Jeff Woelker : Chicago SEO, SEM, and Online Marketing Consultant

So I was doing some research today for a client project and I found this link below listed in Yahoo’s search index.

Any idea why they would continue to publish this result, even after identifying “Dangerous downloads”? I mean, don’t you want to provide the best customer experience possible to your users?

Does anyone have any insight into why they are doing this?

Just a few links I found from around the ‘net this week:

• Social thing - organize all your social media websites into one lifestream. Signed up for private beta, looking forward to an account so I can explore this a little further.
• Google Trends for Websites - Now you can view Google Trends for websites. Really nice information, but I’m not sure competitors are going to appreciate this. I’ll have to see what I was doing last June - take that Sempo
  
• Google continues it’s uptick in search market share - Not surprising, but Yahoo also increased. I’m assuming this is due to their recent press associated with the Microsoft (non)deal. Microsoft dropped, which is again, not surprising.
• MySpace underwent a redesign - Not sure if it will stop the slide in global traffic, but once these things start in the world of online, users are usually quick to jump ship for “the new hot thing”.

The story was floating around for the last month or so that this might happen, but many have wondered if it would. Well, the wait is over, it appears that Google and Yahoo are indeed partnering to offer Google ads within the Yahoo search platform. According to the conference call transcripts, Yahoo will still be running Panama and Google ads will appear beside their results.

Overall, part of me is excited in that I may only have to do two media placements in the future, Google and MSN, as Yahoo’s search advertising will essentially be defunct, although they act like it won’t be. Then there is the other part of me, which is somewhat disheartened. With Google now serving their ads on Google and Yahoo, it seems that CPC’s (costs-per-click’s) are going to increase as advertisers move from solely Yahoo based solutions to Google-centric solutions in addition to competition increasing for the top keywords as more advertisers move over.

The one nice thing about this is that it essentially changes nothing for end users. So search behavior should, technically, remain the same with Google, Yahoo and MSN continuing to stay the course with their market shares. Although, I have to think that some consumers will hear this news and think that Google and Yahoo are merging, and as a result, move over to Google, I think the majority will stay where they are.

Really, I see this as the first step to a Google acquisition of the entire search arm of Yahoo. Other than the seemingly corporate minded Justice department, what’s stopping them from purchasing the Panama platform and perhaps other assets?

Although I’m normally all for Google and the great products they create, this whole deal with Yahoo makes me cringe just a bit. What do you think? Am I overreacting or is this a sign of things to come?

You may have noticed lately that more ads are mentioning “Go to Yahoo and search for…”. It’s an interesting tactic to say the least. Let’s examine it quickly. In the past, marketers have told users “Call 1-800…” or “Visit www.mywebsite.com to learn more”. Instead of directing them to a channel they fully control, they are instead handing the users over to search engines to handle the marketing message. A bit risky if you ask me. There are so many variables you don’t have control over, but the one benefit is that it plugs itself into users “normal” behavior. “Normal” in the fact that if someone already uses Yahoo for their day-to-day searches, it’s an easy way to cognitively piggy back on their behavior and remind them “Hey, I’m already at Yahoo, why not search for XYZ“. Clever indeed. However, what if I don’t already use Yahoo? Research has shown that searchers are loyal. If I’m a “Googler” and never use Yahoo, there is a direct disconnect and I never fulfill the desired action. Or, as has been the case in the past, a competitor jumps on a competing search engine (i.e. Google) and purchases the same keywords to catch anyone who assumes you are running the same campaign on multiple engines.

So how did this come about?

Well, Yahoo recently launched a new ad unit entitled Partner Results. Partner Results allows an advertiser to lock in specific ad space above Yahoo search results, usually for branded keywords, with additional links, video, and/or images.
Here are a few examples (these worked as of 06/03/08):

• Kellogg’s Special K
• Honda (this page only has an image of that campaign)
• Butterfinger

Yahoo has created a niche ad unit, which Google and MSN cannot match at this time, due to their open market platforms whereby anyone can bid on anything, with some exceptions. It’s a particularly interesting offering, however, with Google dominating the search markets, I hope that marketers aren’t putting all their eggs in Yahoo’s limited market share basket.

Anyone out there tried this ad unit yet? Have any reliable performance metrics? Let me know if the comments.

TechCrunch writes today that Yahoo is testing out a new universal search feature called Glue. To be honest, it’s a bit of a mess, especially when compared with Google Universal search or my all time favorite Ask.com.

Take a look for yourself:

Yahoo Glue - Barack Obama
Ask 3D - Barack Obama
Google Universal - Barrack Obama

Today, Yahoo announced an open API for their search results which allows third parties to edit results as they appear in Yahoo search listings. At first glance this may sound appealing in that meta data and additional links can now be provided to give the user additional information regarding restaurant listings, election information, product prices, etc. However, by allowing third parties to customize your search results, you run the risk of abuse as well as an unusable interface.

I’m not sure what safeguards are going to be put in place to avoid people from dumping unrelated information or banneriffic images into Yahoo’s results. And for more vague phrases such as “Chinese restaurant” or “lcd tv”, what would the search results look like if one website customizes their results to be product prices, while another has product ratings, while another has product information. The reason that people use these engines is that you get a top-down perspective of search results with very little clutter and then if they are enticing, you can drill down into them to get more information.

In this scenario, more information is brought up into the search results which may make certain results more appealing, but most likely the interface will become overloaded.

From an advertiser and media buyer perspective, this is not a welcome announcement. Whereas before, users would click into a site to learn more, now that information is being separated from the content site and given directly to the search engines. Who’s the big winner here? At least right now, the search engines. It means that less users are going to end up at your site and more users will simply get their information from search results. I know I previously wrote about the Ask.com interface and how it was better than Google’s, but I think all of these “integrations” are approaching a slippery slope where information is completely disassociated with the original content owners and the advertising platforms become the search providers.

I’m interested to see how it nets out, but as a content provider these days jockeying for search results, what choice to do you have?

Yahoo announced today that Terry Semel will be stepping down as CEO:

Yahoo Inc. Chairman Terry Semel stepped down as chief executive in a surprise move Monday, ending his increasingly ineffectual pursuit of online search leader Google Inc. — a losing battle that had demoralized Yahoo’s shareholders and employees.

I couldn’t say it better myself. Semel has had one failure after another, believing that content will save Yahoo with their newly revamped mission statement earlier this year and the Panama engine redesign. I don’t mean to be harsh on the guy, as I’m sure he did many things to try and turn Yahoo around, but when you consistently lose money quarter after quarter why is he the highest compensated CEO in the country? This is another Enron in the waiting.
If Google is paying attention, now is the time to pounce on Yahoo and buy them out. I’m sure Microsoft is counting the pennies right now. If Google could purchase the content and application network that is Yahoo, which actually has a lot of great web properties (Flickr, Upcoming.org, Yahoo Answers, etc.) and the ad network, they could pretty much write Microsoft’s obituary in terms of online presence. It would definitely save Google from trying to build everything from the ground up, which I believe they are inclined to do anyway, but why make it any harder? Of course, there’s the pesky SEC that could block such a merger, but they seem to be all about huge mergers lately and I don’t think they would even bat an eye.