Bowl commercials, with a chance to make it to prime time. Doritos will then select 5 finalists from all submissions. Then users will be allowed to determine which one ad will air during the Super Bowl. All five finalists will receive $10,000 and a trip to Miami for a private Super Bowl viewing party. Entries are accepted between Wednesday, October 11 and Monday, December 4. Voting begins for site visitors on Friday, January 5 and ends on Saturday, January 19.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:08 AM | Permalink

Watch Some Of The Yahoo TV Commercials

I posted some of the Yahoo TV commercials at Search Engine Roundtable, if you want to check them out, here is a list of those that were posted to YouTube.

- Yahoo Answers Commercial - Yahoo Email Commercial - Yahoo Music Playlist Commercial - Yahoo Music Frequalizer Commercial - Yahoo Music UFO Commercial - Yahoo Commercial

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:50 AM | Permalink

October 10, 2006

Yahoo Time Capsule Project Launched

Yahoo has created the Yahoo Time Capsule, what it calls the "first-ever electronic anthropology project" to document human life in 2006. You have about 29 more days to contribute to the time capsule, until November 8th, to be exact.

The Sydney Morning Herald has a story about the project.

You can learn more at Yahoo Time Capsule site, including how to submit your items in digital format by clicking on the "contribute" link at the top right.

I tried to submit an image but got the response, "sorry, but there was an error, please try again later."

More also from Yahoo in this press release.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:23 AM | Permalink

October 2, 2006

Yahoo Hack Day's Success & Yahoo Mail API Coming

It sounds like Yahoo's first open Hack Day was a big success, featuring even a performance by Beck. Yahoo's Bradley Horowitz has a nice roundup in Yahoo Open Hack Day: Hell Yes!. TechCrunch's Michael Arrington served at MC of the event, and All Women Team Takes Yahoo Hack Day Top Prize post covers the top winners, briefly. Meanwhile, Yahoo Mail introduces web APIs from Niall Kennedy covers how a new API for Yahoo Mail is coming, with commentary from others here on TechMeme.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:42 AM | Permalink

September 29, 2006

Yahoo Hack Day Starts Today

Yahoo is holding Hack Day today and Yahoo's Jeremy Zawodny is excited about it. He compiled a list of ways to stay on the new hacks, mashups and products announced at Yahoo's Hack Day. He has encouraged everyone writing content about this event to tag your content as "hackday06". Hack Day photos tagged at Flickr, content bookmarked at del.ici.us, other content at Technorati and some more here. Also, note, the Hack Day blog is at http://developer.yahoo.net/hackday/.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:45 AM | Permalink

September 26, 2006

Yahoo Fellowships For Repressed Journalists, While Chinese Journalist Might Sue Them

Earlier this month, I dinged Google over hypocrisy for getting behind Banned Books Week given its support of censorship in China. Now, a similar ding for Yahoo. Yahoo funds $1M Stanford journalism fellowship from the San Jose Business Journal covers how Yahoo -- under fire for allegedly harming journalists in China -- is going to fund fellowships for journalists in countries with press restrictions.

From the article:

The new Yahoo International Fellowship will be aimed at journalists from countries where there are restrictions on freedom of the press, either by governmental agencies or other forces, said James Bettinger, director of the Knight Fellowships.

The first Yahoo International Fellow will be Imtiaz Ali, a reporter for the BBC Pashto Service in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Jailed Chinese journalist to file US suit versus Yahoo from IDG News Service covers how a Chinese journalist jailed after Yahoo is said to have handed over incriminating email to the Chinese authorities plans to file suit against the company in the US.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:47 AM | Permalink

September 18, 2006

Yahoo To Run Huge Global Advertising Campaign

Reuters reports that Yahoo is going to be running a multimillion-dollar global advertising campaign consisting of television, radio, cinema and online advertising. The campaign will be promoting a number of Yahoo's products and services, including Yahoo Answers and email. It is reported that the commercials and campaigns will contain the "Do You Yahoo? tagline and take a "humorous look at life with -- and without -- the benefits of Yahoo services." Yes, Danny, donuts are involved, there will be a "Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee giveaway for Yahoo visitors on Friday, September 22."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:34 AM | Permalink

August 16, 2006

The Inside Scoop from Search Bloggers

The major search engines all have unofficial bloggers talking about what's going on in their respective companies. At a recent SES session, search-blog stars Jeremy Zawodny, Gary Price, Matt Cutts and Niall Kennedy all revealed their modus operandi, and guest writer Sara Holoubek was there to capture their insights for today's SearchDay article, Expose: Search Engine Bloggers Tell All.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 7:44 PM | Permalink

July 31, 2006

Microsoft, Google & Yahoo Make Business Week's Top 100 Best Global Brands

ResourceShelf reports on the Business Week Top 100 Global Brands release from this week. You can see from the interactive table that Microsoft remained in the number two slot, Google moved up to number 24 from the 38th position in 2005, and Yahoo also moved up to 55 from the 58th position in 2005.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:42 AM | Permalink

July 7, 2006

Dr. Stephen Hawking Turns To Yahoo Answers For How Humans Will Survive; Bono Posts Too

Wow. Dr. Stephen Hawking, yes, the real Stephen Hawking, has turned to Yahoo Answers for help. How can the human race survive the next hundred years?, he asks, in a question that Yahoo reassures us is really from the famous physicist and not a joke. And stay tuned, because Yahoo's planning to get U2's Bono to post later today.

How's it going for Hawking? There were 15,867 answers when I looked. That means his next question should be, "How can I review all these answers?" The answer is to sit back and let the Yahoo Answers community itself do it. It will be interesting to see what's voted as the best answer.

For more on Yahoo Answers, see my past article, Look Out Wikipedia, Here Comes Yahoo Answers!

Postscript: Bono has added his post now on ending poverty, says Yahoo. Hawking Seeks Answers on Yahoo from the Associated Press also has some nice background on his involvement and how Yahoo staffers will help him sift through responses.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:13 AM | Permalink

July 6, 2006

Google Ombudsman? Search Ombudsman? Great Idea -- Bring Them On!

Back in 2004, Gary Stein suggested that Yahoo hire an ombudsman, a sort of impartial referee to handle disputes involving advertising programs. I thought it was a great idea. Today, Steve Bryant over at eWeek's Google Watch calls for Google to do the same thing. Again, great idea -- let's see the search engines all start hiring ombudsmen, in the way that many newspapers and others have done.

At a newspaper, the ombudsman is someone who the readers can appeal to if they feel a paper has been unfair or had a problem with coverage. The ombudsman investigates the complaint and reports back to the readers. As an insider, they have more access than an external investigator. But as the ombudsman, their responsibility is to represent the readers, not the organization.

Google's had a series of problems recently, as Bryant points out. Was Amazon accidentally knocked out on a search for its own domain name, or was it a glitch? Is Wikipedia Watch being deliberately downranked for a search on its own name, as founder Daniel Brandt feels, or is it another glitch?

An ombudsman is the sort of person who could investigate these things and report back. In fact, Google probably would need to employ a team of ombudsmen, given the many charges people point at it, often unfounded but still which need to be addressed.

Nor is Google the only one that should consider this. I don't agree with Bryant that Google is the closest thing we have to a Pope on the internet. But the idea of it being a paper of record is more true. But Google's not the only paper of record. Yahoo, MSN and Ask are all important papers, as well. I'd like to see them all establish ombudsmen.

At the very least, it will help take the pressure off the informal ombudsmen we already have -- Matt Cutts, Jeremy Zawodny and other search employees that often step up to do informal public relations and examinations of concerns. I don't want those bloggers to go away, but it would be nice to have an official person that searchers and publishers could feel are supposed to be looking into concerns.

Postscript: Google must temper its power or law makers will over at The Guardian has Jack Schofield talking about the idea of an ombudsman, as well.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:52 AM | Permalink

June 13, 2006

Yahoo Answers Launches "Ask the Planet 2006" Campaign

Yahoo Answers has launched a new promotional campaign named Ask the Planet 2006. The Yahoo Answers blog describes how this feature will work;

Each weekday a new category will be featured, and each one will be accompanied by a question asked by a notable celebrity, expert, or even a featured user. For each best answer you receive in the category of the day you will get one entry for a chance to win the prize for the day.

The full press release can be found here and if you want to see the big brain in times square check out the pictures at Flickr.

Postscript From Danny: For more about Yahoo Answers, see my article from last week, Look Out Wikipedia, Here Comes Yahoo Answers!

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:40 AM | Permalink

June 7, 2006

Yahoo! Shopping Launches Blog

Chris Saito announced the launch of the Yahoo! Shopping Blog at Internet Retailer 2006 yesterday.

While I wasn't at the conference, Chris filled me in, saying the blog is a great way to merchandise products, drive engagement (subscribe through RSS, build loyalty, etc.), and drive transactions. The blog will get more promotion on Yahoo! Shopping over time. There will be 4-5 people contributing (David Beach and Joe Lazarus have each contributed thus far).

In the inaugural post, Beach explained ?The Yahoo! Shopping Blog does not allow advertisers or sponsors to influence editorial decisions in the creation of blog posts. We just like to find good things so you can find them too.? Today's find? The Skyrail Marble Roller Coaster.

Last week I wrote about the opportunity for shopping comparison engines to blog, highlighting smart, informative, and irreverant blogs like Ice.com's Sparkle Like The Stars, Glam's What's Haute, and EvoGear's Mugatu Says.

Email newsletters are great marketing tools, but there are many benefits to blogs. Nathan Decker, EvoGear's Director of Ecommerce explained "the company's blogs allow us to communicate the flavor of our company (anti-notfunny & authenticity / credibility), feed qualified traffic to Evogear, and give various solid team members a side project to leverage creativity and talent.

Other shopping comparison engine blogs include Become's Pocket Change, mySimon's Shopping Picks, and ShoptoIt.ca's Off The Rack.

Posted by Brian Smith at 10:59 AM | Permalink

June 5, 2006

UK Journalists Boycott Yahoo Services

America's Network reports that journalists in the UK are set to boycott Yahoo's services and products. The boycott is in protest of how Yahoo has handled some matters in China, such as allegations that the yahoo sent information about journalists to the Chinese authorities.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:17 AM | Permalink

May 24, 2006

Search Engines Using Search Ads To Promote Themselves

In the past week or so, I have been reporting on the different ways search engines use search ads to promote their own search engine. I have spotted Ask.com bidding on Google for "pimped out search engine," which is part of their marketing speak of the TV commercials. I have also spotted Yahoo using Google AdSense to promote Yahoo Search products.

Search engines like MSN come up in Google AdWords for a search on search engine, MSN and Google come up in Yahoo Search for a query on search engine also. But at this time, none of the search engines are paying MSN or Ask.com for ads on their networks for the keyword phrase "search engine." It is also interesting to note that Google and MSN do not rank themselves in the number one position organically for the keyword phrase "search engine," only Ask.com and Yahoo do that.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:20 AM | Permalink

April 7, 2006

MSN, Yahoo Seek SEO People To Help Them Rank Better

There's still the occasional person who I encounter who thinks that SEO overall is somehow wrong to do or something the search engines frown upon. Yahoo!, MSN & Ebay recruiting - SEO hits the big time is an example of why this isn't so. It covers how Yahoo, MSN and eBay in the UK are all recruiting internal SEO people to help promote their own sites.

Such hirings aren't new. We've long had search companies themselves trying to rank well in other search engines, to the point of hiring people internally or externally to make it happen. But it's a nice reminder for everyone to keep in mind.

Personally, I got a chuckle out of the breakdown Threadwatch did of the MSN UK recruitment ad. Wanted: Spammer-in-chief for MSN over there highlights some of these key success metrics for MSN UK's SEO person:

• Achieve x% of traffic from Search engines within our top channels and homepage
• Achieve x% of pages cached/listed within Google and Yahoo
• Achieve first page ranking in Google/Yahoo for major channel entry points and other important MSN content areas
• Beat Yahoo! on listing results in Google on major events
• Demonstrate clear traffic improvement as a result of implementation of SEO techniques
• Ensure all new pages are SEO compliant

As for Yahoo, I found these points interesting:

• All title / meta data tagging of UK products
• URL specifications of UK products
• URL redirect mappings
• Producing SEO recommendations and documentation for UK products
• Fostering development of effective SEO tools / reporting process
• Maintaining existing Yahoo! UK product?s search engine rankings
• Identifying and flagging potential spam violations on UK products
• Identifying and flagging inappropriate Y! content that is accessible via search
• Weekly / monthly SEO reporting & statistics for UK products
• Keyword / log analysis reports for UK products
• Keeping web development, engineering and production up-to-date with developments in the SEO field

Note the part I bolded. Nice to see that Yahoo UK wants to ensure no one suddenly accuses it of spamming itself or another search engine. Nah, such things never happen. Wait a minute: Google Admits To Cloaking; Bans Itself. That was from last year, but to be fair, it was pretty much an accidental thing.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:30 AM | Permalink

February 25, 2006

Yahoo "Search Light" Award Winners Named

Yahoo Search Marketing sponsored its first, invitation-only "Search Light" Awards event in New York, featuring presentations from advertisers including Honda, General Motors, Miller, and Chase Bank. Attendees voted on the presentations, and the first Search Light award went to RPA Interactive for "Honda Element: A Different Animal." Search Engine Journal has more on the event and other award winners.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 6:45 PM | Permalink

February 9, 2006

Yahoo Surveys Search Rewards Idea

Yahoo to offer incentives for using search engine? at News.com covers Yahoo surveying 5 percent of its Yahoo Mail users to see if a rewards program would get them to start using Yahoo Search more.

What rewards? No Yahoo mail ads, unlimited Yahoo Mail storage, free POP downloading are some of the possibilities (and things Google's Gmail already provides for free, some reward!). OK, how about five free music downloads, charitable donations, frequent flyer miles? Those are some of the other suggested options.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:22 AM | Permalink

January 13, 2006

Google-MSN Fight In Internet Explorer 7; Yahoo Pokes At Google In Firefox

Nacho points out in What? No Google on Vista? Google Strikes Back on IE 7! at Search Engine Roundtable a screenshot showing how Google is not among the recommended search engines on a guide for those wanting to customize IE7. OK, the page is under construction, but it's hard to believe it's an oversight. Below this, he's got a screenshot showing how Google is prompting in IE7 for users to make it the default search engine. I seem to recall seeing something similar like this from Yahoo, but I can't track that down. It's all kind of an aside to me. I'm not leaving Firefox!

Postscript: Just remembered the Yahoo thing. It's how they try to promote you searching from Yahoo rather than Google in Firefox's built-in toolbar:

Click To Enlarge Screenshot

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:22 AM | Permalink

November 28, 2005

Google and Yahoo Talking About Sponsorship of Manchester United Football Club

I had a dream a few weeks ago about search engines beginning to, in one form or another, sponsor sports teams. Well, maybe my dream is coming true. News.com reports in the story: Google to sponsor Manchester United football club?, that Eric, Sergey, Larry, and crew MIGHT soon have their Google logo appearing on Manchester United football jerseys. However, it's not only Google that Manchester United is talking to about sponsorship. They're also chatting with Yahoo and IBM.

Vodafone said last week that they are ending their sponsorship with Manchester United. It's interesting to note that while the story clearly mentions Yahoo and IBM as possible sponsors, Google gets the headline.

Btw, the sponsorship of football (what we call soccer here in America) is not new to Yahoo. In 2001, Yahoo was a global sponsor of the FIFA World Cup.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:26 PM | Permalink

November 11, 2005

Ask Jeeves To Rebrand Tech As ExpertRank Inside?

Gary Price -- awesome sleuth that is he -- was doing some searching of the US Patent Office & Trademark Office database yesterday and noticed that Ask Jeeves filed for a trademark, a service mark to be accurate, for the term "ExpertRank" about a week ago. Perhaps the sign of a new branding campaign to come?

Ask Jeeves won't comment on what this means, but Gary reminded me that Teoma means "expert" in Gaelic. Teoma is the company Ask Jeeves bought in 2001 and the name of the search technology Ask Jeeves uses for its search results. I even joked earlier about how in the UK, Ask Jeeves has been branding its service as having "new Teoma technology."

So how about some speculation? Many are familiar with the "Intel Inside" branding campaign that Intel has run for years. You never see an Intel chip when you're using a computer, but the company wants you to have the notion that it's a good thing so you'll seek out Intel machines.

The search wars have their own sort of Intel Inside branding that's heating up. Google's long trotted out PageRank as its form of under-the-hood tech that should wow consumers. A few months ago, MSN rolled out its Neural Net technology as both a way to improve its results and to help counter the notion of Google having all the secret search sauce.

Teoma's long been the secret sauce for Ask, and ExpertRank sounds like a rebranding of that (rather than some new tech) to help Ask Jeeves compete with PageRank Inside and Neural Net Inside.

Where's Yahoo in all of this? It did roll out a Web Rank idea almost two years ago, but that never caught on or was seriously promoted by the company. But if Yahoo's going to face PageRank Inside, Neural Net Inside and ExpertRank Inside, it's almost a foregone conclusion it will look for something with a little more oomph than just saying it's Yahoo Search Technology Inside, as they did launching when launching Yahoo's own technology in early 2004.

Hmm -- maybe My Rank? Since's Yahoo's big on the entire My Web concept, I can see it now: "New Yahoo Search with My Web And My Rank Technology."

Postscript from Gary: Let's not forget that Google trademarked/service marked the term "TrustRank" earlier this year. Also, keeping with the "rank" theme, Topix.net registered the service mark "NewsRank" last year. They also have the service mark "National Network for Local News" registered with the USPTO.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:34 AM | Permalink

October 9, 2005

Hey Dude, Yahoo Wants You To Dig It, Tag It, and Share It!

The Yahoo team in Sunnyvale has filed for a new trademark/service mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that hits on tagging and sharing (aka MyWeb 2.0).

What's the phrase Yahoo is registering? + "Dig It. Tag It. Share It." Serial #: 78720852

Kind of reminds me of the line from Fast Times at Ridgemont High -- "Right, learn it, know it, live it."

Might this be a new Yahoo/MyWeb slogan?

I'm guessing (oh no!) that "dig" means to look, search and hopefully find material of value. If not, using the word "dig" just sounds so cool! (-:

Of course, the slogan plays on Yahoo's FUSE philosophy of finding, using, sharing, and expanding knowlege.

Posted by Gary Price at 4:13 PM | Permalink

October 5, 2005

New Save Jeeves Blog & Campaign

Barry at Search Engine Roundtable points to the new Save Jeeves blog, started by a former Ask Jeeves employee who wants the butler mascot to stay. Whichever way it goes, one thing is for certain. Controversy over whether the butler should go will only help raise awareness of Ask.com. Look for:

• MSN to consider whether the butterfly should be stuffed into a collection jar.  
• Yahoo to debate whether it should love the exclamation mark from Yahoo! (yes, please. I mean yes, please!)  
• Google to announce a competition for a better logo (someone blogged about it needing one recently, can't find the link, sorry. But I doubt they were the first to say publicly the Google logo, well, could be a lot better).

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:18 AM | Permalink

September 28, 2005

Winners of Yahoo Video Search Yammys Revealed

May we have the envelope please!

About a month ago Danny blogged about the The Yammy Video Search Awards from Yahoo that would honor the best in original online video. Yammy winners would receive a number of prizes (including a plasma TV for the grand prize winner).

This afternoon winners of the Yahoo Yammys were announced.

The winning video is titled "Twinkle Toes" and was directed by Marty Putz. It can be viewed online along with other audience favorities.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:49 PM | Permalink

September 23, 2005

Recapping Official Search Engine Blogs

Search Engine Blogs as Public Relations Tools from Loren Baker over at Search Engine Journal is a nice overview of how the various major search engines are turning more and more to blogs as a communication tool, with continuing unofficial help from employee blogs such as those from Yahoo's Jeremy Zawodny and Google's Matt Cutts (hey, Google, get his blog listed in your Blogs By Googlers section on the Google Blog already!).

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:10 AM | Permalink

July 28, 2005

Yahoo Yammys To Honor Online Video Through Contest

Yahoo wants to drum up interest in its Yahoo Video search service, so it's handing out "Yammys" to recognize what it thinks is the best in online video content. To enter and learn more, visit the new The Yammys site. You can submit as of now and have through Aug. 17. Audience voting will happen from August 30 through Sept 12, then a panel of celebrities will judge. Semi-finalists will get digital cameras, movie tickets, DVDs. The grand prize winners get to go to a premiere, plus get a plasma screen TV and a DVD player. No news of Google have Gammys yet, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:52 PM | Permalink

June 23, 2005

Yahoo Think Big Contest Winner Announced

StairCycle has won the Yahoo "Think Big" contest, coming in first among over 80,000 entries. More details from this Yahoo press release and more about the contest in this past post: Yahoo "Think Big" Contest Giving Away 10 Million Ads.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:15 AM | Permalink

May 30, 2005

Google Press Releases Now Available Via Feed

Spotted via Steve Rubel, Google is now issuing press release notifications via a feed. Non-feed releases are here; feed is here. Steve noted Microsoft releases were available in RSS in February. I can't recall when Yahoo added them, but they've been out there for several months, as I've long had that as a subscription. You'll find the Yahoo feed here, off the non-feed release page. FYI, the company blogs are often well in front of the formal press releases. Official search blogs from each company are listed in the blogroll on our home page.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:09 AM | Permalink

May 23, 2005

Yahoo Announces a Challenge for Webmasters, Bloggers, and Web Developers

This morning Yahoo launched the YQ Challenge to find the "most innovative" implementations of their YQ contextual search platform.

Yahoo launched YQ in beta earlier this year.

What criteria will Yahoo use to judge the contest?

* Relevance: How effectively have you set context so that YQ produces results with maximum relevance? * Prominence: How prominent is the placement of YQ on your site? * Placement: How creative and intuitive are the placements of YQ icons on your site? * Usefulness: To what degree does YQ enhance the overall user experience on your site?

The winner of the YQ Challenge receives $5000. Second place receives $2500. $1000 for third.

This FAQ has more info. The deadline for submitting entries is June 19th.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:30 PM | Permalink

May 4, 2005

Burnett Productions to Yahoo: Your're REhired

Word that Yahoo has extended its deal Mark Burnett Productions, the producer of "The Apprentice," to produce the official site for the program. Additionally, Yahoo will also produce the official site for a new version of "The Apprentice" starring Martha Stewart.

The extension will include versions of "The Apprentice" with Donald Trump, as well as the highly anticipated "The Apprentice" with Martha Stewart. The agreement also allows for future versions of "The Apprentice" following the 2005-2006 television season. The agreement expands on the successful alliance between Mark Burnett Productions and Yahoo! that produced the official sites for the last two cycles of "The Apprentice" and the premiere season of "The Contender."

More about the Burnett/Yahoo relationship in this blog post from January.

Posted by Gary Price at 9:28 AM | Permalink

April 28, 2005

Yahoo "Think Big" Contest Giving Away 10 Million Ads

Yahoo's launched a new "Think Big" contest that will give a small business 10 million ad impressions across its ad network.

How to enter and win? First, you need to be a small business in the United States that meets these criteria -- and there are a lot of them, so read carefully.

Find yourself a match? Then sit down and write in 500 words or less why your business would benefit from winning, which you can submit here.

You'll need to get through two initial rounds of judging, as described in the rules. Five finalists will be judged by Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group (and who runs my favorite airline, Virgin Atlantic. But ironically, his Virgin internet access service in the UK is partnered with Google).

Impress Sir Richard, and you could win the prize, which breaks down into:

• 8 million Yahoo Sponsored Search impressions
• 2 million banner ad impressions on Yahoo

Yahoo may also provide inclusion within Yahoo Shopping and Yahoo Local depending on the type of business that wins. To learn more, visit the Think Big web site. Want to discuss? Join our forum thread, Yahoo! Think Big Contest.

So how's it work if you win? Will people pick whatever terms they want and then be guaranteed a top placement for all those words? Will they always be top or just visible on the page? I sent these questions on to Yahoo, which responded:

The winner will work with an account manager to develop and execute a paid search plan that best meets their needs. This will include the selection of keywords, writing title and descriptions and selecting the appropriate landing pages. The placement will vary based on the keyword so as to optimize yield.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 2:41 PM | Permalink

March 28, 2005

Building The Yahoo Brand Around the World

In the article: Yahoo-Uber Brand, BusinessWeek's Ben Elgin takes a look at what Yahoo is doing to build their brand outside of the U.S.

What's clear, though, is that Yahoo's efforts will revolve around extending its own core brand. To achieve this, Yahoo hopes to emanate the same wacky vibe that pervades its yodel-filled domestic ads. The key, says [Cammie] Dunaway, [Yahoo's chief marketing officer], is to do things nobody has done before, often with an edgy approach. In Taiwan, Yahoo launched an ad campaign where users gleaned clues off the Web and billboards to discover who got a fictional supermodel pregnant. And in France, Yahoo hosted late night evenings at supermarkets where singles could pick up a Yahoo purple basket to demonstrate their willingness to meet someone. "You have to work hard...to engage [customers] in your marketing," Dunaway says.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:37 PM | Permalink

February 3, 2005

Yahoo Seeks SEM Manager

Nice mention by Barry of Yahoo wanting someone to do search engine marketing for its own properties. It's not the first search engine to do this. Others like LookSmart and Inktomi have, as well. It's not even that new for Yahoo. I've written before about it running ads on Google and a campaign on European search engines to drive traffic. Question is, will the Yahoo SEM person go black hat on getting traffic from Google?

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:03 PM | Permalink

January 31, 2005

Yahoo Local & Product Placement On The Apprentice

How A Product Placement Strategy Works from AdAge looks in depth on how Yahoo is promoting its Yahoo Local service through The Apprentice television show.

Apparently, one episode last season got a ton of people to try searching at Yahoo for "apprentice ice cream," though it's unclear if the did this on Yahoo or Yahoo Local.

Yahoo Local is mentioned even more as part of the current series. How much for the placement? Yahoo's not saying. See also The OC Arrested By Ask Jeeves, Too for more on product placements in television for other search engines, albeit unpaid ones.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:17 PM | Permalink

The OC Arrested By Ask Jeeves, Too

Earlier, I posted how A9 got a mention on The OC. Ask Jeeves got an OC-related plug on TV this week, as well.

OK, it wasn't the hip kids of The OC talking about Ask Jeeves but instead the crazy family of Arrested Development -- also set in Orange County's Newport Beach, that mentioned Ask Jeeves. To be specific, it was family lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn (actor Henry Winkler), even better known to many people as The Fonz from Happy Days.

Paid product placement? Nope. Instead, Ask Jeeves senior vice president Jim Lanzone emailed me to say a good college friend of his is the agent of the creator of Arrested Development. He uses Ask Jeeves, so that's apparently worked its way higher. No money was spent, and the mention was a surprise to Ask Jeeves.

"We didn't know about it in advance. We sent them some T-shirts to say thanks," Lanzone said.

All in all, a good opportunity to try out new Google Video (aka Google TV) service, as someone over at InsideGoogle did when commenting there on the A9 mention. Here's a rundown. First, the Ask Jeeves mention:

It's a private Stock, so you cannot just buy up the shares unless someone is willing to sell. Are you sure? That's what they said on Ask Jeeves. All right, who's the majority shareholder now?

The A9 reference is here:

Why, why happened? Did he call you? No, but I a9.Com'd him last night, and according to the O.C. Weekly, he's pretty much everything that's wrong with Western civilization, all wrapped up in one Guy..

For the record, A9 told News.com that it didn't pay for the mention:

"We didn't even know it was going to air," A9 Chief Udi Manber said. But "it shows people like...A9...and that they are telling their friends and family."

Meanwhile, how common is "googled?" Only three mentions: Conan O'Brien, Carson Daly and PBS. But extend it out to Google, and there are nearly 100 mentions of the company. Most are news realted, but looks like Regis is in the "did you Google that" camp.

Yahoo has many more mentions, but many of those see ads for the SBC Yahoo access service. Ironically, Yahoo is the most aggressive of all the services in terms of gaining product placement mentions. None of the above services has ever claimed to pay for these. Yahoo just struck a deal to get it into reality shows of The Apprentice and The Contender.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:09 AM | Permalink

January 25, 2005

See You at the Yahoo Dome!

Bloomberg News reports that Yahoo Japan has purchased the naming rights of the Fukuoka Baseball Dome in Japan. "Baseball is something that is enjoyed by people of all ages,'' and renaming the stadium helps promote the company to the public, said [Emi] Takase, a spokeswoman for the Tokyo-based company." Financial details were not disclosed.

More in the article: Yahoo Japan to Buy Fukuoka Baseball Dome Name Rights.

Posted by Gary Price at 8:45 AM | Permalink

January 21, 2005

Yahoo & Reality TV Product Placement Deal

First Yahoo does Broadway, and now it does reality TV. The company will produce and sell ads for The Contender and The Apprentice, which in turn is getting Yahoo into the shows. You're Fired? Well, here's a taxi to take you away with a Yahoo HotJobs sign. Other Yahoo properties are going to be placed in the show, including Yahoo Search. More details from MediaPost, Yahoo!: You're Hired, and ClickZ: Yahoo Touts Success, Expansion of Mark Burnett Deal.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 2:11 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Comes To Broadway Via Spamalot

Spamalot, a new musical comedy coming to Broadway and based on Monty Python And The Holy Grail, will be featuring Yahoo's logo during a musical bit called "The Spam Guard." Yahoo will be placed on flags that a military troupe carries, plus on signs and perhaps on costumes.

Yahoo's also purchased all 300 seats for the March 1 performance. Hmm -- right smack in the middle of our Search Engine Strategies New York show. Why do I sense some of Yahoo's top advertisers coming to the show are going to be getting some Spamalot tickets?

A few more details from MediaPost: Yahoo! Takes A Turn On Broadway.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:10 AM | Permalink

January 10, 2005

Yahoo! Launches Print and Online Ad Campagin

Yahoo will launch an online and print advertising campaign today (aimed at media buyers, ad agencies, etc) promoting their ability to target advertising to specific audiences and groups.

The campaign will run online in publications including WSJ.com, NYT.com, various advertising trades, and on the Yahoo! network. Print versions will also run in advertising trade magazines--but, said [Jerry] Shereshewsky, "the centerpiece of the campaign is online." Yahoo! declined to provide its budget for the media spend. Yahoo! plans to use domain targeting with the campaign, which will involve displaying ads to visitors coming from Internet protocol addresses of specific companies--including ad agencies, clients, and prospective clients.

More in the Media Post article: Yahoo! Plugs Targeting Power

Posted by Gary Price at 10:45 AM | Permalink

October 12, 2004

Jeremy Zawodny: Yahoo Search Blogvangelist

Jeremy Zawodny is a Yahoo employee who once worked on the search side and now returns to it, as he explains more here: New Job (Again).

Search is also one of the things Jeremy has touched on in his personal blog, with some of the best reading dings at Google and even his own employer, at times.

That blog, he notes in explaining his new position, has had much to do with his move into the new role of improving search products, communication about search, gathering feedback and recruiting people.

What I find most significant is that the move positions him as the first notable blogvangelist employed by a major search company.

Sure, Google has its own blog, launched in May. Yahoo has one as well, launched in August. It's more active than Google's, completely focused on search and frankly often times more interesting. But both remain corporate blogs. They don't reflect the unfiltered views of an individual.

Microsoft has had this type of blogger personality in the form of Robert Scoble. He's someone who works from Microsoft, is vocal about things there but doesn't necessarily follow the party line. He was also instrumental in pulling together Microsoft's recent Search Champs initiative.

As a long reader of Jeremy's blog, he's always been that way as well -- a personality who speaks his mind, regardless of what his employer may think. With his new role in search, we ought to hear more interesting firsthand accounts of someone on the frontline of the search wars.

Meanwhile, will Google and others feel compelled to find their own search personalities to speak to the blogosphere? Google actually has the longest standing unofficial spokesperson around, in the form of GoogleGuy. However, GoogleGuy has to date only participated in the forumsphere.

Search forums have been a key public relations front for all the search engines, given how search marketers will dissect any move and report on the latest findings through them. Now blogs seem to be opening up as a new PR front to compete in.

A recent Google Blog entry did see GoogleGuy edge into the blog world for the first time. However, he remains anonymous. Lifting the lid on his identity (an open secret among many involved in search marketing) might give Google a search personality of its own.

Postscript: Jeremy provides more thoughts and reactions into his new role: Honesty and Blogvangelism

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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