Nielsen Online yesterday released its rankings of U.S. search share for September. Overall search increased 9.4 percent year over year to 8.1 billion searches. Google had year over year growth of 20.8 percent and received 59.7 percent of searches. Yahoo! had a year over year increase of 1.5 percent and received 18.1 percent of searches. Microsoft had a year over year increase of 7.1 percent and received 11.8 percent of searches.
Category: Yahoo
Yahoo Sued By American Airlines Over Trademark Search Ads
American Airlines has sued Yahoo for trademark infringement according to a CNET News article. American Airlines claims that Yahoo is diverting business from them by allowing competitors to purchase ads next to search results for terms related to American Airlines trademarks. Yahoo’s current trademarks policy states that advertising on search terms that may be someone else’s trademark is only allowed “if the advertiser presents content on its Web site that (a) refers to the trademark or its owner or related product in a permissible nominative manner without creating a likelihood of consumer confusion (for example, sale of a product bearing the trademark, or commentary, criticism or other permissible information about the trademark owner or its product) or (b) uses the term in a generic or merely descriptive manner. In addition, the advertiser’s listing should disclose the nature of the relevant content.” American Airlines previously sued Google over the issue and reached a confidential settlement.
Yahoo Introduces ZIP Code Geo Targeting To Yahoo Search Marketing
Yahoo has introduced a number of new geo targeting options to Yahoo Search Marketing, it’s advertising service for the Yahoo search, according to a post on the Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog. Previously targeting United States based users was limited to targeting the whole United States along with Canada, individual states, or Nielson Media Research’s Designated Marketing Areas (DMAs). Yahoo has now introduced the option to target by ZIP code, city, or the United States and Canada individually. Yahoo provides a dynamic map and a search feature to assist in finding the correct ZIP codes for the ZIP code targeting option, which is currently a beta feature.
Yahoo Launching U.S. Ad Campaign for Yahoo Search
A post on the Yahoo! Search Blog announced that today Yahoo is launching an online and offline marketing campaign for Yahoo Search in the United States. The campaign is focused on getting people to try Yahoo Search. The posting included two sample ads, a radio ad touting virus and spyware warnings in search results and a display add touting Yahoo’s “smart suggestions” and “related concepts” features.
Delay Announced for Google-Yahoo Partnership
Google and Yahoo have announced that they have delayed the implementation of their search advertising partnership according to a article by Advertising Age. The partnership was to begin in early October, but will now not start until the U.S. Justice Department has concluded its review of the deal. There is no set date for the Justice Department to finish its review. Advertising Age also reported Google and Justice Department employees have been having informal talks for the last week.
Google Starts New Website as Part of Defense of Yahoo Partnership
Google has created a new website, yahoogooglefacts.com (which redirects to http://www.google.com/yahoogooglefacts/), to provide information about the planned Google-Yahoo search advertising partnership. In a post on the Google Public Policy Blog, Google said the website is intended “to provide more information on the agreement and why it is good for consumers, advertisers and website publishers.” The site includes a slide show about the partnership, answers to various question about the deal, quotes from supporters of the partnership, and a video of Google’s Chief Legal Officer David Drummond testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Google has recently step up its effort to publicly defend the partnership, including challenging a report that the partnership would mean higher prices for advertisers.
Yahoo Announces Launch of Updated Advertising Platform
Yahoo has announced the launch of its new ad platform APT according to an article by the New York Times. APT, previously named Apex and AMP, is designed to simplify ad purchasing, by making it possible for advertisers to make purchases across a wide range of sites with one purchase. The platform also uses geographic, demographic and interest-based targeting to help advertisers to reach specific audiences. The platform is currently being tested on the San Jose Mercury News and The San Francisco Chronicle websites and the platform will expand to rest of Yahoo’s partners in its Newspaper Consortium later this year. The platform will open to advertisers, agencies and advertising networks in 2009.
August U.S. Search Share Results
Nielsen Online today released it rankings of U.S. search share for August. Overall search decreased 7.7 percent year over year to 7.2 billion searches. Google had year over year growth of 3.1 percent and received 60 percent of searches. Yahoo! had a year over year decline of 16.5 percent and received 18.1 percent of searches. Microsoft had a year over year decline of 23.8 percent and received 10.7 percent of searches.
Google Challenges Report of Increased Costs from Google-Yahoo Partnership
In a post on the Google Public Policy Blog, Google’s Chief Economist Hal Varian challenged the findings of a report by SearchIgnite that Google-Yahoo search advertising partnership would cost advertisers more. Varian say that the report is flawed because only looks at the cost of clicks and not the performance of those clicks. He says that “we believe that advertisers will be getting significantly better performance at prices that reflect that improved performance” He goes on to say that neither Yahoo! or Google will be able to see the current auction prices, so Yahoo! no the have the ability to choose the ads with the higher price. He also said that because Yahoo! receives all the revenue for their own ads and only part of the revenue from Google ads, Yahoo! has a strong economic interest to serve their own ads. Finally, he claims that advertisers receive a higher return on investment for clicks on Google ads because they are “highly relevant to user queries” and that “we anticipate that our agreement with Yahoo! will bring more relevant ads to Yahoo! users” which would increase the return on investment.
European Union Reviewing Google-Yahoo Partnership
The European Union opened a review into the Google-Yahoo search advertising partnership in July, according to Los Angeles Times article. The planned partnership is only in the United States and Canada, but Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for the European Union’s competition commission, told the Times that “since the two companies do business in Europe, the cooperation could violate European Commission rules on anti-competitive practices, such as price-fixing and sharing of sensitive business information.” Todd also said that the review “would focus on the possible effects of the deal on European Commission rules relating to restrictive business practices.” Last week the U.S. Justice Department hired lawyer Sanford Litvack in preparation for a possible challenge to the partnership.