Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 6:25 AM
For years now, Google and Yahoo have been making a significant portion of their income on the paid sponsored ads to the right of the search listings, and that is about to expand. Google has recently discovered a loop-hole in anti-trust legislation which will allow for the ultimate sale of organic rankings - the catch – they must partner with Yahoo.
Current laws do not allow for paid sponsorship of unlabeled organic listings; however Google has found a way around this – by spidering and indexing paid listings at competing site Yahoo, and including them within their own search results.
Google will soon start to spider and index select ads posted through the Yahoo Search Marketing platform, and rank them within Google’s own organic results. These paid ads will be given an artificially high ranking and will appear at the top of the organic results – appearing as free listings to searchers. Google will receive 80% on the per-click spend; this in itself may sound great, but it barely scratches the surface.
In order for Yahoo Advertisers to open up their ads to Google, they will need to pay a monthly service fee, of which Google will take the lion’s share. While the actual dollar amount for these fees has not been officially released, industry experts are anticipating the flat rate fee to be well in excess of $10,000/month - a small price to pay for first place ranking in a competitive industry.
It is expected that the increased revenue from this initiative will result in a boost in Google’s market value by as much as 30% in as little as a year; however, this may be an understatement given a 21% jump in Google’s stock shortly after markets opened this morning (increasing by $81.01 to $424.37).
This is only one of a number of plans that Google has for the very near future in order to ramp up its overall market value. With a looming sale to occur in April of 2010, Google wants to ensure that they get top dollar. Earlier this week, the next phase of buy-out negotiations was reported between Google and the White House with an agreement in principle that the US government will pay fair market value in April of next year.
Google has become one of the biggest players in the technological world, but lesser known is its growth as a high-level power in the political world and the US government wants control of this power. This potential government acquisition of the search giant is no big surprise given the extensive bank of in-depth information Google has amassed over the years.
"Google has been selling information to the US government now for several years," Frederick Grinder, head of Google's Secret Search Team, noted in a press conference early this morning. "An acquisition seems like a natural step."
Several years ago, Google was fined $15.5 Billion by the World Court for unleashing a virus-like spider that infiltrated many world-wide government databases and amassed an immense amount of sensitive information. (You didn’t thing that Google actually paid $2.2 billion for YouTube, $3.1 billion for DoubleClick, and billions more for others did you? These were merely cover-ups for the fine). While part of the court order was to have this data permanently deleted, many conspiracy theorists believe that Google still holds all this information, and the US government wants unrestricted access. The only way to secure this access is through full ownership of Google.
You’ve probably heard of Google Webmaster Tools, well Google also has Google People; A complex database consisting of confidential information on the vast majority of the world’s population accessible only to those with high-level clearance. Google knows what you bought using your super market discount card, they know what you charge to your Visa, they know your SSI and all your personal numbers, and they have all your internet passwords. For the US government to have access to all this same information they can significantly expand their anti-terrorism campaign which began during the Bush administration.
"With the help of our top secret satellite imagery and foreign personnel files we were instrumental in the capture of Saddam Hussein – with unrestricted access there is no telling how far the US can go to increase the safety of our nation," Grinder went on to say.
We will continue to keep you informed as this story develops. In the mean time, have a wonderful April 1st.
Thursday, Yahoo announced a new Search Monkey feature that allows Flash video and documents to be embedded right on the search page. What does this do that’s out of the ordinary? It allows searchers to view embedded content without leaving the search results page they found it on.
To illustrate the difference, I’ll use an example similar to that in the Yahoo blog. We’ll compare the difference between Google and Yahoo.
Performing a Google search for hulu simpsons yields the following result:
Notice there is an image in the ad, but when the video is clicked, it opens to the site page for viewing away from the search results page.
The search in Yahoo for hulu simpsons yields these results:
It looks pretty similar except for there being a different video. When the video image in Yahoo is clicked on however, it opens the video right on that search results page. If the user views the video and decides it wasn’t what they were looking for, they can simply continue to scroll down through the remaining search results.
Search Monkey looks to be a very innovative means for site owners and developers to present highly customizable search results to their potential visitors.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 9:01 AM
For all our Canadian readers out there, if you find yourself collecting Air Miles, searching Yahoo may help you get that free flight just a little bit quicker.
The Air Miles Yahoo Toolbar was recently launched, and for every 50 searches performed using the Air Miles toolbar you will earn 5 Air Miles, up to a maximum of 30 Air Miles per month.
For card holders who do not have enough Miles to redeem their rewards, Air Miles offers the option to purchase additional miles at 30 cents each. When we break down the math, that means that for every Yahoo search preformed using this toolbar, you will get a $0.03 value in return - (5 Air Miles * $0.30 / 50 searches = $0.03) - getting paid to search, it's about time!
As a search marketer I tend to search Yahoo fairly often, not as much as Google, but still, enough to get a little extra padding on my Air Miles Account.
Today at the SMX West conference, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft just announced a new tag that will have a major impact on reducing the amount of duplicate content issues found online and it will help website owners reclaim valuable link popularity.
In this article Canonical URL Links by WordPress specialist Joost de Valk he explains the tag and reasoning behind it. I will give a quick synopsis myself below but his article has some more detail if you need it.
These two URLs lead to the exact same page but the search engines interpret them as different URLs:
You see the information from the question mark onwards in URL #2 is actually just tracking information that was added to show that a person who visited the site arrived after clicking on an advertisement from "campaign1". Unfortunately, since search engines see these as different URLs the link popularity coming from a specific advertisement is placed on the campaign URL instead of the actual URL (#1); this is not a good situation because the more link popularity a link has the better chance it has of ranking in searches.
Today, the big three search engines announced they still see the URLs separately unless you place a new tag called the Canonical Tag (say that 10 times fast!) in the heading of the affected page. In the case of the example I used above the canonical tag would look like this:
What that tag says is the search engines should consider http://www.xyzname.com/company/ as the main address of this page. As a result, the link popularity for all variations of this URL will be consolidated to the canonical URL specified in the heading of the page.
Who is Affected by This News? This is amazing news for anyone using Pay Per Click marketing will be all over this as well as anyone with an advertisement such as a banner or text link where tracking intelligence has been appended to the URLs.
From a slightly different standpoint this has a great affect on anyone with a content management system (CMS) where two URL versions of a single page may have been indexed; the rewritten search engine friendly URL and the exposed database-driven URL. With this new tag it is entirely possible to retrieve some significant link popularity and substantially increase your rankings.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 10:11 AM
Fourth quarter financial results for 2008 are in at both Yahoo (pdf) and Google, and while Google still showed a sizable profit, the numbers show that 2009 may be a tough year for both search giants.
Yahoo In Q4, Yahoo saw revenues down 1% compared to the same period, ringing in at $1,806 million. While revenues approaching $2 billion sounds good on the surface, when you take away the expenses and the dust settles, they were left with a net loss of more than $303 million!
2008 on the whole wasn’t a total loss for Yahoo. Their revenues finished with a 3 percent increase compared to 2007, at $7,209 million and an overall net income of over $424 million. This number is certainly reasonable, at least by my standards, but when you look at the huge loss in the 4th quarter alone, unless things get turned around, 2009 could show to be a tough year for Yahoo.
Google Just like Yahoo, Google also took a hit in the fourth quarter of 2008, only their hit managed to remain on the plus side. Compared to the three quarters preceding (all over $1.2 billion) Q4 saw a net income of only $382 million.
While 2008 saw total revenues reach nearly $5 billion more than 2007, at $21.7 billion, Google’s net income for 2008 was nearly identical, only about $20 million more than 2007.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 10:11 AM
If you find that your Yahoo email account is being hit with too much spam, all that junk may be significantly cut back in the very near future.
On Jan 20th, it was announced that Yahoo will begin using the anti-spam services of Abaca to help protect Yahoo users from spam, phishing, and other email attacks.
Abaca is the only anti-spam company to guarantee a rate of 99% accuracy.
"As one of the world’s leading Internet companies, we take the security of our users very seriously,” said John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo! Mail. “Abaca offers superior e-mail security capabilities and has built a reputation for reducing unsolicited e-mail within mailboxes. We believe that by deploying Abaca’s solution with our anti-spam toolkit, we will offer Yahoo! Mail users not only added email security, but an enhanced user experience as well."
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 2:24 PM
The latest figures are in over at Comscore, and as far as search market share is concerned, Google continues to increase its lead.
It is never a surprise to see Google leading the pack, its been this way for several years, and it will remain this way for years to come. The only change is, how big is their lead.
Google has seen yet another small increase in its share, up 0.4% to 63.5%. Yahoo trails way back at 20.4% (down 0.1%) and Microsoft dipping 0.2% down to 8.3%.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 12:35 PM
The figures from Nielsen Netratings and comScore are not in as of yet, but Hitwise has posted their latest numbers for October, and they show Google closing in on the 72% mark.
According to Hitwise, Google now sits with 71.7%, up 0.54%, Yahoo is down 0.3% to 17.74%, and MSN is pretty much the same at 5.4% (up a miniscule 0.04%).
As Google grows ever so slowly month after month, it will be no surprise if they manage to reach the 80% point. Will Yahoo or MSN ever manage to steal back some of this market share? Not likely in the near future, but time will tell.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 9:09 AM
It sounds more and more like Yahoo should have taken the Microsoft buy-out offer at $31 a share back in February. Since then Yahoo shares have been up and down, but as of today, they are hovering around the $10 mark, a small fraction of what they once were.
Yesterday Yahoo shares dropped to below $10 – the first time their value has dipped into the single digits in more than 5 years. One thing’s for sure, if Microsoft does step up and give Yahoo another offer it will be substantially less than the previous $44.6 Billion.
Yahoo is not the only major player in the search game to see significant value declines on their stock. Around this time last year Google shares were over $700 and as of today are at less than half that with the value at $310.31 at the time of this post. 2008 has also brought significant declines to Microsoft shares as well - at just under $20 today MS has seen shares drop by almost half with their 52 week high of 36.72 from back in December of 07.
Well, this has certainly been a busy week at Google. One thing I can say for Google, they are very energetic and we’re never wanting for good writing material.
Yahoogle Deal Abandoned Right on the heels of revising the scope of the agreement between the two search giants, Google announced this Wednesday that the deal will not go forward. This came to pass after the US Department of Justice decided it would file an anti-trust suit if the agreement was implemented.
Many thought this would be a disastrous alliance and the effects it would have on the industry were very difficult to predict. We’ll never know, but I for one am glad we won’t have to find out.
Adsense Publishers Blocking Ad Display While searching around for article content, I came across this forum thread and it’s a real eye opener. Some advertisers are jamming in last minute political ad displays that are getting placement on completely irrelevant sites. While this isn’t exactly new, what most incenses site owners is the controversial, issue based advertisements that are not relevant and could offend large numbers of visitors to their sites. More information can be found in this article.
Google is aware of this and has posted on their blog the means to block unwanted ads, but apparently, the ads get displayed well before the AdSense publishers can review them to block. This delay in the system has caused many site owners to turn off AdSense altogether as it is the only means of getting unsuitable ad display off immediately.
I am not really surprised by this, as I’ve always been pretty skeptical about how effective an automated system is at determining relevancy. The wide variety of sites that are complaining of this reinforces my opinion of general content display.
Regardless, the time lag involved is something Google really needs to take a look at.
Quality Score Change is a Go
Google has been doing a lot of work on overhauling how their ad ranking system works and last week they announced upcoming changes to QS. This has been made live as of Monday.
There were two major changes made:
1. They have adjusted their algorithm to take into account the effects of ad position on click through rate. Presumably this means if your ad is not always in a high position or on the first page, you will not be penalized for a low CTR (Click through rate).
2. They have also made an algorithm that allows promotion of lower bidding ads to the top slots on the basis of meeting a certain (unspecified) Quality Score threshold. The use of the term “threshold” implies that it may be a fixed score point i.e. 8/10 QS, but they haven’t made this clear.
I’ll be interested to see what effects these changes will have on existing campaigns.
Google says, “Keep in mind that these enhancements may cause changes to your ad position, spend, and performance.” “While we don't believe that any immediate changes are needed on your part, we encourage you, as always, to watch your key metrics and to make adjustments as appropriate.”
You betcha! I’m going to have to plow through all my accounts over the next little while and make sure to compensate for this.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 12:53 PM
The entire “Microsoft seeks Yahoo, Yahoo turns down Microsoft, Yahoo & Google hook up, and then break up, now Microsoft may be back with Yahoo” thing seems like an ongoing plot in a bad soap opera.
Back in June Google announced an advertising agreement that would allow Yahoo to use Google Ads on its websites. Many search marketers were left speculating the impact this would have on campaign effectiveness, however, this was all for nothing now that the Department of Justice has ended the deal.
Now that this deal is no more, the possibility of a Yahoo acquisition by Microsoft will likely be revisited. After news came yesterday that of the collapse of the deal, Yahoo shares saw an 8% rise by close.
According to CNN Money, many Yahoo shareholders are hoping that Microsoft will get back to the table with Yahoo and make a new offer.
The original offer by Microsoft, nearly a year ago, was for $29.06 a share. At the time Yahoo was looking for something along the lines of $35 to $37. Microsoft was willing to go as high as $33.
With Yahoo shares currently trading at around $14, if Microsoft does step up again, you can bet the offer will be much less than it was before. Perhaps Yahoo should have taken the original deal.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 2:38 PM
I wrote about Google’s third quarter results last week, and yesterday Yahoo released theirs. While their revenues are up as compared to the third quarter of 2007, Yahoo will be moving forward with layoffs.
In Q3 of 2007 revenues at Yahoo were a reported $1.768 billion. In the same quarter for 2008 they are seeing a figure of $1.786 billion - up about $22 million. As a percentage, this is very small, but growth none the less.
During the Q3 announcement Yahoo noted that it would be cutting 10% of its headcount, but would continue future hiring in developing countries where salaries are lower.
As the time for implementation of the Google/Yahoo agreement drew near, there was little doubt that some sort of action by the US Dept. of Justice would surface. It remains to be seen what direction the DOJ will go, but there is obviously something happening behind the scenes.
On Friday, both search engine giants announced a delay in moving this initiative forward. This move seems contrary to the previous position of Google's CEO Eric Schmidt, which indicated that the deal would proceed as planned.
What this delay portends is still anyone's guess. For now, the waiting game that kicked off in June will continue.
Will Yahoo Acquire AOL?
This has certainly been a busy and yet, unproductive year for Yahoo. Beginning with the failed takeover bid by Microsoft, followed by the looming uncertainty over the Google deal, one can only wonder what's next.
While talk of a partial acquisition by Yahoo of AOL services has been ongoing for some time, nothing concrete has come about. The consensus seemed to be that this was a move designed to increase Microsoft's offer for Yahoo, if not to thwart the takeover altogether. If that was the case, then it stopped making sense months ago.
Likely, Yahoo looks upon this potential acquisition as a way to expand both their content services and advertising revenue.
Despite indications of progress, details of these discussions seem as vague and uncertain as anything else involving Yahoo of late.
So far this year, we've seen Microhoo, Yahoogle and YAhOoL. I wonder if we'll see YAskhoo! next.
Perhaps we should start a betting pool, winner take all if guessing the correct date when (if) Yahoo will actually successfully conclude one of their negotiations this year.
Microsoft Search Incentives
While Google innovates and Yahoo spins around in circles, Microsoft adds an unusual approach to gaining additional search market share.
Beginning last spring with the launch of the Cash Back program, Microsoft introduced the notion of search advertising rebate incentives. This allows advertisers a means of paying for advertising on a Cost per Acquisition (CPA) basis and buyers some savings on purchases. If you are unfamiliar with this, Techcrunch did a great analysis of this feature. While many had doubts about this approach, it appears to be working.
Last week, Microsoft added to this type of service by releasing >SearchPerks!, another means of attracting traffic through a points-based reward system. While this is not a new concept, it certainly is unique in the search engine world.
Participating users can expect to receive rewards for redeeming saved up "tickets". There are many types of rewards, such as air miles, music downloads and more. This is a limited time offer and sign up for participation expires on Dec 31, 2008.
While it's too early to tell, some believe this idea does have potential.
No surprise to anyone, this feature is only available to Internet Explorer users. That leaves me out of this program. Like many people, not only do I find that browser (regardless which version) extremely annoying and frustrating to use, I resent Microsoft's constant efforts to restrict compatibility for so many services and 3rd party applications to their browser alone.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 4:19 PM
Yahoo has opened up another location, this time with a research center in Grenoble France. This follows shortly after news that Yahoo may also be opening up a location in La Vista Nebraska creating at least 50 news jobs.
Layoff notices for more than 1000 employees were also handed out near the start of the year, and Yahoo's shares have just hit a 52 week low - interesting that they are expanding in all this turmoil.
Regardless, it looks like the new facility will employee 220 engineers and be Yahoo's biggest center in France. The French minister of economy is offering sizable tax credits for research based operations, which helps to explain the choice of location.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 4:29 PM
The latest search market share figures are in at Nielsen, ComScore, and HitWise, and, for the most part, Google continues to rise.
Depending on which provider you prefer, Google saw yet another increase in market share in August as did Yahoo. MSN has dropped according to all three providers.
Over at Comscore Google has seen an increase of 1.1% to 63%, Yahoo is down 0.9% to 19.6%, and MSN is also down 0.6% to 8.3%. Nielsen Netratings reports Google down 0.2% to 60%, Yahoo up 0.7% to 18.1%, and MSN down 1.2% to 10.7%. Finally, Hitwise is showing Google up 0.3% to 71.07%, with Yahoo and MSN both down slightly to 18.26% and 5.32% respectively.
While the numbers between these providers range a fair bit, there is no denying that Google’s strong hold is not going anywhere.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 12:00 PM
In an effort to help out Yahoo with its revenue problems, Yahoo has hired Joanne Bradford, a former Microsoft Corp. Executive.
Yahoo announced the recent hire in a press release Tuesday. Bradford was Microsoft's head of their Media Network and resigned back in March after a 7 year stint with the software giant. She then joined Spot Runner Inc as their Executive Vice President of National Advertising Services before being swept up by Yahoo.
"My decision to come to Yahoo! was simple because there is no other company that combines one of the world's most recognizable brands with unparalleled reach, industry-leading products and programming, and a full spectrum of advertising offerings for marketers," said Bradford. "I am convinced that the very best days for this company are ahead, and I want to leverage my experience in programming, distribution, and selling to help Yahoo! take this business to the next level."
Bradford will be assigned the title of Senior Vice President of U.S. Revenue and Market Department. A rather large title probably compensated with an equally large pay check.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 12:05 PM
According to Reuters, MySpace saw more advertiser ad views in June than Yahoo! Yahoo may be the second biggest search engine on the planet, but when it comes to advertising it saw 34.7 billion ad views compared to MySpace which saw 51 billion views. (figures are from a press release issued by ComScore last week).
Yahoo does have the power to draw more revenue out of their ads and still leads MySpace in terms of revenue. Typically in the realm of social media, ad impressions do not necessarily equal dollars.
"Social media gets all these ad impressions but not necessarily get the dollars," said Colin Gillis, analyst at Canaccord Adams. "MySpace's cost per thousand (CPM) page views are significantly lower than that of Yahoo".
Back in June MySpace unveiled a redesign of their home page which has opened to doors to larger sponsors such as Wendy's and Sprint. While it is too soon to say that MySpace has overtaken Yahoo in the ad wars, this definitely shows that at this rate, they aren't far from it. Look out Yahoo!
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 1:04 PM
Including features that are commonly found on other networks like Facebook and MySpace, Yahoo Mash was Yahoo’s beta attempt at the Social Networking scene.
I have to ask the question "where have I been?" It was not long ago that I reported on the demise of Windows Live Expo, a classified ad platform that I had never heard of until its doors were closed. Now, I hear of the loss of Yahoo Mash, another entity that, well, I didn’t know existed until I read a twitter post from Lee Odden noting that its shutting down.
As of Sept 29, just a few short weeks from now, Yahoo Mash will no longer exist (according to the official Mash Blog. The post does not go on to note the reason for the closure, but does state that if you wish to retain any data within your account, you’d better grab it before Sept 29, because after then, it will be gone forever.
I may not use every program, application, and web entity out there, but I do like to think that I at least know of the existence of the important ones. Maybe that’s the key, “important”? But, for me to have not even heard about Yahoo Mash, not even through the grapevine, this shouts out that Yahoo Mash was a failure for a reason, nobody knew about it, likely the same reason for the death of Live Expo.
Perhaps the "invite only" access was a killer right from the start, or perhaps the beta never really worked as they had planned, who knows, but had they done more to get the word out, Mash may have been the next big thing since potatoes.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 9:11 AM
According to ABC 9 Eyewitness News, Yahoo has applied for a huge state tax break to help them setup shop in La Vista NE.
In order to qualify for the tax breaks Yahoo would have to create at least 50 jobs with an average salary of at least $68,700, and invest $100 million over a four year period.
The Application for these tax breaks is no guarantee of Yahoo’s plans to build in Nebraska. Its interesting that with all the financial trouble Yahoo seems to be having, that they may be willing to move forward with such a huge development.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 12:48 PM
Is there a new interface in the works for Yahoo? Search Engine Roundtable reports August 19th on grouped or indented search results.
"In the past, Yahoo never ever indented search results. In fact, in the past I thought they did do indenting and then stopped, but Yahoo told me that they have never grouped results.
Many search results, including a search for search engine roundtable return grouped results now. Here is a picture:"
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 9:04 AM
Today is the first day of the 2008 Olympics from BeijingChina and Yahoo has made it incredibly easy for us to track the medal standings. Now, when you perform a search in Yahoo for "Olympic medals" at the top of the search result pages you’ll see the standings for the top 5 countries along with a "more" link to see the full results.
This year there will be no need to surf and hunt through various news and olympic sites as the medal standings have never been easier to find.
June 30th 2008 was a day that Flash developers had been waiting for a long time; Google and Adobe had finally announced that Flash .swf files could be crawled by Google! In fact, the extensive news release from the Adobe Developer Center also stated that Yahoo would be incorporating similar technology in short order. When I read this news and the consequential articles from the web marketing community it became very clear that this update was a great step but far from the fix that some Flash developers are likely to pitch to their clients. As a result, I wanted to add my voice to the buzz on this topic and share with you my thoughts on how to optimize a site using Flash while considering the current updates.
What is Flash? Okay, lets get down to basics. To introduce and establish what Flash is all about I am going to fall back on Wikipedia for a concise description:
"Adobe Flash (previously called Shockwave Flash and Macromedia Flash) is a set of multimedia technologies developed and distributed by Adobe Systems and earlier by Macromedia. Since its introduction in 1996, Flash technology has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages; Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, and various web page components, to integrate video into web pages, and, more recently, to develop rich Internet applications." Source, Wikipedia
BEFORE: Search Engines Could Not Crawl Flash Up until recently the textual content found in .swf Flash files was, for all intents and purposes, just as unreadable for search engine spiders as the text in images; only HTML text on a page could be read and indexed by search engine spiders because they could not yet (and still cannot) conduct on-the-fly optical character recognition.
To explain this differently I think of the HTML that spiders can read like the braille-like feeling of running your finger over a letter written in ball point pen; you can feel the contour of writing. Whereas something unreadable like Flash or an image on a page is like running your fingers along a 4x6 picture of a road sign... you won't feel anything, so by the same token the text on that road sign cannot be read by a search engine spider.
NOW: Search Engines Can Crawl Text in Flash For the first time, on June 30th, 2008 Google announced it could accurately spider the textual content hidden within Flash files found on the Internet. This major announcement was enabled by a partnership between Adobe, Google and Yahoo where Adobe provided their proprietary Flash Player technology to the search engines so they could integrate it into their systems and successfully 'read' the content within Flash files. This technology has vast implications for Google's and soon Yahoo's indexes because, at least in Google's case, this allows the search engine to index the content within over 70.4 million Flash (SWF) files. That is a vast amount of content that was previously inaccessible to the search engines and the ability to access it could add a lot of value for search engine users.
For example, an inspiring and eloquent Flash site like Forests Forever could be indexed which would expose more viewers to a website that provides a wonderful introduction to the world's forests. Of course that is just one Flash site of many that will add value to search engines when indexed; it just happens to be one of my personal favourites.
Search Engine Optimization Now Possible with Flash The implementation of Flash crawling technology means that the text within Flash can now be indexed and links can be followed. Here are some examples of the basic optimization that is now possible within Flash:
Optimizing page content for specific keyphrase(s) to ensure a visiting search engine bot will correctly perceive the page's topic.
Using keywords within internal links to pass link juice from page to page; only applicable for sites where the Flash pages are broken down onto separate URLs.
Providing emphasis (bolding) to particular words may help to emphasize keyphrase(s); but I am reaching here... it is unknown if this new technology provides text-importance recognition.
The Limitations of Flash Search Engine Optimization Now that you have some idea of what can now be optimized for search engines here are a few pitfalls that still limit the search engine friendliness of Flash:
Single URL Flash Websites: Many websites I encounter still incorporate all of the website in a single Flash file; in other words as a user navigates the site they are still using the same URL but different pages appear. In such an instance the search engines will index the content and potentially drive traffic to the site but as Google cannot link to content within a Flash file all users will be sent to the beginning of the file. That type of indirect search result is likely to infuriate many searchers who have come to expect immediate results.
Here is a quote from Google's comment area on this topic:
"We’ve heard requests for deep linking (linking to specific content inside file) not just for Flash results, but also for other large documents and presentations. In the case of Flash, the ability to deep link will require additional functionality in Flash with which we integrate."
That last line is interesting because it leaves room for interpretation. Do they mean Adobe will have to add the "additional functionality" to Flash or that Google needs to beef up their indexing technology to take advantage of the existing Flash functionality? Perhaps some Flash gurus out there could weigh in on this one. It is definitely an ambiguous way for Google to answer the question.
If you need a work-around to deep-link single SWF files Adobe notes a solution: "you can create multiple HTML files that provide different variables to the SWF and start your application at the correct subsection. By creating multiple entry points, you can get the benefits of a site that is indexed as a suite of pages but still only need to manage one copy of your application."
Text in Images is Not Indexed: Many Flash websites inexplicably incorporate a great deal of textual content within images and currently search engines cannot index text in images; I expect that will remain true for at least another year or two. As a result, a Flash website that includes a vast amount of text within graphics will not see a noticeable benefit to this enhanced crawling technology.
Resource-File Based Content Not Indexed: I noted this in Google's comment area from their support team: "At this time, content loaded dynamically from resource files is not indexed. We’ve noted this feature request from several webmasters -- look for this in a near future update."
In addition, Google's news release announced the following limitations to Flash that Google expects to surmount soon (quoted from Google blog):
"Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript. So if your web page loads a Flash file via JavaScript, Google may not be aware of that Flash file, in which case it will not be indexed."
"We currently do not attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files. If your Flash file loads an HTML file, an XML file, another SWF file, etc., Google will separately index that resource, but it will not yet be considered to be part of the content in your Flash file."
"While we are able to index Flash in almost all of the languages found on the web, currently there are difficulties with Flash content written in bidirectional languages. Until this is fixed, we will be unable to index Hebrew language or Arabic language content from Flash files."
Verdict: SEO for Flash is Still in Diapers It is wonderful news that Flash is becoming more search engine friendly and there is no question that the addition of previously unattainable Flash content to search engine indexes will prove valuable. But the fact of the matter is that at this moment I wouldn't dream of telling a client that Flash can be a competitive medium for search engine optimization. There are simply too many roadblocks that still exist and need to be addressed before a Flash website has any hope of competing with an HTML website on the basis of just search engine optimization. I do, however, see a couple exceptions to the rule:
At a certain point a threshold can be met where significant incoming links can push even the most un-search engine friendly website to the top rankings. As a result, it is highly likely that some Flash websites with a decent incoming link support structure will see vast improvements in rankings when their content is finally considered thanks to this new crawling technology.
In less competitive arenas (obscure keyphrases or keyphrases with little competition) the basic search engine optimization capabilities opened to Flash may very well be all that is needed to attain top search engine rankings.
In conclusion I would like to pass on extreme kudos to Adobe, Google and Yahoo for working this new technology into their systems. With all of the new multimedia formats coming online it has always seemed quite silly to me that Flash, having been around for years, was still not fully indexable. Thankfully Flash can now be crawled and the day where it could potentially compete for competitive rankings is on the distant horizon.
I just finished writing a post for Search Engine Guide on Yahoo's latest idea that I think is positively brilliant. Here is the lead in if you would like to go there and read it in its entirety:
"At Yahoo Anecdotal today Yahoo announced they had recently opened the Yahoo Accessibility Lab; a place where only Yahoo employees (for now) can experience the world of the Internet as a disabled web surfer would. Read on for a peak at accessibility guidelines and more on what Yahoo had to say about this important issue."
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 9:10 AM
Yahoo has their second quarter shareholder conference call Tuesday evening and the numbers are in.
For Q2 of 2008 Yahoo's Revenues were $1.79 Billion, representing a 6% increase over 2007 Q2 Results. Their cost of revenues were also up substantially resulting in a gross profit up by only $18 million compared to 2007. Granted that a profit of more than a Billion dollars is nothing to sneeze at, but $18 million in growth is really peanuts in this multi-billion dollar industry.
For a full rundown of all the figures or to listen to the conference call, visit Yahoo Investor Relations.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 4:09 PM
comScore released the latest figures for search engine rankings and their respective market share Friday, and Google has actually seen a drop! For all you Yahoo and Microsoft fans out there, don’t get too excited, it’s quite small to say the least.
For June 2008 Google has shown a 61.5% hold on market share, down 0.3% from May of 2008. Yahoo also showed a 0.3% change, only in the positive direction moving from 20.6% up to 20.9%. Microsoft had the biggest leap of a whopping 0.7% up from 8.5% to 9.2%.
When comparing numbers from June 2007 with June 2008, Google has seen a sizable gain stealing users from MSN and Yahoo. In the past 12 months Google has seen an increase of 6.6% with Yahoo and Microsoft both losing, 2.9%, and 3.1% respectively.
Recently, Google announced an agreement with rival search engine, Yahoo. In their blog, Google maintains that this agreement does not signify a merger, nor will it harm competition in advertising. However there is general concern over the extent that Yahoo will make use of these ads.
Although there are not a lot of details available as yet, some further information can be found in this blog post. According to this post, this agreement will enable Yahoo to display some Google Ads on their Search and Content Networks. The real question (and concern) is how will Yahoo make use of this.
If they only use Google Ads as filler for less competitive phrases, then likely this would likely have little impact on their own advertising clients. If they go further and start pitting their client’s bids against those of Adwords, costs will soar for advertisers using Panama.
How Yahoo will determine bidding between Google advertisements and their own remains to be seen, but if cost per click is a factor (as I’m sure it will be), then Yahoo’s advertisers may be in for a shock.
I must admit, I am curious as to what effect this integration will have on AdWords advertisers as well. Will we have to optimize for a new Quality Index/Score now? Presumably they’ll work out some sort of common rating algorithm, but I’m a bit concerned about the potential for migraines.
Additionally, the deal includes adding interoperability to their instant messaging platforms. How they intend to accomplish this has yet to be disclosed, but it would be a positive step for users.
While this would be a good move financially for both Google and Yahoo, I am skeptical that the search advertising “partnership” side of this arrangement would have no adverse effect on competition. Having the two top competitors working so closely together could have negative effects for users and advertisers both.
While there is speculation as to whether or not this will even go through, we can expect to see significant changes in the industry one way or another.
While cruising Google Reader I noted some great articles and tips that you shouldn't miss. Have a great read and an excellent weekend!
Google's Matt Cutts gives tips on what page extensions Google does not index. In summary, don't expect Google to index .exe extensions or URLs that end with a ".O" such as "www.xyzname.com/web2.0"; although Matt did note that the ".O" extension is being re-evaluated and tested for less troublesome indexing by Google.
Robert X. Cringely wrote a great article on a "Microsoft-killer" strategy that he believes Apple is putting into play based on the new MobileMe service coming soon. Here is an excerpt:
"Microsoft's success is based on two products and only two products -- Windows and Office. Microsoft is obsessed with the idea that Google will undermine one or both of those monopolies through Google Apps. This is all Steve Ballmer thinks about and is what made him so eager to spend $40+ billion for Yahoo. But what if the real threat isn't Google at all, but Apple?" ...
"Given the code Apple already has for its iWork applications, how much more effort would it take to webify those apps, too? Not much, I'd say. A year from now I guarantee you that MobileMe will offer a complete suite of web-based Office applications."
"Recently, we improved our algorithms to process new information faster, and the result is quite tangible -- you should now see fresher suggestions for queries on current topics of interest."Because information on the web is constantly changing, we think this improvement will help you find relevant information faster. To give this a test drive, try searching for iphone. You should see related queries around the brand new 3G iPhone announced earlier this week."
Jerry explained his reasoning for the Google partnership in 3 statements which I summarized below:
1) "First, it does not signal that Yahoo! plans to exit paid search. Quite the contrary. Through the financial benefits of better monetizing our search traffic, we’ll be investing in search services and ad platforms, including Panama. ..."
2) "Second, this deal is good for competition. ... as search and display continue their convergence, it puts Yahoo! in a better position to innovate and compete aggressively with Google and others for ad dollars. It also offers advertisers more choice and publishers gain better distribution and monetization to grow their business."
3) "Finally, this agreement is non-exclusive. We remain completely free to display any paid search listings across our properties — whether from Yahoo!, Google, or any other third parties."
New details have surfaced of Microsoft's most recent dealings with Yahoo and another offer from Microsoft that was again swatted down by Yahoo. BoomTown's Kara Swisher talks of Microsoft's most recent bid that was designed to stifle the Google and Yahoo partnership before it was signed; a very tempting bid at that.
"Yahoo decided that the strategic drawbacks of the Microsoft deal outweighed the potentially huge financial and operational benefits... and told Microsoft to take a hike."
In closing, I noticed that Microsoft put out a plain-jane press release in response to Yahoo's signed partnership with a few very simple words indicating that doors are still open for partnership:
“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.”
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 2:32 PM
The latest numbers are in, and Google continues to dominate search - we already knew that, but by how much?
The latest figures from HitWise released this morning show Google up a little over 3% compared to May of 2007. Google was accountable for approximately 68.29% of searches performed in the US in May of 2008. Yahoo and MSN fell to 19.95% and 5.89% respectively.
Yahoo’s figures for May 2008 are down marginally by about 1% and MSN down nearly 2% compared to the same period a year ago. HitWise figures are based on a sampling of 10 million U.S. Internet Users.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 10:13 AM
Yahoo signed a multi-year deal with Walmart to start displaying advertising on its company website a press release stated Wednesday. The deal will enable Walmart.com to utilize Yahoo's ad platform for presenting new offers to their customers.
"This announcement builds on our strategy to be the partner of choice for leading brands looking to engage more customers with compelling offers online," said Todd Teresi, senior vice president of the Yahoo! Publisher Network. "By combining Walmart.com's leading position as a multi-channel retailer with our industry-leading display advertising sales and ad management technology and sales force, we will be able to provide advertisers with the easiest, most effective way to deliver targeted, relevant marketing messages to Walmart.com shoppers."
Marketers are expected to be able to start taking advantage of this partnership sometime near the end of this month.
"Spam Spam Spam Sausage and Spam!" The words from the hilarious Monty Python sketch play unbounded in my mind every time I hear the word "Spam".
Unfortunately these days the inedible version of Spam is far from funny as it clogs our Internet and wastes our valuable time filtering through garbage email. Some of these emails just happen to be scam Spam about a "Yahoo Lottery" that claims the recipient has won the Yahoo Lottery and these emails go on to request everything from social security numbers to credit card information in order to claim said prize. Well in case you didn't know there is no such thing as a Yahoo Lottery and Yahoo has had quite enough of hearing about it. Today Yahoo pronounced on the Yahoo Anecdotal blog that the company has decided to go after these spammers without mercy.
"We won’t tolerate these hoax emails or having our brand used to deceive you, and we’re seeking maximum damages permissible by law." Says Mark Risher in the posting.
In the meantime Mark offers five tips that it many unfortunate people wish they could have seen before they were scooped up and spit out by the Yahoo Lottery Scam. Don't make the same mistakes other unfortunate people have.
Here are some other resources available on current email and other Internet scams:
Is there a Yahoo! Lottery? - Yahoo's FAQ on the subject; where Yahoo's understandable frustration about the whole situation comes across loud and clear.
The web is afire with the news that after its latest bid attempt to takeover Yahoo failed, Microsoft decided to back down. My desktop news widget is going wild with this news... updating every 30s or so with more updates from Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, Forbes, Information Week, CNet News, etc; hot news indeed. All those big time journals aside it appears that BoomTown's Kara Swisher was the first to break the news.
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.
Steven A. Ballmer Chief Executive Officer Microsoft Corporation
Yahoo's Reply Yahoo's Chairman Roy Bostock issued a public statement that included some jubilant words from Jerry Yang about the "distraction of Microsoft's unsolicited bid":
"We remain focused on maximizing shareholder value and pursuing strategic opportunities that position Yahoo! for success and leadership in its markets. From the beginning of this process, our independent board and our management have been steadfast in our belief that Microsoft's offer undervalued the company and we are pleased that so many of our shareholders joined us in expressing that view. Yahoo! is profitable, growing, and executing well on its strategic plan to capture the large opportunities in the relatively young online advertising market. Our solid results for the first quarter of 2008 and increased full year 2008 operating cash flow outlook reflect the progress the company is making. Today, Yahoo! has:
-- 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."
Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief executive officer, Yahoo! Inc. added, "I am incredibly proud of the way our team has come together over the last three months. This process has underscored our unique and valuable strategic position. With the distraction of Microsoft's unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus all of our energies on executing the most important transition in our history so that we can maximize our potential to the benefit of our shareholders, employees, partners and users."
BONUS - Ballmer's Internal Memo to Microsoft I came across this article at CNet a few minutes ago showing a copy of Steve Ballmer's internatl memo to Microsoft staff and felt it was worth including:
From: Steve Ballmer Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2008 5:18 PM To: Microsoft - All Employees (QBDG) Subject: Withdrawal of Offer to Acquire Yahoo!
This afternoon I sent the attached letter to Jerry Yang announcing that Microsoft has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo. We proposed the deal in the belief that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger would create a combined company with the resources and assets to win in the fast-growing market for advertising and online services.
Although the acquisition of Yahoo would have accelerated our ability to deliver on our strategy in advertising and online services, I remain confident that we can achieve our goals without Yahoo. We have a strategy in place to do so and we will continue to expand on this strategy and accelerate our progress.
Our strategy has three components:
Deliver on the basics. We will continue to improve search relevance and build out our ad platform.
Change the game through innovation. We will expand investments in engineering and deliver transformative tools and Web experiences.
Expand our global scale and focus. We will pursue partnerships and investments to realize the competitive advantages that come with scale.
At the heart of our strategy is a commitment to bring the benefits of competition, choice, and innovation to everyone who uses the Internet--from consumers to content creators to advertisers.
We are 100 percent focused on executing on this strategy and we have made good progress in a very short time. We've improved search relevance dramatically, introduced compelling new search verticals, successfully integrated Aquantive, and added nearly 100 new publishers to our ad platform. In the last couple of months we've rolled out new versions of key products including Internet Explorer and Silverlight, and introduced new technologies like Live Mesh. We now have over 430 million active users of our Windows Live services worldwide. And we continue to add new technologies with acquisitions such as YaData, which brings leading-edge behavioral targeting technology, and Caligari, which gives us advanced 3D modeling capabilities that will help us continue to improve Virtual Earth.
Ultimately, our goal is to build the industry-leading business in search, online advertising, media, and social networking.
We are absolutely committed to being the leader in each of these areas. Now is the time to do what we have always done best--be tenacious, focus on the long term, innovate, and keep working hard.
I want to thank all of you for your patience during this process and for your dedication and hard work across all of our businesses. We asked that you remain focused on our goals through these cycles, and you have done this extremely well. We are committed to making the investments that will enable us to compete and, ultimately, lead in the online services and advertising businesses. Together, I know we will succeed.
Steve
Oh Well Too bad, I had really hoped this merger would go through for entirely self serving reasons noted previously. That said, huge huge kudos are due to Jerry Yang and his impressive team. I have to wonder just how much sleep they managed to get over the past 3 months since Ballmer's 'unsolicited' kick in the teeth; they have been busier than a one-legged man in an arse kicking contest. Here is a rundown (I plan on updating it soon to bring it up to date) on what Yahoo was up to for only part of that 3 month process... it is a long list.
Here is the introductory paragraph for a little taster:
"Mobile web browsing is gaining popularity and acceptance thanks to the extensive proliferation of iPhones and other mobile appliances with surf-friendly interfaces. As a result it is becoming more and more important to offer a mobile-friendly alternative to your current website. The reality is, however, that many website owners seem to have no inclination to spend money on a medium that (as far as they know) is unproven and could generate zero income. Fortunately there is a way for every website owner to create an alternative to their website and not only is it exceedingly simple but it is FREE. Now no one has an excuse to ignore this growing medium!"
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 2:40 PM
In the first quarter of 2008 earnings are up, employees are down, Microsoft started its attempts at a takeover, and Yahoo still found time to get into bed with Google (although the U.S. Justice Department is still out on that one).
First quarter earnings for Yahoo were higher than most experts had predicted. Sales rose by 9 percent to $1.8 billion, with an increase in net income by a sizable 282% to $542 million, compared with $142 Million for the same period in 2007. These profits were largely in thanks to Yahoo's investment in the initial public offering of Alibaba.com which accounted for $401 million.
In mid February Yahoo also laid off approximately 1000 employees, thus taking a significant chunk out of their payroll. While this would account for only a small percentage of the increased profit, considering that many of the layoffs involved fairly prominent and higher paid employees, it likely totals up to a sizable amount.
Analysts were expecting revenues at $1.32 billion excluding acquisition costs yet Yahoo's first quarter revenue was, in fact, about $300 million higher at $1.35 billion.
This recently announced increase in Q1 profits has not had an impact on Microsoft’s acquisition attempt. Back at the start of February Microsoft had offered $31 per share in an unsolicited bid to purchase Yahoo and since then Yahoo has been battling this Microsoft takeover. On Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, according to the Seattle Times, "Yahoo’s quarterly results would not affect the value of Yahoo to Microsoft." Microsoft has also threatened that if things are not resolved by this Saturday, they will bring a lower bid directly to Yahoo shareholders.
As part of a search to find alternatives to the Microsoft takeover, Yahoo announced a test where 3% of paid ads appearing on US based Yahoo searches would actually be from Google’s AdSense program. The test is expected to last up to two weeks. According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, this has sparked the U.S. Justice Department to look into possible antitrust applications - no word yet on the results of that investigation.
By close of day Wednesday, Yahoo shares were down $0.15 closing at $28.08Yahoo shares rose sharply by about 50% back in February with the news of the possible Microsoft buyout, and have hovered around the $28 mark ever since.
Yahoo's earnings release for Q1 of 2008 can be downloaded in PDF form from Yahoo Investor Relations.
This is the second in a series of articles intended to convey my personal impressions of managing PPC through Google Adwords, Yahoo Panama and MSN Adcenter.
If you missed part one, you can view it here. Today I will be covering Yahoo’s Panama. Of the three, this is my least favoured, so I’m wearing my Yahoo Search Marketing ball cap today, to remind myself not to allow too much vitriol to slip into the article.
Interface
Logging into a Yahoo account brings you to the Dashboard. This is an overview page containing basic account information, along with any alerts. Also on this page is a drop down menu allowing you to shift to different accounts under your master account. If you are advertising in multiple countries this is useful for easier access without requiring multiple logins, though these accounts can only be linked by Yahoo support personnel.
The dashboard also contains a table which allows you to view either top performing campaigns, ad groups or keywords at a glance. The nifty thing with this table is it allows you to view at a glance items you have set up on the watch list. This is useful for quickly viewing items of concern and allows you to select from a drop down menu, watched campaigns, ad groups and keywords.
One of the things I like about Panama is the use of colour to highlight various features. Particularly when I’m creating new campaigns or ads, these buttons stand out very well. Also, the capability of different colour fonts and sectional backgrounds eases the look of pages that would otherwise appear cluttered with all sorts of information.
The dashboard is the first of 4 tabs, the others being Campaigns, Reports and Administration.
Campaign
The Campaign tab contains 5 links to navigate back and forth:
Campaign: A table showing all the account campaigns and basic performance information for each.
Ad Groups: Shows basic performance data for all ad groups, listing also which campaign each ad group belongs to.
Keywords: A table showing all the keywords in the account with basic data and lists which campaign and which ad group each belongs to (very handy feature this).
Editorial Status: contains status listing of pending, declined and removed ads and keywords.
Search: Allows search for campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads. I am not sure why this page exists as essentially the same function is available on each of the other pages.
One thing to note, with exception of the search page, all of the above can be viewed for specific date ranges using a fairly robust date range selection system.
Reports
Reports can be saved in several different formats. Performance reports can be saved in CSV for Excel, CSV, TSV and XML, while financial reports can be saved as either PDF or TXT. Reports can be set up for either the campaign, ad group or keyword level to view overall performance data. There are also optional views for geographic location, daily spending and URL performance. There is an option to use saved templates, but it is limited to 5 saved configurations.
Administration
Under the administration page, you can find the account details and edit billing and budgetary options, set up alerts, change tactics, set up different account users and assign permissions. You can also choose up to 250 domains to block placing content ads on.
The Tactics selection includes the ability to turn on or off either Sponsored Search or Content Match, set match type to advanced or standard and add keyword exclusions. This is kind of an odd spot to put these; one would normally expect to see this in campaign level settings, but it seems Panama is only capable of this at the account level. A definite minus for flexibility.
There is also a link for analytics (where you can set up conversion tracking) and one for tracking URL’s. The first time setting up conversion tracking, I found the interface to be quite confusing, but it was just the choice of labeling that threw me off. You must ensure “Conversion Only Analytics” and “Analytics are enabled” are both activated in order to have the conversion tracking function.
Campaign Setup
Setting up is an 8 step process.
First thing is naming the campaign and setting up geo-targeting. You can select Entire Market or specify by region or specific city/area. There are some pitfalls to watch out for here. If you haven’t read my previous article on this you can find it here.
The second step is creating an initial ad group and defining tactics.
Now it is time to input your keywords. You can get suggested keywords at this point, have this tool scan a URL for suggestions or input your own list. Excluded (negative) keywords may also be input here.
Next step is to set the ad group default maximum bids for sponsored search and/or content match. One thing I really like about this stage is a side graph that shows estimates for average position, number of impressions and clicks, average CPC (cost per click) and the percentage share of available clicks. This graph updates to changes in the set bid, so is useful for gauging where to set your max.
The next step is writing the ad itself. Two things to watch out for here; one is the long descriptions and the other, the display URL. Yahoo does not allow long descriptions and has not for quite some time, beyond me why they have not taken it out of the set up process. The display URL input box is hidden and you need to click the little bullet arrow to view. It really does not save much space doing that, so I have no idea why it is designed like that.
After this stage is review, which takes you back to the second step and you can edit any errors along the way, or you can just choose to move to stage 7…
Which is the budgeting of the campaign and setting up a display schedule if necessary. There is a display estimates feature that allows you to view monthly clicks and impressions for varying schedules.
The last step is reviewing and activating your campaign.
Learning Resources and Certification
A while back I studied for and passed my certification examination to become a YSM Ambassador for StepForth Web Marketing. Having gone through this process prior to this with Google AdWords, I was somewhat dismayed at the learning resources available for using this interface. Whereas AdWords has a comprehensive learning center with video and text modules complete with relevant quizzes for each, Yahoo only offers a very brief, scant slideshow with no quizzes. Most of my learning had to be done the hard way, meandering through their help sections.
The overall difference in quality and difficulty between AdWords and Panama exams was pretty obvious. But at least Yahoo allows professional accreditation, unlike MSN, whose recently implemented program is only available for US residents.
Annoyances and Oddities
These are some of the gripes I have with Panama I have not covered in previous articles. I will try not to foam at the mouth too much.
As with MSN Adcenter, the timeout seems much too short. While writing this article I was using an existing account to view different sections of the interface. I had to re-log into the account dozens of times. I would write a few sentences, go back to look at something and more often than not I would find myself logged out.
Some of the labels and wording are not ideally descriptive. One example I mentioned earlier has to do with conversion tracking. Another instance regards ad display rate. In AdWords, you can adjust ads so better performing ads get more exposure. There did not seem to be a feature in Panama, until I clicked on the “optimize ads” button. I thought this was some sort of tool to suggest ad changes but after reading the lengthy description I realized it is for displaying the “best” ad.
The campaign “Tune up” tool is of questionable value. I ran a test on this and the recommendations given were pretty doubtful. Basically, the tool recommended I up the daily budget by 350%, jack up the keyword max bids (in some cases quite dramatically) and change some match types. The estimated rewards for providing Yahoo with this additional spend were a 2% percent improvement in CTR (click through rate), a 20% increase in clicks and no estimation on conversion changes. All this with only a 4% increase in monthly cost. Regardless of any of the other estimations, I cannot equate a 350% increase in daily spend equaling a 4% increase in estimated spend.
Setting up campaigns, especially ones with lots of ad copy, is laborious and time consuming. There is no option for uploading work or any tools to make this a smoother process. It is either do it from scratch or a lengthy cut and paste session from a spreadsheet. To give an example, I recently set up account in all 3 engines. It took roughly a half hour to get everything set up with the AdWords Editor tool and uploaded. Then having saved the campaign information in CSV format from the AdWords Editor, I uploaded the file into MSN Adcenter, set up the bidding and activated the campaign. This took all of about 10 minutes. Finally, setting up the same campaign in Yahoo, took over 3 tedious hours of copying and pasting.
I mentioned the “hidden” display URL box when writing ads which is annoying when first setting up. If you are creating new ads however, even in an entirely new campaign in an existing account, by default the original display URL is set in there for every new ad in the account. So if you are using a different domain, you have to ensure you open up the hidden entry box and change it for each ad. There is a way around this, but it is obscurely set in Administration under the account set up page.
Also, if you are modifying ads, your modifications will not show until the changes have been approved, which can take several days. By this I mean you cannot even see the changes you have made until the ads have been approved. (This caused me quite a bit of grief recently, as I was required to do a massive overhaul when a client renamed all the URL’s on their site - it was very annoying to be unable to double check my changes upon completion.)
My last and biggest beef with Yahoo is the quality of their support. I have worked with first tier support in the past and I know the drill. The incidence of skimming the first line or so of a support request and firing back a template response which generally has nothing to do with the context of the support request seems to be higher than most here.
My perception of the quality of first tier staff training diminishes with each successive phone call. When trying to figure out the problem which led to the discovery of certain geo-targeting issues, we went through quite a few emails and phone calls before finding someone with an adequate grasp of their system to understand what was wrong.
In another case, a support saga of epic proportions, I received 5 successively different, nonsensical explanations, none of which addressed my actual question. Sensing the circular pattern of this, I struggled to get direct contact up-tier. Incredibly, one rep actually told me editors aren’t allowed phones, to keep them impartial. When I finally got put through to an editor, I was initially told more of the same, but upon realizing I wasn’t buying it, he simply went ahead and fixed the problem. Quite an ordeal and a completely unnecessary waste of time.
While it is obvious some of the complaints I have about the design of this system are fairly trivial, these little problems can add up to a serious, unnecessary increase in the amount of time required to work with this interface, particularly in large campaigns. It is my hope that Yahoo can expend a little more effort to improve Panama’s usability.
Summary
Over the course of writing this article, I realized there are quite a few things I do like about this interface. If they made it a little easier to work with and especially if they improve their customer support, I would have no qualms about using this interface.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 9:22 AM
As posted at Yodel Anecdotal, Yahoo has developed and launched a new website targeted at women. Unveiled on Monday, Yahoo! Shine "features the best writers and bloggers in women's publishing". It helps "connect like-minded women, share stories, and more".
Shines editorial team features editors from Lucky, Jane, and the Wall Street Journal. They created Shine to appeal to a large demographic of women and give them a "smart, dynamic place for women to gather, get info, and connect with each other".
Content found on Shine is derived from some the best of the best, and features works from women at Glamour, Self, Cosmo, Women's Health, and more. Shine does not focus on "how to please a man" or "lose 10 lbs fast" but rather more real world, intellectual content, as well as entertainment news.
While many women appreciate and seem to be quite pleased with the site, this is not the case across the board. One woman commented "It's a rather scary thing that Shine is being pushed as the place for women when all that's on here is fluff." In a reply to that post another writes "Yes I have to agree sadly. I hoped it would cover more real issues but seems to sadly fall inline with too many women's magazines."
If they can boost this site to appeal to the majority of women then this is a great move on the part of Yahoo, Just look at all the money Oprah has made creating an empire geared primarily towards women! I'm curious to see how well this site ends up doing, however, aside from visiting Shine today to write this article, I doubt I will personally be spending much time there. Time to go rebuild a carburetor or watch some football.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 11:57 AM
How would you like to change the way your site rankings appear within the search engines? I am not talking about the ranking itself, but rather the listings appearance. This idea may soon become a reality, at least at Yahoo, with the introduction of Yahoo Open Search.
“..instead of a simple title, abstract and URL, for the first time users will see rich results that incorporate the massive amount of data buried in websites -- ratings and reviews, images, deep links, and all kinds of other useful data -- directly on the Yahoo! Search results page.”
Rafe Needleman at Cnet reported on the announcement made by Yahoo at SMX West Tuesday noting details on how exactly this program will work have not yet been released. It does appear that both new and small sites will continue to have their listings displayed as they currently are, with the new customized appearances being available to larger sites such as the New York Times.
A formal launch date has also yet to be announced but is expected within the next couple of months. With the ability to make your listing appear more attractive (and to encourage clicks) this is certainly a feature that will be welcomed by webmasters.
Written by Andrew Clough and published at 11:03 AM
Yahoo Search is aiming to show more useful information on its results page. Yahoo state's it will eventually "enable 3rd parties to build and present the next generation of search results". This includes bringing data found within a website like ratings and other useful information into it's Yahoo search results page. Instead of just a website's URL and abstract on its results page Yahoo will include "ratings, images, deep links, and all kinds of other useful data". Although this is still in the works the plan is to let websites "regain some control over how their content is presented without allowing them to actually muck with search result ordering."
Great Q & A from people working with social media (Lee Odden, Shana Albert, Neil Patel, Jane Copland). Topics include good sites to promote content, attracting links, social media as a marketing strategy, and an insiders guide to Social Media.
Google Maps is now including a "refine by user rating and neighborhood system" to its search results of local services (hotels, restaurants). So whether you are downtown or uptown you can find more specific and user rated search results.
Yahoo is changing its minimum bid for PPC. Depending on what keywords you are targeting your minimum bid can now be under the previous .10 cent minimum. Although this will not affect any competitive keywords it will likely help to lower costs of targeting smaller niche markets.
Combining marketing with social networks can be a great way to spread your message through word of mouth and viral marketing campaigns. If they become popular they will drive exponential traffic to your website. In " What makes a Successful Marketing Campaign on Social Networks?" 9 key attributes are given that are shared by the social media campaigns.
I enjoyed this great interview of Jeff Quipp of Search Engine People as he gave his secrets of the SEO business. He placed SEO as part of your overall marketing strategy. He gave his views on linkbuilding, linkbaiting, an insiders guide for new bloggers,and how he became head of his own SEO company. He also looked into the crystal ball for the future of SEO and what search engines will be crawling some time soon.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 3:03 PM
Over the past few days there seems to be a lot of action with Google and Mobile search. As the advancement in mobile technology continues, the major search engines are finding their place in this infant marketplace to seek out as many advertiser dollars as possible.
Google Searches Abundant on iPhones On Wednesday, Google reported that it has seen more mobile searches by users using Apple iPhones by 50 times that of any other mobile handset, according to the Financial Times. This shows that the increasing use of mobile search will prove to be a significant source of revenue for Google and others involved in mobile search into the future, but the statistic had Google second guessing.
"'We thought it was a mistake and made our engineers check the logs again,' Vic Gundotra, head of Google's mobile operations told the Financial Times at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona."
Gundotra went on to note that the number of mobile searches could outnumber that of fixed internet searches "within the next several years" if other manufactures improve the ease of web access as Apple has.
Google Loses T-Mobile in Europe to Yahoo The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Google has lost its contract with T-Mobile (Europe) as they signed Yahoo as their preferred mobile search provider. Yahoo's growing mobile presence is also one that Microsoft is undoubtedly eyeing in their multi-billion dollar take-over attempt.
Yahoo signing with T-Mobile is a significant move given that Google's partnership with the mobile operator was one of the first of its kind. Starting in March Yahoo's mobile oneSearch will be used by default by T-Mobile customers in 11 European countries.
This may not be as big of a hit against Google as Gundotra notes "Users want an internet without fences. They know how to type in Google.com if they want to get to it. Two years ago the operators were still playing the role of gatekeepers but that is no longer the role for them."
Google Search Offered on Nokia Handsets Tuesday, Nokia announced a deal to offer Google Search to customers worldwide.
Google will now be the default search integrated into new select Nokia handsets. The deal will offer users faster, easier access to online information from their mobile devices as well as the ability to search the handset itself for any content they have stored within it.
Nokia offers easy searching only one click away from the active standby screen. By increasing the ease of use, ultimately it will increase the number of users taking advantage of the feature.
"Providing choices for our consumers is an important driver in Nokia's Internet service strategy," said Ilkka Raiskinen, vice-president, software and services at Nokia. "This integration allows our consumers the ability to use the innovative search technologies, which have made Google almost synonymous with Internet search.
Nokia and Google have had a previous relationship. Last year the Nokia N95 became the first mobile device to support YouTube, and Google Search has been available on Nokia Internet tablets for some time now.
Over the past week I have been keeping the StepForth SEO Blog updated on the events focused on Microsoft's attempted acquisition of Yahoo and the fall out since. This is becoming quite a debacle so I thought a little chronological update on how all this went down might be useful.
From 2006 to Now
2006: Rumors abounded that Yahoo and Microsoft were in talks about working together and that an acquisition was possible. However, nothing substantial was revealed at the time but we later learned that Yahoo refused to work with Microsoft.
May 4th, 2007: The rumor mill was working overtime that Microsoft was quietly trying to acquire Yahoo for $50 billion. I was elated :-)
Jan 22, 2008: The New York Times reports that Yahoo is expected to layoff hundreds of staff in order to boost profitability and share prices. The quarterly earnings report is eagerly anticipated on Jan 29th.
Feb 3, 2008:Google's David Drummond weighs in on the hostile bid by Microsoft citing concerns that a potential purchase of Yahoo by Microsoft "raises troubling questions". He goes on to ask "Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft -- despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses -- to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet?" Check out this hilarious interpretation of Mr. Drummond's blog posting by Kara Swisher.
Feb 11, 2008:Microsoft promptly responds to Yahoo's rebuff with a 'gloves are off' tone. In the letter Microsoft says it will "ensure that Yahoo!'s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal."
Feb 12, 2008: Yahoo exec Bradley Horowitz leaves Yahoo and moves to Google. Bradley was head of Yahoo's Advanced Technology Division and his departure is only the beginning of a long list of talent that is likely to leave Yahoo over the coming months. See Bradley's bio and you will see why this respected man's departure will hurt. To his credit, however, Bradley insists his departure was not directly due to recent events.
Feb 13, 2008:Yahoo announces an acquisition of online video company Maven Networks. Why? "Video is projected to be the fastest growing segment of the online ad market, and Maven will significantly help advance Yahoo's strategy, expanding the video opportunity for publishers and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness for advertisers."
Sniff... sniff... I smell desperation! This is yet another rallying cry from Jerry Yang to help keep Yahoo from the slobbering jaws of Microsoft... unless of course Microsoft offers $35 or $36 a share at which point OKAY.
So What Now? First of all, forget about Google saving the day. I would put money on Google being out of the picture for any possible partnership with Yahoo; Google is just not interested in the certain SEC ramifications of such a partnership.
With that potential path closed Yahoo has had to look elsewhere. As a result there are rumours that News Corp and Yahoo are talking in an attempt to forge a deal that could counter Microsoft's.
Meanwhile Yahoo is facing pressure from all sides to make a move that appeases the company's particularly distressed shareholders and they had better do something soon. Otherwise, (this is hard to believe) matters could actually get uglier.
Feel free to republish this article under the following conditions: the posting must credit the author (Ross Dunn) before it begins and it should include a permalink back to this original posting (without a nofollow). Thank you.
Microsoft released the following official statement today in response to Yahoo's denial of the $44 bn dollar offer and I highlighted Microsoft's fully-expected overture towards a hostile takeover:
It is unfortunate that Yahoo! has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our companies. Based on conversations with stakeholders of both companies, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties.
We are offering shareholders superior value and the opportunity to participate in the upside of the combined company. The combination also offers an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market.
A Microsoft-Yahoo! combination will create a more effective company that would provide greater value and service to our customers. Furthermore, the combination will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising.
The Yahoo! response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal. As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.
The nastiness is about to begin as Microsoft is likely to launch its first publicly hostile takeover of another company.
Over the weekend Bloomberg reports that Yahoo's board decided to reject Microsoft's offer of $44 bn because they felt their stock was substantially undervalued but they hinted they could be drawn back to the table with a more alluring offer.
"The board spent a week reviewing the $31-per-share offer before deciding it was too low. The statement didn't give a counter-proposal for the price. Yahoo wants at least $40, the Wall Street Journal reported this weekend." (source Bloomberg exclusive)
Yahoo appears to be trying to save face since the offer Microsoft provided was given during a slump in their stock. It all smelled like a quasi-hostile takeover... after all, Yahoo shareholder's could not have been too happy with the web giant's declining value. That said, Yahoo CEO and Founder Jerry Yang is very protective of his baby and if he is going to sell out I am sure it will have to be for a price that he knows he can't say no to.
Unfortunately Jerry Yang may not have a choice. According to a follow up article from Bloomberg, Microsoft may take the straight and undeniably hostile route and contact shareholders directly in order to influence the decision. According to Bloomber the letter of offer to Yahoo threatened the following:
"Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo's shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.''
Now that is considered a subtle threat... right? Haha, I think not. I expect Jerry Yang is not a happy camper right now and I can't say I would either in his position. He obviously does not want to sell his baby but that is the sad catch-22 of having a public company; you may have a lot of money to play with but it isn't all yours and the shareholders have power.
I am very intrigued to see how this pans out. Will Microsoft make it's first ever public hostile takeover? How long will Jerry Yang hang on and how far will he go to keep it?
Below I have posted a graph from Alexa.com showing the past 5 years of "REACH" that the top search engines have experienced: Yahoo.com (in Blue), Google.com, Live.com (Microsoft), MSN.com (Microsoft), Ask.com. The chart serves to illustrate one very important fact that is easy to forget; Yahoo is still ahead of Google when calculating sheer reach. Yahoo simply isn't performing as well as the markets expect which is why stocks are plummeting and layoffs are occuring. This is partially why I think Jerry Yang is so resistant to the buyout - he still sees so much potential (real or imagined).
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 3:23 PM
The rumors have been flying around for some time now over whether or not Microsoft will put in an offer for search Giant Yahoo. Many have speculated over the past few months as to if Microsoft would try for an acquisition, and if so, how much was it worth to them.
This morning all speculation came to an end when Microsoft unexpectantly waved $44.6 Billion under Yahoo’s nose. Shortly after the announcement Yahoo Shares rose sharply by more than 50%, while Google shares took another 8% drop down to 515.90 by close of day Friday.
The latest acquisition attempt, and what would be one of the largest in history, would put Microsoft in a position to actually compete with distant leader Google.
In a conference call this morning Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer stated:
“This is a decision we have – and I have – thought long and hard about,” Ballmer said. “We are confident it's the right path for Microsoft and Yahoo.”
Last year Microsoft purchased online ad service aQuantive for a stagger $6 Billion – petty cash compared the offer currently on the table for Yahoo.
Last year Microsoft was negotiating to purchase yahoo (see Microsoft Buy Yahoo? Yes Please!) And at that time the Wall Street Journal had estimated Yahoo’s value at around $50 Billion.
Will the deal go though this time? It would certainly stir things up and make life a little more interesting for us SEO folks – If the past is any indication of the future, then this deal may just fizzle out, but with Yahoos recent layoff announcement, and lower than expected fourth quarter earnings, this just may be there way out.
(on a completely “conspiracy theory” type level, perhaps Yahoo just paid off Microsoft under the table to stage a fake offer in order to drive Yahoo shares up? Do I believe this – well no, but I was recently reading about some famous historical publicity stunts, so this theory came to mind and I wanted to share it)
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 12:39 PM
According to the New York Times, in an effort to invest in its future, Yahoo will cut 1000 jobs, making it the largest internet layoff since the big dot-com bust. They did not specify which departments will be cut back.
Yahoo's fourth quarter (2007) net income fell to $206 million, down from $269 million for the same period in 2006. After the announcement Tuesday, Yahoos stock fell by nearly 10 percent in after-hours trading.
Yahoo currently has approximately 14,300 employees. The job cuts are expected to take place by mid February of this year.
As an accredited Yahoo Ambassador, I am accustomed to working with the Yahoo Search Marketing PPC system (YSM). Although YSM can be an effective means of paid advertising, its Panama system still has a ways to go and I want to share with you several of the challenges in setting up a geo-targeted campaign.
Opening an account with an address in the US or Canada, restricts you to advertising only in those markets. If you'd like to geo-target other areas of the globe, you have to use this site: Yahoo International Accounts
Once there, a separate account for each and every additional country you wish to advertise in will need to be created. That's an awful lot of work for someone wanting to geo-target globally. When calling YSM support to find out how to get around this, their answer was that it is impossible to integrate campaigns to be served globally. I found this to be odd, as I'd just completed a globally targeted campaign in Google Adwords for the same client.
Another hitch in geo-targeting in Panama is trying to include Canada as a target region. If you select Canada as the market to be served to, you will only get ad service if the ads are written in French. This is unusual, as roughly 23% of Canada's population is French; in order to get ad service to English speaking Canada, one needs to set up the account in the US and Canada market . Apparently, however, this odd set up can cause problems in US advertising as well, as evidenced in this RKG blog.
Given that targeting Canada allows for only ad service in French, it seems odd that Yahoo would use exactly the same map as the English service US and Canada market as there aren’t a great many French Canadians in the US. By comparison, upon checking Switzerland, which also has more than one official language, no similar restrictions seem to apply. The target area was even restricted to just Switzerland and not the bordering countries, many of which have the same languages.
Overall, Yahoo seems to be very inflexible as to where they will serve ads. It would be nice if they displayed this kind of information more prominently when setting up accounts with them. I imagine a lot of people have wasted a fair amount of time trying to work through this system. I've mentioned these issues when speaking to Yahoo support staff, suggesting that changes of this nature would make the system more useful for advertisers. Both Google AdWords and Microsoft Adcenter allow flexible geo-targeting options, with MSN going as far as to allow an assortment of criteria to be changed at the ad group level.
Yahoo has thanked me for my input, but I question whether they are really listening. Dating back more than a year, similar complaints litter the YSM Blog and to date no known attempts have been made to improve the system.
While Yahoo has a number of good aspects behind its Panama Platform there is still much room for improvement. Here is a summary of my recommendations to Yahoo:
A revamping of YSM's system should be devised for more user friendly and efficient account creation and management. Yahoo's current system has the effect of putting all the setup and management workload on the advertisers.
Country restrictions should be made clear to the advertiser at the account creation stage.
Any ad copy language restrictions in place for specific geographic areas should be clearly noted by Yahoo. In cases where ads are disallowed due to language, there should be an indication the ads will not be served. In the case we recently experienced, there were no editorial alerts or any other obvious indication the Canada – English campaign was not functioning.
Do you have any tips or suggestions for Yahoo? Email me and I will be thrilled to add it to 'the list' and send it to Yahoo Search Marketing staff.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 10:45 AM
Have you ever come across a blog, forum, or other interactive site where you only wanted to post a single comment and then move on, only to be forced into registering and providing all your info, and finally saying, forget it?
Yahoo would like to put an end to this through the use of OpenID according to a TimesOnline report Thursday. OpenID is a system that allows internet users the ability to use a single login across multiple websites.
OpenID has been around for a while now and currently has more than 130 million subscribers, but to date, none of the biggest web properties have embraced its services.
"Raj Mata, director of memberships at Yahoo!, said: "This is another step forward for the open web. It is a hassle for users to have to log in to different sites. Often you have to register an account with a site - which you won't remember - just to post a comment. We think this reduces the barrier to entry."
While I for one can see the massive benefits of a single log in system giving access to all your favorite sites, I can also see the potential security nightmare. It doesn't take a programmer or security expert to know that a system like this is probably not without its holes, especially if used on a wide scale.
"The whole thing is fantastically dangerous until you can introduce cryptographic methods which ensure that the whole procedure is not phishable," Ben Laurie, an independent security expert, said.
While Yahoo noted that all relevant security issues have been addressed with the latest version of the OpenID protocol, time will tell if the initiative will be a success.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 4:12 PM
According to a press release issued Tuesday morning, metasearch has signed a deal to extend its multi-year agreement with Yahoo, allowing them to continue displaying Yahoo text based advertising (Yahoo Search Marketing) and their organic web search results.
"Yahoo!'s unique partnership with InfoSpace provides an important opportunity for us to help connect advertisers with online audiences that use metasearch for their searching needs," said Dean Stackel, Senior Vice President Business Development for Corporate Partnerships. "This partnership is a key component of our broader strategy to enable advertisers to efficiently reach highly targeted - and therefore highly valuable - categories of Internet users.”
Infospace includes a number of branded sites including Dogpile, WebCrawler, and WebFetch. The exact terms of the agreement were not noted in the press release.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 2:57 PM
Ad-Butterfly, an online ad services, allows more control over ad placement, providing marketers with the ability to choose which blogs to post there ads to, and allowing bloggers to choose which ads get posted to their site, according to a BusinessWeek article published Wednesday morning.
The world of online advertising continues to grow at phenomenal rates, but certainly, in the big scheme of things, it is still in its infant stages. The control given to AdWords advertisers and AdSense publishers has grown over the years, but Ad-Butterfly offers almost total control.
Ad-Butterfly works similar to the first tier PPC platforms of Google and Yahoo, using algorithms to automatically pair up ads and websites, but it offers a more advanced means of controlling which ads are displayed, for those who want total control.
Bloggers are given total control on which ads they will display on their site and also offers the ability for comments to be placed along side of the ads. Registered bloggers will also soon have the ability to request ads from other site.
The service is available in Japan and so far only 2,000 bloggers have signed up, but this form of paid ad placement is certain to grow over the very near future. Perhaps Google will even by them out it its quest for total control over online advertising. If you are fluent in Japanese feel free to visit the Ad-Butterfly website.
Today Priyank Garg of Yahoo announced that some changes to the Yahoo algorithm had been taking place over the past few days and will be completed soon. He has asked for feedback on the results... whether Yahoo will listen is another matter.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 2:03 PM
J.D. Power and Associated rated Dogpile with the highest rank in customer satisfaction among search engines for the second year in a row.
Based on 1,000 points, Dogpile earned a score of 818 this year, up 14 points from 2006. Google fell in second at 794, with Ask filling in the top 3 at 784 points.
Dogpile users report that they are particularly satisfied with the limits placed upon paid advertising within search results.
This study is in its fourth year and looks at overall consumer behavior, experience and satisfaction within a number of search functions.
While Dogpile has a long way to go in the major search engine race, it is nice to see an underdog (no pun intended) holding its own against the major search engines.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 12:36 PM
Yesterday, Yahoo announced in the Yahoo Search Marketing Blog, a few updates to the Panama platform have been released making life slightly easier.
Custom Reports Yahoo now allows advertisers to create custom reports and set up a report scheduler. These reports are available in XML, TSV, CSV or Excel. This is a feature that has long been a part of Google AdWords and is a welcome addition to YSM.
Lateral Navigation Before whenever you wanted to switch from one AdGroup to the next you had to jump back to the main campaign page. Moving from one to the next was quite inconvenient. Now with the new previous and next links at the top right, moving from one item to the next is much easier and faster. This feature works on the campaign, ad group, and keyword levels. It would be also nice if Yahoo could take this one step further and simply provide a dropdown menu visible on the campaign and ad group levels that would allow you select the specific group desired.
Calendar Date Range Under the calendar drop down when selecting a date range, “Today” has also been added as a preset option. Often the results for the current day are incomplete, but if you want to see where you stand this does make it much quicker then entering a custom date range for the current day.
While there are still many features needing improvement within the YSM interface, these few adjustments are certainly a step in the right direction.
With a reported 22.1% of search traffic Yahoo is second only to Google’s 64.4% (src: Hitwise) for search user volume so it is extremely important not to forget that attaining a top ranking in Yahoo can be a big boon to the bottom line. As a result, I decided to write this update on how to attain superior rankings in Yahoo using today’s useful tools and tactics.
OVERVIEW: Optimizing for Yahoo! Algorithmically Yahoo is Google’s much younger sibling. I say this because many of the requirements for a successful ranking mirror Google’s requirement about 4 years ago and they sum up to one distinct fact; optimize your content boldly on Yahoo and you will be rewarded. When I say “boldly” I do not mean use SPAM; by nature SPAM and optimization do not mix… they are two entirely separate concepts (black and white in fact).
The following are the current generalized specifications for achieving solid rankings in Yahoo.
WEB SITE OPTIMIZATION SEO tactics have not changed a great deal over the past 10 years I have been an SEO. In general terms the only effect time has had on SEO is to vary the intensity of the optimization for particular page elements. That is the rub of course; some search engines appreciate the optimization of particular page elements over others. In the case of Yahoo, this old property with a relatively young algorithm tends to favour the following elements:
Title Tag: Keep your title tag as short as 5 small-medium sized words and include one complete incidence of your keyphrase. Yahoo! blatantly favours sites that include the keyphrase in the title tag. For an example check out “car sales” or for that matter any phrase. Within the top 10 results you will notice that the majority of sites listed will include at least one incidence of the keyphrase or a crucial portion of it (i.e. “cars”). The ones that do not include the keyphrase tend to be sites that have are extremely popular so even basic title tag optimization is not required to attain a top ranking.
Meta Description Tag: Start this tag with an incidence of your keyphrase and then produce a short 15 – 18 small-medium sized word sentence clearly describing your site. Include one more incidence of your keyphrase in the sentence. Keep in mind that the description tag is often utilized as the description for any rankings you achieve so it is best to make it alluring.
Meta Keyword Tag: Keyword tags have long been considered ineffective and no longer have any importance on Google; however Yahoo does still consider the keyword tag so it cannot hurt to include it. The keyword tag should start with the keyphrase and then all following words or phrases should be ordered according to their relevance to your website; place the most important ones up front. The max size of a keyword tag should be 250 characters – comma-delimited. Do not over repeat words; no more than 3 repetitions of a single word within the tag.
Keywords in URL: Create keyword-based filenames that closely represent the content within the file. Yahoo rewards keyword-based filenames a small amount – perhaps enough to push past your competition.
Headings: Heading 1 and 2 tags should be applied on every page where appropriate to embolden the relevance of the page. In other words, use the page’s keyphrase within a Heading 1 tag to further enhance the visibility of the keyphrase on the page.
Alt text for images: Don’t forget to provide appropriate ALT text for each image on your website. The ALT text must not provide information that is already written on the website. ALT text is supposed to provide a clear and concise description of what the image is. Fortunately this means that adding an incidence of the keyphrase or a portion of the keyphrase is totally appropriate which can add slightly more credibility to your page score when Yahoo’s crawler (Slurp) indexes the page.
Inline Links: In the midst of your page it is beneficial to include links to related pages from related content. These links will apply relevance to the linked page; which is optimized for the same keyphrase you linked from.
Site Structure: Site structure is a vital component to ranking success on Yahoo; especially in competitive marketplaces where every advantage is required to reach the top. One method that would be successful at Yahoo (and happens to work as well on the other major search engines) is a tried and true technique that revolves around the linear progression of related content throughout the website; it is commonly known as Themeing. The following example should shed some light on this subject:
Your site is a car sales site focused on Audi. In order to create a linear site structure you would focus each section of the site on an individual relevancy. Say you pick “Audi A5” as the relevant topic (see Figure 1.0). As you move deeper into the Audi A5 section you only see A5 relevant content. The search engine spider and your users will not be distracted by links to other vehicles – only information on the A5. This progresses as you proceed deeper into this arm of the website and because this section of the site is utterly focused on the subject “Audi A5” the odds of achieving a ranking for that term increase considerably.
LINKS When building links for Yahoo concentrate on quality not quantity. Quality links would be one way links from sites that specialize in content directly relevant to the content on your own website. Building these links can be done by creating content and syndicating it to your own industry for link love and to build credibility. In addition, if your website is a worthwhile resource it is entirely reasonable to tell the world about your site in order to build links; hopefully they will link to you because they like your site so much.
Finally, there is another tactic that has mixed results; send out press releases once a month using PRWeb or an associated press release agency. A good press release can easily build the links you need in no time at all. Unfortunately the mixed results I noted occur when press releases inevitably become archived, at which point the link relevance will fade. As a result, link building with press releases is only useful as an ongoing practice and should be considered a small facet of a robust link building campaign.
SITE EXPLORER SETTINGS Yahoo’s Site Explorer is a fantastic tool for monitoring your website(s) and running basic link reports. If you have not already done so you should create an account at Site Explorer and then validate your website (prove you own it) so that you can manage the information Yahoo has for your website. Once you have validated your website I have noted some Site Explorer functionality that may help your website perform on Yahoo:
Make certain to create a sitemap and submit it to Yahoo: If you haven’t already done so use a XML sitemap generator to create a sitemap for your website and then submit it to Yahoo using the “Add Feed” form within your website’s Site Explorer profile.
Removing unnecessary dynamic content from your URLs with new add-on within Site Explorer: Does your URLs content session ID’s or other dynamic content that is unnecessary within the URL? If so, this information can be indexed by the search engines and ultimately can cause havoc with your rankings. Thankfully Yahoo has implemented a new tool within the Site Explorer domain management section called “Dynamic URLs Beta”. Here are the instructions to use the Dynamic URLs tool.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS After reviewing our notes from current and previous Yahoo promotions and taking a look at a variety of top 10 results the following points appeared noteworthy:
Ensure open indexing by using Robots.txt wisely
A lot of our client’s older content appears to be sticking to top rankings with little or no monthly tweaking. As a result, I think it is fair to assume that fresh content is not currently gaining much weight in the Yahoo algorithm.
In many cases top ranking sites have pushed the envelope and their sites border on SPAM. Considering the top ranking these sites have it appears Yahoo’s SPAM filters are far less sensitive than Google’s. I expect Yahoo will change this in the near future but then again I have been surprised how long this has been the status quo.
One common claim throughout forums is that achieving a placement in the Yahoo Directory provides an instant boost to Yahoo rankings. Unfortunately we have not seen conclusive evidence that the annual $299 fee will increase rankings dramatically in the short term. That said, I strongly believe that a Yahoo Directory placement is a very reputable incoming link that does pay dividends in the long run at any search engine that weighs incoming links (the ones that count).
Yahoo Search Submit was re-introduced back in February 2007 to significant criticism due to the potential favouritism to those who pay to get into the Yahoo index. Despite the negative feedback there appears to be some potential benefits to paying for submission. For one, in July I noted an interesting story where a website was banned from Yahoo and the webmaster got the site back into Yahoo’s index by paying for inclusion (“Banned from Yahoo?”). A second reason Search Submit may be worthwhile is the guarantee that your site will be indexed. Furthermore, the Yahoo’s Search Submit Pro service allows you to recommend your own title and description tags for each page submitted and to submit pages that may not normally be indexed by Slurp.
On Tuesday Sept 4th Yahoo announced an agreement to acquire BlueLithium which is one of the few remaining top Internet ad agencies. The $300 million move will increase the technical capabilities and reach of Yahoo's global ad network by adding BlueLithium's impressive toolset for data analytics and its significant advertising inventory.
Just how big is BlueLithium's network? Quoting Yahoo's press release: "According to comScore Media Metrix, BlueLithium is the fifth largest ad network in the US and second largest in the UK with 145 million unique visitors each month."
According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index Yahoo has edged out Google by 1% for customer satisfaction this year: Yahoo 79%, Google 78%.
The rating system the ACSI uses is complex and listed here and their source for data is noted here. Essentially their scoring focuses on: customer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, customer complaints and customer loyalty.
See the chart below for more detail on the other search engines reviewed.
An interesting story currently highlighted at Techmeme discusses Yahoo's shakeup over the past year and the potential that Yahoo's new CEO Jerry Yang might make the tough decision to fork over some of its search monetization business to Google. The well written article by Kara Swisher also discusses News Corp's recent MySpace profit hype and how it might just be trying to look pretty for potential buyers.
The thought that Yahoo might go for MySpace was also mentioned but I have to say... that is unlikely. I can't imagine making a big buy during a house cleaning would be a move taken by anyone as smart as Jerry Yang but I guess Swisher felt it worthy of stating.
Yesterday Danny Sullivan posted an interesting walkthrough on a new technology that Yahoo is currently testing called Yahoo Search Assist. Throughout the following I will give a quick rundown and explain why Search Assist may help sites found in the bottom 5 of the top 10 search results.
What Do I Mean by Search Assist? First Some Background You may have noticed over the past couple years that whenever you search for an item in Google or Yahoo you were provided with word completion suggestions. For example, if you typed in 'boat' then the suggestions that appeared in a drop-down (which you can select from to complete your search) might be 'boating', 'boat sales', 'boat magazine', 'boating tips'... or something like that. These suggestions came from the search engine's analysis of the most common searches related to what you are typing in. This functionality is useful but Yahoo Search Assist promises a more intelligent search experience.
Yahoo Search Assist takes suggestions to a whole new level by providing related topics. For example, if a searcher were looking for a cement cleaner to get rid of oil stains on his driveway he might start by typing in "cement" at which point he pauses to consider the next word. Yahoo Search Assist will 'notice' his pause and begin suggesting related searches. It will first provide the standard word & phrase stems such as 'cement mixer', 'cement manufacturer' or even 'cement cleanser'. But with Search Assist, Yahoo may also provide related terms or even brand names such as 'Pur-Pwr' or 'Powder 230' which are all products that are related to 'cement'. In this case both of those brands happen to be cement cleansers which a person could immediately click on and see search results (such as links to vendors).
So how does this affect the user experience? According to Danny's article Yahoo usability testing has shown that this enhanced search experience dramatically changed how searchers interacted with results; they spent more time and tended to search the whole page of results rather than simply the top few listings.
Search Assist Might Help Level the Playing Field Once this technology is formally released I expect Yahoo will suddenly become a hotter commodity for marketers if the bottom 5 of the top 10 rankings suddenly see more traffic than other search properties; since sites like Wikipedia or monster corporations tend to take the top positions in competitive categories. I will believe it when I see it but if we take Yahoo's usability studies as fact, this technology may vastly increase the visibility for sites rankings 'below the fold' (where you have to scroll down to see them).
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 10:10 AM
According to InfoWorld, Yahoo announced Wednesday that it has purchased a 35 percent stake in Tyroo Media, an India based PPC internet advertising company which places ads on a network of around 1200 websites.
"Yahoo India has bought more than 35 but less than 50 percent stake in Tyroo for a significant amount and the tie up would help us cater to our international clients who want to advertise in India," Yahoo India Managing Director George Zacharias told reporters.”
India offers a huge marketplace and its online presence is growing rapidly. It only makes sense for Yahoo to further tap into this market.
“Yahoo started its search-based advertising business in India about eight months ago and so far has a few thousand small advertisers, Zacharias said. There are millions of potential advertisers in India, which all the search companies and advertising networks are chasing, he added.”
While remaining independent, Tyroo and Yahoo will open up their back end systems so that advertisers will have access both networks.
According to a thread at the Search Engine Watch forums it is possible to get back into Yahoo Search after being banned by paying for reinclusion using Yahoo Search Submit. This news was released by a forum participant who noted that after being banned by Yahoo Search they made some changes to their website (to address the issues) and were denied reinclusion. In response they chose to try using Yahoo Search Submit after which they were pleasantly surprised to see they were miraculously reincluded into Yahoo's organic results. Is it really this easy to buy a spot in Yahoo?
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb
For all our Canadian readers out there, if you find yourself collecting Air Miles, searching Yahoo may help you get that free flight just a little bit quicker.
I wrote about Google’s third quarter results last week, and yesterday Yahoo released theirs. While their revenues are up as compared to the third quarter of 2007, Yahoo will be moving forward with layoffs.
Last week, Microsoft added to this type of service by releasing 
In an effort to help out Yahoo with its revenue problems, Yahoo has hired Joanne Bradford, a former Microsoft Corp. Executive.
According to 
Google's 
Robert X. Cringely wrote 
On the Yahoo Anecdotal Blog Yahoo CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang announced 
New details have surfaced of Microsoft's most recent dealings with Yahoo and another offer from 
May 3, 2008 
These are some of the gripes I have with Panama I have not covered in previous articles. I will try not to foam at the mouth too much.
Over the weekend 
Based on 1,000 points, Dogpile earned a score of 818 this year, up 14 points from 2006. Google fell in second at 794, with Ask filling in the top 3 at 784 points.
On Tuesday Sept 4th Yahoo announced an agreement to acquire 
Thanks to