Yahoo & Microsoft Join Forces
That’s right. The final phases of the alliance happened earlier this week. I thought I’d quickly touch on this since it affects all Microsoft and Yahoo advertisers. Not sure about you, but I have been eager for this to happen for quite some time now.
This is actually quite big for us advertisers. In the past, we’ve had a lower volume of traffic compared to the big Google. Now, we will have access to a lot more traffic (154 million searchers, and approx. 64% more traffic than Yahoo alone) with the convenience of one account. How exactly will the two companies be working together?
How Yahoo! and Microsoft will work together:
- Search ad inventory from Yahoo!, Microsoft and their respective partners will be combined into a new unified search marketplace. Microsoft adCenter will be the platform for all search campaigns.
- Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10-year license to certain Yahoo! search technologies.
- Microsoft will manage the technology platforms that deliver the algorithmic and paid search results used by Yahoo!
- Full implementation of the terms of the Search Alliance is expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory clearance.
- Yahoo!’s Sales team will exclusively support high volume advertisers, SEO and SEM agencies, and managed resellers, and Microsoft will support self-service advertisers.
For more details, check out the Yahoo transition page. Have a great extended weekend!
