Comments on: Myth-busting and the Yahoo!-Google agreement

By: gestiune

gestiune — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:01:55 +0000

The Google relationship actually gives them a fighting chance to gain ad coverage. Also Google released Mobile Ads.

By: Alexandra Bucuresti

Alexandra Bucuresti — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:07:44 +0000

Yahoo is falling behind in the SEM space because advertisers and users have determined that Google’s product is better.

By: jucarii pentru copii

jucarii pentru copii — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:11:52 +0000

No one is locking you out of the search game or price fixing, Y! is simply compensating for their inability to monetize their traffic efficiently.

By: Cazare Valea Prahovei

Cazare Valea Prahovei — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:43:20 +0000

Yahoo has a much more complicated interface to use, I think they really should work on that. Google is a lot more user-friendly

By: Proiecte Case

Proiecte Case — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:15:54 +0000

Google has no competitors, that’s my pont of view

By: Jucarii

Jucarii — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:46:58 +0000

very helpful i think

By: Shekhar Sahu

Shekhar Sahu — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 03:39:53 +0000

This will be helpful for adsense users too.

By: jucarii

jucarii — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:09:17 +0000

This deal is bad for every one, but google. I hope some company with great ideas comes and disrupts the whole search world technology.

By: masini de inchiriat

masini de inchiriat — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:19:23 +0000

I think that we will another competitors for yahoo and google… i hope that bing will be one of them

By: Jacques Snyman | Website Design

Jacques Snyman | Website Design — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 06:52:35 +0000

Heheheheheh! This has indeed been the subject of much debate and we yet have to see which way the story goes. I do feel that some compelling arguments were made, but this subject is still very much open to debate.

By: Inchirieri masini

Inchirieri masini — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:15:15 +0000

I think this market sharing between the two giants will benefit the clients, who will have acees to a more uniform client range, as in priece and geografical.

By: Inchirieri masini

Inchirieri masini — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:59:45 +0000

The only people that this affects is the small group of people that have actually gotten their listings loaded into the Yahoo platform and have kept them live…

By: mirc

mirc — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:21:05 +0000

thanks

By: John

John — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:59:03 +0000

Also would like to add that had the types of policies you want to impose on others existed in the 90’s there would be no Yahoo and Mr Yahoo and Mr Yahoo would be a couple of guys working a 9 to 5.

By: John

John — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:54:36 +0000

How can you lie about all this…You (Yahoo) recently sent me your new pricing policies to be on Yahoo Shopping that will knock me out of the picture.Yahoo powers hundreds if not thousands of shopping sites and your price increase and policies are now geared towards larger established companies thus knocking us new starts ups on a tight budget out of the market….If Google lets you take over some of there services I might as well go back to working for someone else…..If you like I will post your new policies for all to see here so your lies can be exposed.
I have also file a complaint with the FTC and written my US Rep.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:36:12 +0000

Jason (post above) needs to get a better understanding of antitrust. Because it’s an auction doesn’t mean there is no antitrust. I don’t believe Google is going to allow us to set different bid prices for Yahoo displayed ads versus Google displayed ads. I agree my previous post barely scratches the surface of the problems with Yahoo, but why should I pay more because others are too lazy or incompetent to manage their own Yahoo campaigns?

I manage 7 digits in annual spend for my clients across the big three search engines and have for a number of years now. I struggle through Yahoo’s inane rules and poor customer service for the benefit of my clients. The bids I make in Yahoo are in competition with other Yahoo advertisers and are based upon the conversion rate of the individual keywords on the Yahoo network – not Google!

Yahoo is falling behind in the SEM space because advertisers and users have determined that Google’s product is better. If Yahoo wants to change that – build a better product. If you want some of the Yahoo traffic, despite Yahoo’s poor interface and customer service, create a Sponsored Search campaign. That’s the nature of competition.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 03:07:19 +0000

Complete BS. The only point is true – Yahoo’s ad serving components are not capable to handle amount of users that are searching by keyword.Yahoo can not process and aggregate data coming from search requests and therefore, the ROI for marketing campaigns channeled by Yahoo is very low. Therefore, yahoo is trying to use Google, i.e. to monopolize search market on internet performing as a publisher for google’s inventories and using Google’s data processing and technologies to ‘fix’ the not working yahoo’s analytics, ad serving, targetting and other data platforms… There is no doubt – it is monopoly.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:47:19 +0000

Of course they’re eventually going to order the ads based on highest yield rank, regardless of if it’s a direct relationship or Google ad. But, who really cares? The only people that this affects is the small group of people that have actually gotten their listings loaded into the Yahoo platform and have kept them live. Bill (above post) just scratched the surface with the Yahoo problems. I currently manage a 7 digit SEM budget (leaning toward 8), none of which is spent at Yahoo, not a penny unless its unknowingly via sub-syndication. They make it impossible to work with them and they’ve failed throughout the years to improve the customer experience. The Google relationship actually gives them a fighting chance to gain ad coverage. So again, who cares? The only people screaming are the lucky folks with a competent account manager at Y! that are currently underpaying for the Y! traffic because folks like me have given up (ok, Microsoft is also screaming). At the end of the day, it’s an auction – bid what the traffic is worth to your business and shut up. No one is locking you out of the search game or price fixing, Y! is simply compensating for their inability to monetize their traffic efficiently.

Udi Manber, Google’s VP of Engineering said back in 2007, “20 to 25% of the queries we see today, we have never seen before”. This goes to the point in the post that “we (YAHOO) cannot, by ourselves, provide relevant paid search ads for every search”. They only have in their system what keywords advertisers are running on, this is just a small percentage of the total queries being put in the Yahoo or Google box on a daily basis – the list of potential keywords for your business is ever expanding – even when factoring in various keyword match type options for ads in the YHOO and GOOG UIs. With the janky (yes, I said it) Yahoo platform and ad approval and landing page requirements that no one internally can explain, combined with the ever evolving potential keyword list, it’s no wonder that they need Google to monetize their traffic.

For the people screaming about antitrust issues, give me a break – if the CPCs were fixed you’d have a case. It’s an auction environment.

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:39:14 +0000

This is the biggest bunch of BS I have ever heard. The fact is, you’ll show Google Ads where the average max bid is greater than yours. The net result to the advertiser is increased cost. If you want to show more ads for the “tail” queries, why don’t you relax your relevancy requirements, which in many cases, make no sense? Just as your current minimum bid process is an attempt to get higher bids from your Advertisers (explain to me how minimum bids can decline after they have been raised) this agreement is an attempt to get higher bids from advertisers. We bid higher on Google because the ads convert better. What’s worse, the conversion rate on Yahoo has gone down from before Panama and yet the CPC has gone up.

If you want more revenue, I suggest you fix your sponsored search product:

- Modify your relevancy requirements (requiring the keyword that you are bidding on to appear in the ad is ridiculous).

- Don’t change keywords that have been uploaded to your system and allow plurals /misspellings to be uploaded (have your system determine which keyword will display for an ad – don’t restrict it on the front end).

- Develop a more sophisticated quality score / minimum bid. If you’re going to require a higher minimum bid because of poor CTR compared to other advertisers for a particular position, you better provide a way for the minimum bid to decline when other advertisers also have a poor CTR.

- Allow advertisers to set position preference for a keyword.

- Allow advertisers to determine what the ad title / copy will be – don’t require keyword insertion.

- Provide a tool, such as AdWords Editor, to make bulk changes to the account.

There are additional options you can take to improve sponsored search, but if you want to increase the number of advertisers and the number of keywords that are being bid on and by default increase revenue, consider the above. This agreement with Google can in no way be beneficial to advertisers.

By: a yhoo shareholder

a yhoo shareholder — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:30:07 +0000

why on earth do you think that anyone will listen to you? you have shown the greatest contempt for your shareholders ever. the stock is now $16 – you could have sold it for $34 a share!!! sue, you’ve received tens of millions in compensation for helping to drive this company into the dirt – your credibility on the google sell-out or anything else is gone. you have no plan to grow shareholder value. if you had any sense of decency you would resign.

By: Jeff Chester

Jeff Chester — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:16:29 +0000

Both Google and Yahoo! have failed to address the civil society issues in their defense of the proposed deal. The melding together of even a part of the business with the two leading search advertising competitors reflects a disturbing online ad industry consolidation trend–with important implications for the future “monetization” of online publishing. While helping save Yahoo! as an independent company is important, the remedy it seeks–a deal with its key competitor–diminishes competition. Despite Ms. Decker’s assurances, how we can really know that the deal will result merely in a “backfill” from truly under-served inventory? More likely, and excuse the cynicism, Yahoo! will need to squeeze out as many dollars as possible as it undergoes a tumultuous transition. Yes, search and display are connected–which is why a deal which ultimately rewards the leading provider of search advertising will likely further harm Yahoo’s future as a full-service interactive ad entity.
Finally, there are consumer privacy issues here, which Ms. Decker should comment on. Exactly what data is being handed over to Google and/or shared with Yahoo? IP addresses, tracking tags, data-mining analytics? So far, the companies have not been forthcoming about these issues.

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:36:47 +0000

As Sue Decker mentioned above, “Yahoo! is not exiting the sponsored search business. We plan to remain a strong player in sponsored search.”

Here’s another reason why it would not make sense for Yahoo to exit the sponsored search business.

Yahoo recently ran a study with ComScore entitled “Close the Loop: Understanding Search and Display Synergy,”. The study found “that when combined, search and display advertising deliver profoundly better results than when used independently. The study showed a significant lift in onsite engagement and an increase in online and offline purchasing by consumers who are exposed to integrated campaigns that employ both types of online advertising.”

Atlas (a Microsoft company) also ran a study and found that “When marketers supplement search with display impressions, they get a significant lift in conversions. Unfortunately, most advertisers that run both search and display are unaware of this…” The study demonstrated that “users exposed to both search and display ads convert at a higher rate: an average of 22 percent better than search alone and 400 percent better than display only.”

It would not make sense for Yahoo! to abandon search when it’s understood that a combination of search and display is far more effective at driving conversions, increased visitor traffic, and brand awareness than when running search or display alone.

For more information and links to the studies mentioned above please visit: http://mattlillig.blogspot.com/2008/08/hi-im-search-hi-im-display.html

By: steve ballmer

steve ballmer — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:07:38 +0000

Bull-Shiet !!

By: Biggin

Biggin — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:21:29 +0000

Thanks for “breaking wind” of this.

By: Esh

Esh — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:00:25 +0000

Can we see a live demonstration of the inventory back filling by google for some of the tail or low volume phrases?

By: paisley

paisley — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:23:27 +0000

thanks for clearing the air =)