Yahoo!, AOL and Microsoft today announced agreements to offer each other’s premium non-reserved online display inventory to their respective advertising customers.  By early 2012, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL expect to have the opportunity to access each other’s non-reserved inventory to achieve the benefits of scale and efficiency.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Microsoft and AOL and bring to market what we believe will be a more efficient, effective and more effortless way to access true premium inventory and formats,” says Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo! EVP of the Americas. “There has a been a significant shift in how inventory is bought and sold, and we’re now 100% focused on controlling our own destiny, working directly with marketers and agencies and driving better returns for our advertising partners.”

The announcement underscores Yahoo!’s commitment to growth and innovation in the performance display advertising space.

The partnership is not exclusive, and the three companies will continue to compete with each other. Agencies, advertisers and publishers will still be able to do business with the individual Yahoo!, AOL and Microsoft ad networks.

By integrating one another’s real-time bidding (RTB) technologies to facilitate the availability of non-reserved inventory, by early 2012, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL expect to have the opportunity to access each other’s non-reserved inventory to achieve the benefits of scale and efficiency. The Microsoft Advertising Exchange and Yahoo’s! Right Media Exchange will initially serve as the two marketplaces from which the partners can procure this inventory for resale to advertisers and agencies. AOL may, at its discretion, opt to use its own exchange technology solution subsequent to the launch of the partnership.

The partnership is based on the premise of audience-based selling across a large number of sites and is not expected to affect direct sales made by each partner’s respective internal teams. In addition to the United States, Yahoo! and AOL will have an agreement that extends to Canada. Microsoft’s Canada business is not participating directly in the agreement.

— The Team

Leveraging IE9’s powerful engine and updated standards (like HTML 5), the new Yahoo!-enhanced browser gives you direct access to some of your favorite sites and products including Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Toolbar, and of course, the Yahoo! Homepage. For example, you can get instant results for the day’s important news, weather forecast, or the latest stock quotes by simply typing in the search box from your browser. You can also customize your Yahoo! Toolbar and take advantage of  IE9’s built-in security and privacy technologies and cleaner design to more securely access results and view Yahoo! properties and other sites from across the Web with far less clutter.

Some other cool features and functionality:

• Pinning – Catch up on celebrity news more quickly or check out your friend’s photostream anytime by creating a shortcut to sites like OMG and Flickr and attaching them directly to the taskbar. Launch your favorite sites with a single click by simply dragging the icon or tab from the browser down to the Windows Taskbar.
• Jump Lists – Once you’ve pinned a site, right click on the icon from the Windows Taskbar to see the most recent files, news, and updates. Get information on the latest global topics or keep up with your favorite teams with our first Jump Lists for Homepage (globally available), Yahoo! News and Yahoo! Sports (both U.S.-only). Look out for more to come as we roll out support for additional sites.

We’re looking forward to adding even more integrations across Yahoo! properties in the coming months to make your Web experience even easier to get the information you want most. In the meantime, you can upgrade to the new Internet Explorer 9 enhanced by Yahoo! by downloading it here: http://downloads.yahoo.com/internetexplorer/

Happy browsing!

For example, we added features like apps, intelligent shortcuts, and Yahoo! Search Assist updates to help you save valuable time and keep you more entertained, informed and productive than ever.  And, in parallel, we were hard at work weaving search throughout the Yahoo! network and transitioning certain parts of our back-end technology to the Microsoft search platform.

Here’s a recap of what we’ve been busy with this year:

• Completed the first phase of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance transition in the U.S. and Canada.
• Added richer shortcuts and suggestions to bring you more complete, faster answers that draw from our Web of Things, a powerful information system that acquires and enriches information available on the Web and unique to Yahoo!.
• Brought Search to you in more places across Yahoo!, sometimes before you even knew what you were looking for – with new Search enhancements in Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Answers and Yahoo! Mail.
• Innovated mobile search experiences with new apps, widgets, and HTML5-powered search for mobile browsers, since we know you’re on the go more than ever before.
• Enhanced Yahoo! Search Assist to suggest locally relevant and more timely results based on when and where you actually are.
• Showed you more of what’s hot with multimedia search so you can sit back and be entertained while finding what you’re looking for via Yahoo! Image and Video search.
• · Delivered new types, and more relevant search advertisements for when you want them.
• And (as you may have seen this week) launched even more Quick Apps so you can get stuff done while you’re searching, as well as a new beta called Yahoo! Clues for searching the searchers.

We have no intention of slowing down either. Last year at this time, we said the possibilities for search technology were limitless, and I think that’s more true today than ever before. You’ve seen just our first steps at re-imagining and fundamentally changing the face of Search as we know it today.  Search is not just about meeting one need – we are focused on meeting all your searching needs, from finding all information across many sources about a particular topic, to making comparisons, to taking action and completing tasks in your day.

So stay tuned – 2011 is approaching fast and there’s much more still to come.

-       Shashi Seth, SVP, Yahoo! Search & Marketplaces

We just announced with Microsoft that we have reached clearance for our search agreement, without restrictions, from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission.  We’ll now turn our attention to beginning the process of implementing the deal.

Here are some useful links to get more detailed information about today’s developments:

Search Alliance Official Website

Official Press Release

Yahoo! Search Blog

YDN Blog

Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog

Yahoo! Transition Center

Video: Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz discusses Yahoo! & Microsoft’s new Search Alliance: Click here

Video: Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz talks about Yahoo’s continued innovation in search: Click here

Official US DOJ Antitrust Division statement: Click here

We will continue to update Yodel with new information today and throughout the process.

Also, Carol and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hosted a conference call together this morning on our campus to discuss the agreement with media and analysts. You can check out an archive on our investor relations site. And here are a few photos of them both from just after the call.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

While you’ll read a lot about why this is good for our business and for advertisers, I want to talk about what’s in it for you -– the Yahoo! fan.

Here’s the rundown:

• Better search: You’ll still find search boxes all across Yahoo!, but this deal will make the difference between a great Yahoo! search experience and an awesome one. Some of the biggest brains in the business work on Yahoo! Search, and they will continue to innovate to create a better search experience on Yahoo!. As a result of the deal, Microsoft, which has great technologists and deep pockets,will have the scale to bring users faster, more useful and more personally relevant search.
• Better everything else: With Microsoft powering Yahoo! Search, we’ll be able to focus on the things we do best -– being the center of people’s lives online with properties like our homepage, mail, finance, news, sports, entertainment, mobile, etc. Sure, we’re the world’s largest online media company and your loyalty has made that possible. But we’re not satisfied – we still want you to say “wow” a lot more often. And that’s what makes this deal especially exciting.
• Better competition: Competition equals innovation. But with one player dominating 70% of search, that field has been pretty lopsided. This transaction will create a healthy competitor that’ll keep everyone on their toes.

In short, everything’s just going to get a whole lot better for you.

And one final note — what this agreement does not cover is any of Yahoo!’s other properties or products. In those areas, Microsoft can expect a fierce competitor.

We’ve set up a special site, www.choicevalueinnovation.com, that answers your questions.

Carol Bartz
CEO

• omg! celebrity mamas!: The ever-popular gossip site, omg!, is giving you one more way to obsess about the lives of the rich, famous, and far-too-photographed. This week, realizing that you can’t seem to get enough of Katie/Suri, Gwen/Kingston, Angelina/(pick one) on omg!’s Goddess blog, the team has launched “Spotlight to Nightlight,” a biweekly video program that peers into the lives of celebrity mothers. Each three- to five-minute episode features host Ali Landry (former Miss USA and famed “Doritos Girl”) chatting up a different celebrity mom, discussing parenting tips or the latest mama making headlines. Ever wonder how much a starlet’s nanny makes? Get addicted here.
• IE8 4 Y!: Microsoft’s brand new Internet Explorer 8 browser launched this week. Minutes later, we made a Yahoo!-optimized version available. What’s in it for you? Easy access to Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Mail, our toolbar, and our homepage. You’ll get instant visual results for weather, stock quotes, and movie reviews/showtimes when you use the browser’s search box (i.e., a three-day weather forecast shows up right inside a search pulldown menu). And, no matter what site you’re on, you can always access a preview window to check your Yahoo! Mail. More on the Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Mail blogs. Download IE 8 optimized for Yahoo! here. (Not available for Macs. Duh.)
• Find photos with fast filters: Ever searched for just the right photo but gotten lost in a sea of stuff you don’t want? Yahoo! Image Search has just added a few new filters to hasten your mission. You can now narrow your scope by selecting black & white vs. color, restricting results to images that are either from Flickr or not, or even specifying the dimensions of the shot you’re after. And they promise more cool stuff to come. More here.
• Sometimes it’s the little things: The Flickr team rolled out two small tweaks that mean so much. If you’ve often found yourself irked by the “loading…” message you got when trying to narrow down your list of contacts, behold the people picker! It’s now lightning-fast when trying to find someone in your Contact List, share an image, or send Flickr mail. But wait, there’s more. For Flickr Pro members, the Stats page now shows real-time data for the day (no more waiting til midnight) and lets you drill down for daily details on up to 28 of the last days. More here and here.

Subscribe to the RSS feed (or add it to My Yahoo!) to get this Product Pulse every week.

Those people underestimated the determination of Yahoo!’s incredible people, spirit and culture.

Our first quarter was probably one of the most exciting quarters in our history in terms of delivering innovative products and services that really move the needle and make a difference for our users and customers: Acquiring Maven Networks. Launching Buzz, OneSearch 2.0, voice-activated mobile search, video on Flickr, Shine. Previewing AMP! from Yahoo! and SearchMonkey. Adding more Newspaper Consortium members. Establishing our New R&D labs in India and Israel. Our first quarter results proved that we have the right strategy, a fantastic team, and that our investments are starting to pay off.

All of this reinforced our board’s position that Microsoft’s offer undervalued our unique global franchise.

So, what’s next? With Microsoft’s withdrawal, we’ll be better able to focus our energy on growing our industry leadership and maximizing value for stockholders. We’ll continue to execute on our plan — making your Internet experience as personal, relevant, open and social as possible, serving advertisers so well they insist on working with us, and opening up Yahoo! in a way that developers dream of. And, we’ll also continue to pursue strategic opportunities that position us for long-term success.

Has this experience changed us? Of course, it has. We’ve emerged a stronger, more focused company with an even greater sense of purpose. I’m so proud of how this company has come together, put the noise aside, and showed the world that we have the resolve and determination to thrive in challenging times.

We know the spotlight will probably stay on us for a while. That’s fine — we have a clear path ahead and momentum to build on. And thousands of dedicated Yahoos around the world who have held up well to scrutiny. It’s now up to us to show what we Yahoos can really do.

By the way, I’m sure you’ve all read or watched the news about this. Frankly, there’s a lot of nonsense and misinformation in what’s being reported. Just so we are all clear, here’s what happened. The board took its mission very seriously. We clearly indicated to Microsoft that we were open to a transaction but only if it were on terms that fully recognized the value of Yahoo! and was in the best interests of our stockholders.

No one is celebrating about the outcome of these past three months… and no one should. We live and work in a competitive world and the Web is only going to get more competitive. Executing on our strategic plan is what matters most.

Finally, I’d like to thank the many of you who so passionately shared your support for Yahoo!. That’s what brings it all home for us.

Jerry Yang
CEO and Chief Yahoo

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

A review process like this is fluid and can take quite a bit of time, so while there’s not much we can say right now, we did want to refer you to this brief FAQ for more information.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor