|
Bookmark this Search Engine Industry News And Resource. |
|
Bookmark this Search Engine Industry News And Resource. |
Observers just noted shifts in Yahoo’s search results pages for competitive keywords.
Yahoo has been serving up basically two sets of search results. Yahoo has been testing out a new algorithm that assigns more weight to those pages that have been listed in the Yahoo Directory. Reasoning for this could be that Yahoo’s only competitive advantage is its directory.
Members at Search Engine Watch Forums were noticing different results based on the case sensitivity of the keyword phrase.
Tim Mayer, directory of Yahoo product management search technology, answered this anomaly by saying “that the document was not being returned in one cluster and it was being returned in another” but it absolutely had nothing to do with case sensitivity.
Interesting to note these two threads with Tim’s response - might be some correlation.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Yahoo and SBC Communications have expanded an existing agreement to move beyond dial-up and DSL to collaborate on the delivery of entertainment over a multimedia platform to a variety of devices, including wireless phones.
The two companies say they plan to expand the SBC Yahoo! customer service offering as a means of promoting the digital home.
SBC says the branded content soon will be available on Cingular wireless phones, SBC FreedomLink Wi-Fi, as well as home televisions, the PC, audio systems and SBC home networking equipment.
The expanded deal enables the companies to offer customers access to the Yahoo! portal via a host of devices.
Specifically in the wireless environment, the partnership will give Cingular Wireless customers who subscribe to SBC Yahoo! access to personalized Web-based content and integrated messages.
The SBC Yahoo! service also would be integrated into the SBC Wi-Fi service, the companies say.
"What you see on your SBC Yahoo Internet home page is coming to a TV set or wireless phone near you," SBC Chairman and CEO Edward Whitacre Jr. said in a statement.
SBC says the extended partnership also will deliver a "one mailbox" service that will enable subscribers to access their e-mail, wireless and wireline voicemail and faxes from a central location.
Text-to-speech software enables all messages to be read over the phone. SBC first introduced this service, dubbed SBC Unified Communications, last month.
Further down the road, the companies hope to develop a consolidated address book as well that will be accessible by a wireless phone, landline phone, computer or television.
The first products are expected to make their debut next year.
Source: Wireless Week
Lloyd Braun, who was removed in a Yahoo management shuffle in April, has been named to manage the company's entertainment and media properties.
His surprise appointment--which includes oversight of the Web portal's finance, news, sports, entertainment, gaming, television and movie businesses--could be a sign that the company is entering an important new phase of its strategic development as a leading site for Internet-only media.
"I don't think (Yahoo) will be in the business of creating their own content," said Martin Pyykkonen, an equity analyst at Janco Partners. "But having somebody or a team acquire license rights will fill up the portal and give people more reason to visit Yahoo."
Yahoo's appointment of former TV executive Lloyd Braun highlights the company's entertainment ambitions.
If Yahoo succeeds in entertainment, it would mark a sea change not just for the company but for the entire Internet as a mainstream medium.
The move is part of a natural evolution of the leading portals, including America Online and Microsoft's MSN, as they search for new ways to expand their businesses beyond aggregation of content that has become commoditized on the Web. Although they survived the dot-com meltdown, the portals have been forced to compete for limited advertising dollars while conceding much of the search-engine business to market leader Google.
Providing original content has long been a goal of Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, a 24-year veteran of Warner Bros., whose appointment in 2001 raised speculation that the Internet company would eventually gravitate toward Hollywood. Semel's strategy is to make Yahoo an Internet version of a cable company, distributing content without necessarily creating it.
Yahoo's content strategy also drew attention last week when the company was named as a possible suitor for financial news site MarketWatch alongside such traditional media conglomerates as Dow Jones, The New York Times Co. and Viacom's CBS. The portal declined to comment on the reports regarding MarketWatch, which distributes news on Yahoo Finance.
If Yahoo succeeds in entertainment, it would mark a sea change not just for the company but for the entire Internet as a mainstream medium. Countless online companies have pursued similar goals ever since the Web's popular explosion in the mid-1990s, often with disastrous results.
Online entertainment ventures such as Warner Bros.' Entertaindom, then headed by current Yahoo executive Jim Moloshok, offered exclusive TV-style shows and cartoons but was unceremoniously shuttered when parent company Time Warner was acquired by AOL in 2001.
Other entertainment dot-coms soon followed. Among the more notable casualties were CMGI-owned iCast, the Pop.com venture funded by Hollywood heavyweights Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard, the Digital Entertainment Network, Pseudo Programs and animation site Icebox.com.
Yahoo made some dubious media forays of its own, one as recently as early 2003 when it launched a subscription-only streaming video service called Yahoo Platinum. The service, spearheaded by Moloshok, featured TV and cable programming to compete with RealNetworks' SuperPass and other video services on rivals AOL and MSN. Yahoo quietly scrapped it just a few months later.
Source: C-Net News
Lloyd Braun, who was removed in a Yahoo management shuffle in April, has been named to manage the company's entertainment and media properties.
His surprise appointment--which includes oversight of the Web portal's finance, news, sports, entertainment, gaming, television and movie businesses--could be a sign that the company is entering an important new phase of its strategic development as a leading site for Internet-only media.
"I don't think (Yahoo) will be in the business of creating their own content," said Martin Pyykkonen, an equity analyst at Janco Partners. "But having somebody or a team acquire license rights will fill up the portal and give people more reason to visit Yahoo."
Yahoo's appointment of former TV executive Lloyd Braun highlights the company's entertainment ambitions.
If Yahoo succeeds in entertainment, it would mark a sea change not just for the company but for the entire Internet as a mainstream medium.
The move is part of a natural evolution of the leading portals, including America Online and Microsoft's MSN, as they search for new ways to expand their businesses beyond aggregation of content that has become commoditized on the Web. Although they survived the dot-com meltdown, the portals have been forced to compete for limited advertising dollars while conceding much of the search-engine business to market leader Google.
Providing original content has long been a goal of Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, a 24-year veteran of Warner Bros., whose appointment in 2001 raised speculation that the Internet company would eventually gravitate toward Hollywood. Semel's strategy is to make Yahoo an Internet version of a cable company, distributing content without necessarily creating it.
Yahoo's content strategy also drew attention last week when the company was named as a possible suitor for financial news site MarketWatch alongside such traditional media conglomerates as Dow Jones, The New York Times Co. and Viacom's CBS. The portal declined to comment on the reports regarding MarketWatch, which distributes news on Yahoo Finance.
If Yahoo succeeds in entertainment, it would mark a sea change not just for the company but for the entire Internet as a mainstream medium. Countless online companies have pursued similar goals ever since the Web's popular explosion in the mid-1990s, often with disastrous results.
Online entertainment ventures such as Warner Bros.' Entertaindom, then headed by current Yahoo executive Jim Moloshok, offered exclusive TV-style shows and cartoons but was unceremoniously shuttered when parent company Time Warner was acquired by AOL in 2001.
Other entertainment dot-coms soon followed. Among the more notable casualties were CMGI-owned iCast, the Pop.com venture funded by Hollywood heavyweights Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard, the Digital Entertainment Network, Pseudo Programs and animation site Icebox.com.
Yahoo made some dubious media forays of its own, one as recently as early 2003 when it launched a subscription-only streaming video service called Yahoo Platinum. The service, spearheaded by Moloshok, featured TV and cable programming to compete with RealNetworks' SuperPass and other video services on rivals AOL and MSN. Yahoo quietly scrapped it just a few months later.
Source: C-Net News
While Google's SMS uses text-only messages to deliver its results, Yahoo's new mobile search feature offers localised search results, maps and site icons that let people point, click and make the call.
The two companies took their most significant steps yet into the cellphone market within a few weeks of each other, showing just how eager the web search industry is to expand its reach.
Yahoo chief operating officer Dan Rosensweig said during a keynote speech on Wednesday at the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment trade show in San Francisco that the mobile internet industry is at a "tipping point". As mobile use continues to grow, he said, more customers will want access to their Yahoo services.
"The Internet has become essential. The industry is ready, and mobile usage is exploding," Rosensweig said.
But the cellphone industry still poses some challenges to search providers. US customers typically prefer to use the internet over a wired connection, although in Europe and Asia using a cellphone to access the web has become popular.
However, the mobile web also represents a new revenue source for Yahoo, Google and other traditional internet companies. While Yahoo has no plans for display or commercial search ads yet, the company hasn't ruled out commercial search in the future, Yahoo executives said at the trade show.
Yahoo's mobile search is available now to AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless and Sprint subscribers. Meanwhile, Google's SMS test product works with the top five US operators.
Source: Silicon.com
Yahoo and Adobe have partnered to provide more Yahoo toolbar downloads to Adobe reader downloaders. Adobe and Yahoo announced the strategic relationship aimed at providing consumer services to Internet users.
Leveraging the over half-a-billion copies of Adobe Reader software distributed to date and Yahoo the two companies will introduce integrated products that feature Adobe services, significantly increase the reach of Yahoo Search and expand the online utility of Adobe Reader.
This week Adobe will introduce a co-branded Yahoo! Toolbar that will provide users with access to Yahoo! products including AntiSpy, Pop-Up Blocker and Yahoo! Search, as well as Adobe products such as Create Adobe PDF Online, a web-based service that provides consumers and small businesses easy access to creating documents in PDF.
Over time, the co-branded toolbar will launch additional functionality, such as the ability to quickly and easily convert web-based content into Adobe PDF files. Capturing and converting web pages into PDF means HTML content can be taken offline for viewing, sharing and archiving.
“We are excited to enter this strategic relationship with Adobe as it underscores Yahoo’s commitment to providing users with products and services that enrich their online experience,” said Dan Rosensweig, COO, Yahoo! Inc. “Additionally, our multi-faceted relationship will dramatically increase our exposure and reach to consumers via Adobe’s installed base of more than 500 million copies of Adobe Reader.”
A future release of Adobe Reader, Adobe’s universal client software for viewing and interacting with Adobe PDF files, will feature Yahoo! Search as the default Internet search.
This new service will provide Adobe Reader users with a much easier and faster way of accessing web search for additional information or content that they may be viewing in Reader.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Yahoo's strong profit increase is largely attributed by the performance of its Overture search engine advertising subsidiary.
Yahoo posted net income of $253.3 million, or 17 cents a share. Excluding the item, its profit would have been $124 million or 9 cents a share.
Yahoo earned $65.3 million, or 5 cents a share, in the third quarter of 2003, when it was still sharing advertising revenue with Overture.
“Yahoo! began to demonstrate the next stage in the Company’s evolution in the third quarter, and in doing so recorded its sixth consecutive quarter of record revenue,” said Terry Semel, chairman and chief executive officer, Yahoo.
“We accelerated the pace at which new products and services were developed, which in-turn helped increase the level of user engagement across the Yahoo! network.
Our engaged audience enables us to deliver an unmatched set of advertising opportunities, providing deeper value to our marketers, and supporting the mantra that great products are the key to a great business.”
* Revenues were $907 million for the third quarter of 2004, a 154 percent increase compared to $357 million for the same period of 2003.
* Gross profit for the third quarter of 2004 was $574 million, an 86 percent increase compared to $310 million for the same period of 2003.
* Operating income for the third quarter of 2004 was $172 million, an increase of 106 percent compared to $83 million for the same period of 2003.
* Cash flow from operating activities for the third quarter of 2004 was $267 million, an increase of 97 percent compared to $136 million for the same period of 2003.
“Yahoo! generated its highest-ever level of free cash flow in the third quarter, more than doubling the amount generated one year ago,” said Susan Decker, chief financial officer, Yahoo.
“We believe that long-term free cash flow generation is the most important factor driving shareholder value and we are very pleased with both its magnitude in this quarter and the strong foundation on which it is based, positioning us well for sustained growth.”
Source: Search Engine Journal
Yahoo releases My Yahoo Search in beta version. On the Yahoo Search blog, the company discussed the transition between static and personalized search.
Before Yahoo, Google has been testing its lab version of personalied search. Even Eurekester and AskJeeves brought personalized search into the open by getting the jump on the other large search engines.
The shift from analog to digital technology is reshaping much of the world around us, perhaps most noticeably in the realm of media. It seems like some of the most profound and transformative product introductions over the last few years are technologies that empower users to consume media how and when they want to, e.g., Tivo (tv), Netflix (home video), ipod (music) and of course blogs (news and information).
In the world of search, this means that you should be able to define your own search experience. Today, the Web is a read-only source of information for most users; our vision is of a very individual Web — a “My Web", if you will — which each user creates by searching, browsing, navigating, and generally doing the things they always do. My Yahoo! Search is our first step in that direction.
But getting back to the here and now-- vision aside, our user research has shown that My Yahoo! Search addresses a whole host of everyday search problems.
If you’ve ever experienced the tedium of searching again for something you found before but can’t quite remember, if you’ve ever been annoyed by search results you don’t like but show up again and again, if you ever wanted to share something you found in search but were forced to cut-and-paste… give My Yahoo! Search a shot.
My Yahoo Search features the ability to Save, Block, Share, and Find personalized search results.
Save - CYou can cick on the “Save” link next to any search result to save it in your My Yahoo Search memory. The My Web feature page keeps all your saved results, so you can access them easily whenever you want. Yahoo’s “Search My Web” helps you can find anything you’ve saved even faster.
Block - Find a site that you don’t want in your search results? Just click “Block site” and anytime you do a search, that site will be hidden. If you want to unblock a site, look for the Blocked Site icon at the bottom of your search results page. Click “Show", then click “Unblock Site".
Share - Sharing what you’ve saved is simple — just go to your My Web page, select one or more saved pages, and click the “Share” button. You can also share directly from your search results - just click the “Share” link next to any search result.
Find - Once you’ve saved something to My Web, you can easily it at any time by using the Search My Web button. You can also view your saved pages on the My Web page. Your saved pages can be sorted by date, search keywords, or URL, so it’s easy to find them again.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Yahoo announces that it will produce, host and sell advertising for the "Apprentice" website, the reality TV show in which participants battle for a job working for Donald Trump.
Under the agreement with Mark Burnett Productions, producer of the show, Yahoo will host the site and manage all online advertising during the program's second season, which is slated to kick off on NBC on Thursday night, and its third season. The site went live earlier Thursday. During the first season of the show, NBC relied on a site it hosted itself.
Yahoo said advertising campaigns on the "Apprentice" site will include paid sponsorships, broadband video ads and banner ads.
The announcement is an extension of a previously announced deal between the two companies, whereby Yahoo is running "Apprentice"-related promotions across its HotJobs career site, including a special site for Trump wannabes hoping to apply for future seasons of the show.
The Internet portal said it will feature additional "Apprentice" content throughout its network of sites and hinted that it will announce other collaborations with Mark Burnett Productions, which also produces "Survivor" and "The Restaurant."
The "Apprentice" content will span six of Yahoo's Web offerings: Yahoo TV, Yahoo Messenger, HotJobs, Yahoo Search, Yahoo Finance and the company's Launch music portal.
"We chose to work with Yahoo because of its tremendous reach on the Internet, as well as its ability to develop a comprehensive and entertaining user experience," Mark Burnett said in a statement.
Each week, the "Apprentice" site will offer roughly 40 minutes of video footage not shown in the TV episodes but rather edited specifically for online audiences.
Yahoo said the content will include scenes of various tasks that contestants are given in order to prove their professional value to Trump and his assistants. Other site features will include a tour of the candidates' residence in Trump International Hotel & Tower, contestant bios and episode recaps.
In addition, one of the series' most notorious participants, Web entrepreneur Sam Solovey, who crashed and burned quickly during the show's first season, will pen a weekly column with play-by-play commentary of the show.
Yahoo has also extended the "Apprentice" theme to its instant-messenging software, creating a custom background for the application, as well as an audio clip of Trump's ubiquitous "You're fired" catch phrase for subscribers to direct at one another.
NBC says an average of 20.7 million people watched each week of the show's first season, which ended earlier this year.
It also estimates that 40.1 million viewers watched some of the show's finale. The broadcasting company has labeled "Apprentice" its best-performing new series in the last five years.
Source: C-Net News
Yahoo said it would begin testing a travel price comparison search engine called FareChase, as it further integrates Web search services into its offerings.
Available as a test to the general public as of Tuesday night, the site (http://yahoo.farechase.com) helps users find and buy flights on various airlines including America West, American Airlines, Delta Airlines and JetBlue.
The site also offers hotel room and car rental bookings.
Yahoo said it would collect user feedback for further development of FareChase.
Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo last year spent $1 billion acquiring Web search technology to take on industry leader Google and future rival Microsoft Corp.
Yahoo has since been integrating its search technology in various sections of its site, including shopping and autos.
Upstart travel search sites such as SideStep and Mobissimo, which is also in testing, have recently sprung up to challenge established industry players like Orbitz and Priceline.com
Source: Yahoo
Yahoo today released a beta version of Yahoo Local.
This local search engine integrates proprietary Yahoo Search Technology, Yellow Pages, maps offerings and third party user-generated content, to create an improved local search experience for consumers, all in one place.
“A great search experience is about more than just offering users relevant and comprehensive Web search results.
It’s also about creating an experience where we can quickly and easily provide users the answers they are seeking, whether it’s the best Italian restaurant in their neighborhood or the nearest museums while traveling,” said Jeff Weiner, senior vice president of Yahoo! Search and Marketplace.
“This beta launch marks just the beginning of what we are capable of achieving with local and will continue to leverage our world-class search technology and content to provide the most valuable category-specific search solutions for our users.”
“As part of Yahoo!’s commitment to providing the best search experience on the Web, consumers now have a more powerful way to find local information,” said Paul Levine, general manager, Yahoo! Local. “Building on the debut of our innovative SmartView™ maps feature earlier this year, the beta release of Yahoo! Local reinforces our commitment to improving the way people find local content online.”
Available today, Yahoo's Local beta provides users with improved:
-– Precision: When looking for local information, consumers have indicated that precision is paramount. Yahoo! is the first to develop a local service from the ground up with precision in mind. Users can now pinpoint businesses and services around an address or zip code - letting the user define their exact location. Yahoo! Local also features unique narrowing tools that allow users to quickly refine local searches - by distance, rating, category, and more.
-– Comprehensiveness and Freshness: Yahoo! Local starts with more than 14 million businesses found in Yahoo! Yellow Pages - from dry cleaners and dentists to florists and fine dining - and integrates valuable information like store hours, accepted payment methods and products offered.
Yahoo Local also includes professional restaurant reviews, photos, and menus, as well as content from other areas of Yahoo! (like information about movies, tickets and hotels), to offer a more engaging and comprehensive product. Additionally, the product leverages Yahoo! Search Technology to identify official Web sites for local businesses and crawls those sites for content to create a richer, more relevant search experience.
-– Usefulness: With SmartView, a new visual search tool, consumers can use a dynamic map to see where businesses or points of interest are located in relation to each other. For example, one can find a day spa to visit, and plot nearby ATM machines and restaurants on the same map. For some categories such as hotels and restaurants, consumers can even take the next step by making reservations directly through Yahoo! Local.
-– Community Voice: Users can now rate and review almost every business in the country - from dry cleaners and dentists to florists and fine dining establishments. Consumers can also use the “email a friend” feature to share their favorite businesses or services with others who are in - or are planning to visit - their neighborhood.
-– Personalization: Yahoo! Local provides users the opportunity to save their most frequently used locations or view most recently used locations and quickly and easily access that information each time they do a new search.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Google and Yahoo just finalized and out-of-court settlement, resolving two lenghty disputes, with Google tendering common stock to Yahoo.
The leaders -- and bitter rivals -- in search engine marketing services have decided against civil actions.
Google gave Yahoo 2.7 million shares of Class A common stock, which could be worth more than $280 million if Google's impending IPO garners at least the bottom of its suggested price.
In return, Google got out from under a two-year-old patent infringement suit and a dispute over stock warrants owed Yahoo for a 2000 services agreement.
A Yahoo spokesperson said the agreement grants Google a license to the '361 and several other patents owned by Yahoo.
"There is no ongoing licensing fee. It's netting out at a one-time share receipt for the life of the patents covered under the suit," she said.
The agreement also puts to rest the dispute over how much stock Google owed Yahoo. Yahoo had a warrant to purchase 3.7 million shares, but Google claimed the 1.2 million shares it issued to Yahoo followed a conversion provision in the agreement. Yahoo protested the lowered amount.
The companies didn't disclose what proportion of the shares Google parted with covered the patent licenses. A Google spokesperson would say only, "We are pleased to have resolved these issues and pleased with the terms of the agreement."
Yahoo now holds around 8.2 million shares in Google. The Yahoo spokesperson declined to say when settlement talks began or whether the judge handling the patent infringement suit directed them to talk turkey. But after simmering along on the back burner, the case was about to get hot.
Overture Services, Yahoo's subsidiary, sued Google in April 2002, claiming the latter's lucrative AdWords search marketing service infringed Overtures U.S. Patent No. 6,269,361. The discovery in the case was getting ugly: Google claimed that an Overture executive lied in his deposition. Also, despite Overture's success in keeping parts of its testimony out of the public record, the discovery process was bringing to light plenty of information about its business.
In the long term, the patent dispute could have had serious consequences: If its patents were upheld, Yahoo could have refused to license them to Google, bringing AdWords to a screeching halt. However, that day was at least a couple years down the road, according to Randy Lipsitz, an intellectual property specialist with the New York City law firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel.
However, that might have changed. Both sides were awaiting one critical ruling: The Markman Order, which defines the terms at issue before the case can go to trial. The Markman hearing took place in March and the decision was expected any day -- perhaps before bidding on Google's IPO shares closed. While these rulings don't necessarily give much indication of how the case may be decided, anything that appeared negative to the public could have dinged the price.
"The big companies really don't like to bet the farm unless they are going up against a much smaller company, one they feel they can over-lawyer or overwhelm," said Konrad Trope, a patent and intellectual property specialist based in Los Angeles. In this case, he said, "You have two giants who in a sense could be doing more damage to themselves by beating up on each other than by settling."
"Most of these cases do settle," Lipsitz agreed. "At some point it may sound good to go after [a rival] and corner a piece of the market. But usually after a couple of years, clients see how much they've spent, how much time, the disruption to the business and its executives, and they realize a settlement wouldn't be so bad."
In the short term, the dispute seemed to have little impact on the market. "There were so many other nuances in the whole situation that no one really focused on the consequences [of the suit] -- anyone relevant at least," Lipsitz said.
Google set the extraordinarily high price of $108 to $135 for IPO shares, although the Dutch auction system being used is designed to determine the price the market is willing to pay. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company's revised S-10 filing that included details of the previously disclosed plan to offer a buy-back program for shares and stock options it failed to register with the SEC gave rise to concerns about its internal governance.
"They were more interesting to read about than an arcane patent infringement lawsuit," Lipsitz said.
Ironically, Google's stock is putatively worth as much as nine times more than Yahoo's. In the last year, YHOO has traded between $14.05 and $36.51. The stock was selling at $25.70 at close of today's trading.
Source: Internet News.com
Search giant Yahoo just updated their search inclusion guidelines.
Like any search engine, Yahoo is concerned with quality, relevant results. Their new search inclusion guidelines also reflect that.
Important considerations for inclusion in Yahoo:
Original and unique content of genuine value
Pages designed primarily for humans, search engine considerations secondary
Hyperlinks intended mostly to help people find interesting & related content
Metadata, including title & description, that describes well the contents of a page
Good and consistent web design in general
Unfortunately, not all web pages contain information that is valuable to a user. Some pages are created deliberately to trick the search engine into offering inappropriate, redundant or poor-quality search results; this is often called "spam." Yahoo does not want these pages in the index.
What Yahoo Considers Unwanted Spam
Some, but not all, examples of the more common types of pages that Yahoo does not want include:
Pages that harm accuracy or the relevance of search results
Pages dedicated to directing the user to another page
Pages that have substantially the same content as other pages
Sites with numerous, unnecessary virtual hostnames
Pages in great quantity, automatically generated or of little value
Pages using methods to artificially inflate search engine ranking
The use of text that is hidden from the user (invisible text)
Pages that give the search engine different content (cloaking)
Excessively cross-linking sites to inflate a site's apparent popularity
Pages built primarily for the search engines
Misuse of competitor names
Multiple sites offering the same content
Pages that use excessive pop-ups, interfering with user navigation
Pages that seem deceptive, fraudulent or provide a poor user experience
Yahoo's Site Guidelines are designed to ensure that poor-quality pages do not degrade the user experience in any way. As with Yahoo's other guidelines, Yahoo reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to take any and all action it deems appropriate to insure the quality of its index.
Source: Yahoo!
Yahoo now offers a new feature that lets people upload pictures from their camera phones to its photo-sharing site.
This new feature is the latest example of a service that's trying to capitalize on interoperability problems that limit picture swapping between phones.
A Yahoo spokeswoman said the addition of the feature was part of Yahoo's "renewed commitment in the mobile space."
To use the service, phone owners must provide their handset's make and model, plus the name of their service provider. Registered users then get an exclusive e-mail address to use when sending photos from their phone to their Yahoo Photo online account.
With the new feature, Yahoo Photos joins moblog sites such as TextAmerica in trying to entice phone users who've discovered that they can only send photos to phones that use the same service provider, thus limiting the pictures' audience.
The interoperability gap stems from the fact that wireless service providers each built slightly different versions of photo and video-messaging services instead of waiting for an industrywide standard.
U.S. cell phone service providers vow to solve the interoperability problems by the end of the summer.
Yahoo also unveiled on Thursday a $2.99-a-month feature, providing camera phones access to pictures stored at Yahoo Photos, plus features previously available only over a wired Internet connection. The application is available from Sprint and AT&T Wireless, and requires a phone capable of using Java software.
The download is an example of another Yahoo mobile strategy: to improve the experience people have in using Yahoo software on a cell phone's small screen and with a phone's limited processing power, the Yahoo spokeswoman said.
Yahoo has been trying to tap the growing number of camera phone users and convert them into Yahoo users. The company lets Sprint and AT&T Wireless subscribers view and download pictures from Yahoo Photos. Yahoo also has deals with mobile providers such as Cingular and AT&T Wireless to enable PC-to-phone text messaging.
The king of the Web portals has also fiddled with different business models for its online photo site.
Yahoo Photos originally launched with unlimited free photo storage for people to upload their digital camera snapshots.
Bowing to pressure to boost nonadvertising revenues, Yahoo in 2002 imposed restrictions for nonpaying users to view other people's photos and then charged people for uploading more than 30MB of images. In December 2003, the company scrapped those charges and reverted back to unlimited storage.
Camera phones, which number in the tens of millions, represent just a small fraction of the about 1.5 billion cell phones now in circulation. Handset manufacturers, gambling that the surging interest in camera phones will continue, are adding the feature to a greater number of their models.
Source: C-Net News
With Ask Jeeves and MSN eliminating paid inclusion listings from their search results this month, Yahoo is the lone holdout among major search engines to let advertisers pay to have their Web pages in its search results.
Unlike paid placement, advertisers paying for inclusion in a search index are not promised placement. Instead, they are promised that their sites will be included in a search index. The practice has advantages for businesses with constantly changing Web pages that are not indexed as frequently by Web search spiders.
Search leader Google has taken a firm stand against the practice, vowing never to accept payment for inclusion. Its IPO filing makes its stance explicit: "Our search results will be objective and we will not accept payment for inclusion or ranking in them."
Google’s stance has gained converts. Ask Jeeves this month banished its last vestige of paid inclusion, Site Submit, which let Web publishers pay to ensure Ask Jeeves’s Teoma spider scanned their sites. The Emeryville, CA, search engine eliminated its Index Express XML paid inclusion service in March that charged each time a listing was clicked.
MSN followed suit this month when it unveiled a new look to its search pages. A longtime user of paid inclusion pioneer LookSmart, MSN removed all paid inclusion from the search engine, including Site Match listings provided through its use of Yahoo’s Web search technology.
Yahoo remains committed to its 6-month-old Site Match paid inclusion program. When it debuted the program, Yahoo executives explained that it would address the problem of search spiders not reaching all the Web’s content.
As a companion to the paid program, Yahoo operates the Content Acquisition Program, which lets noncommercial sites feed their Web pages through for free. Yahoo has signed National Public Radio, the Library of Congress, The New York Public Library and others for the Content Acquisition Program.
"We are still committed to the Content Acquisition Program," Yahoo spokeswoman Stephanie Ichinose said. "We continue to work with content providers to consider ways to evolve and improve the program."
Nate Elliott, a Jupiter Research analyst, said paid inclusion still has a bright future because search engines simply cannot refresh their indexes quickly enough to offer the best possible search results. Jupiter expects paid inclusion spending to reach at least $200 million next year.
When it dropped Site Match from its listings, MSN did not rule out returning to some form of paid inclusion, including through Yahoo, as long as it is clear to users which listings are paid and the index is improved.
"I wouldn’t be surprised to see MSN back in the [paid] inclusion game," Elliott said. "They clearly don’t have any philosophical problem with it."
Fredrick Marckini, CEO of Arlington, MA, search marketing firm iProspect, said most of his clients use Site Match, benefiting from the guarantee that Yahoo will crawl their sites every 48 hours. Since iProspect estimates up to 70 percent of all clicks occur in the algorithmic search results, Site Match has been useful, he said.
"Without Site Match, you’re never assured that more than 50 percent of the Web site will be included in the index," he said.
Critics contend Site Match gives the appearance that Yahoo favors paid inclusion listings over non-paid, since it charges a fee each time a paid inclusion listing gets clicked. Marckini does not think Yahoo gives Site Match listings favorable placement, but a submitted listing is easier for Yahoo’s search algorithm to consider than a crawled Web page, giving a paid inclusion Web page a de facto boost.
Jim Lanzone, vice president of product management at Ask Jeeves, said the search engine found combining structured content of paid inclusion feeds with unstructured content of Web search like mixing "apples and oranges."
"We found that it affected relevance," he said. "Sometimes that would be positive, but that was an accident. More often than not it was negative."
The Federal Trade Commission two years ago issued guidelines for paid inclusion, recommending that search engines "clearly and conspicuously" disclose that some sites paid to have their Web pages included in the index. Yahoo provides that disclosure under an "about this page" link at the top of its search results page.
Danny Sullivan, the editor of Search Engine Watch, an industry Web site, has criticized Site Match for not disclosing which listings paid to be included in the index.
"I don’t like the way it’s currently offered on Yahoo," he said. "It goes against how Web search is traditionally supposed to operate."
The greatest concern for Yahoo could be Site Match affecting its standing as a search engine. It ranks behind Google in search share, drawing 30 percent to Google’s 36 percent, according to comScore Media Metrix. MSN ranks third with 16 percent of searches.
"The only way this could really hurt them is if consumers dislike Yahoo because it uses [paid] inclusion," Elliott said. "But consumers don’t know it’s happening."
Source: DM News
Search engine Yahoo has agreed to acquire Oddpost.com, a supplier of online news and email services.
The amount of the transaction wasn't disclosed at this time.
The two companies confirmed Yahoo's plan to purchase Oddpost on Monday, but disclosed few details about the buyout. According to a source familiar with the acquisition, Yahoo paid close to $30 million for the company. Oddpost's 10 employees, based in San Francisco, will now report to Yahoo's Sunnyvale headquarters.
"The acquisition of Oddpost provides Yahoo with outstanding technological expertise, which will be brought to bear on products across the Yahoo network, such as Yahoo Mail," said Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako.
In a document posted to its Web site, Oddpost told members it would continue to operate existing e-mail accounts, but said the company will focus on helping Yahoo produce a new version of its online e-mail service.
Existing Oddpost members will be migrated to Yahoo when the portal's next Web mail update is introduced, according to the document. The announcement did not give a date for the debut of the new Yahoo Mail release.
The Oddpost acquisition underscores the recent surge in competition among providers of free e-mail services.
Yahoo is fighting for business against such rivals as Microsoft's Hotmail service, and is preparing for the entry of a promising new contender--Google's Gmail system. Gmail promises users 1GB of storage, which in June led Microsoft to pledge to raise Hotmail's free e-mail storage limit from 2MB to 250MB. Yahoo upgraded to 100MB for free users and 2GB to paying e-mail customers.
Like Microsoft, Yahoo attempts to use its free Web mail to lure users to pay for additional online services, such as expanded memory or the ability to manage multiple e-mail accounts from a single interface.
But since its founding in 2000, Oddpost has existed somewhere between those free services and the more expensive e-mail software marketed by Microsoft and others.
For $30 per year, Oddpost has offered 50 megabytes of online e-mail memory, along with spam filtering tools and daily news aggregation. The service also offers some of the more advanced features of shrink-wrapped software like Microsoft's Outlook, such as automatically generating frequently used e-mail addresses as they are typed into new messages.
Oddpost also allows people to aggregate news feeds, share photos and compose e-mail without constantly refreshing a page as Yahoo and other free e-mail services currently require. It does this with a combination of dynamic HTML, javascript and XML.
"Our vision is that people want more than e-mail...but in one place rather than nine," said Toni Schneider, Oddpost's chief executive, who will report to Brad Garlinghouse, Yahoo's head of communications. "We think our technology is a perfect fit for the types of services Yahoo has."
Schneider declined to comment on financial terms of the acquisition. In its statement, Oddpost said existing accounts would be extended until the Yahoo service is launched, but indicated that it would not accept any more new users.
In addition, the company said its customers would be offered a year of premium Yahoo e-mail service, including the 2 gigabytes of storage, free of charge.
The company, which has maintained a humorous and decidedly anticorporate image, attempted to assuage concerns among its members that it was "disappearing into the bowels of corporate America" as a result of the acquisition.
"Our technology will flourish like a palm tree and/or IT professional's waistline in Silicon Valley," the statement promised. "While the glory of Oddpost has, thus far, been witnessed by the eyes of an enlightened few, soon it will be savored by millions."
Source: C-Net News
Yahoo's earnings on Wednesday were reported as doubling the previous quarter, but that disappointed Wall Street investors that were hoping for even more than that.
The Web giant posted a profit of $112.5 million, or 8 cents per diluted share, for its fiscal second quarter, which ended June 30.
That's up from $50.8 million, or 4 cents a share, in the same period last year, taking into account a 2-to-1 stock split, effective May 11. Revenue for the quarter was $609 million, excluding traffic acquisition costs (TAC), compared with $321 million a year ago.
Yahoo's stock fell in after-hours trading, down 14 percent to $28 a share shortly after the company reported earnings.
Wall Street expected Yahoo to earn 8 cents per share and $610 million in revenue, according to Thomson First Call's consensus of analyst estimates.
Much of the stock downturn stemmed from what Yahoo executives deemed as seasonal flatness in the commercial search business. Despite contributing significantly to Yahoo's revenue and profitability, Wall Street investors were hoping to see blowout results like last quarter.
"I believe investors have overestimated the growth in search," said Jordan Rohan, an equity analyst at Schwab Soundview Capital Markets.
The result is that the second and third fiscal quarters are expected to show slower growth, while the first and fourth could become boom periods for paid search. Still, Yahoo executives are satisfied with this quarter's numbers.
"To us, we're very happy," Yahoo CEO Terry Semel said in an interview. "We weren't at all surprised. Pricing is stable, everything is good."
Last quarter, Yahoo earned $101 million in profits, or 7 cents a share, after the stock split. Revenue for the period was $550 million.
Yahoo's earnings highlight revenue numbers that do not include TAC, which excludes the fees its Overture Services subsidiary pays to search partners. Companies such as CNN and Microsoft's MSN get a cut of revenue every time customers click on Overture's paid search listings. Executives consider TAC revenue less illustrative of Yahoo's true revenue potential.
Yahoo's total revenue including TAC reached $832.2 million for the quarter.
Yahoo's operating income before depreciation and amortization--formerly known as EBITDA--reached $234 million. Cash flow hit $250 million, while free cash flow reached $194 million from $71 million a year ago.
Here's a breakdown of Yahoo's various revenue generators:
• Marketing services: The business line, which encompasses the company's advertising revenue, posted $691 million, up from $635 million the previous quarter and $219 million a year ago. The results include revenue from Yahoo's acquisition of Overture, whose highly lucrative paid search business accounted for the bulk of this quarter's gains. The company did not break out how much of this revenue came from paid search and how much came from display advertising.
• Fees: Revenue from Yahoo's paid services businesses jumped to $104 million from $88 million last quarter and $70 million last year. Bulk paid subscriptions reached 6.4 million from 5.8 million last quarter and 3.5 million a year ago. Executives attributed the revenue difference to a price increase for SBC Communications' dial-up customers who also use Yahoo's services.
• Listings: This business, which largely consists of Yahoo's HotJobs subsidiary, reported $38 million in revenue. That's up from $34 million last quarter and $32 million a year ago.
Yahoo has undergone a number of changes, many with archrival Google in mind. In June, the portal giant launched a redesign of its Web e-mail service and boosted free accounts from 4MB of memory to 100MB. The move was an attempt to counter the launch later this year of Google's free e-mail service, called Gmail, which will offer 1GB of storage.
Yahoo also offered a glimpse of its new home page design, which emphasizes its search engine and simplifies its layout. The company is testing a number of designs and soliciting feedback for its eventual launch later this year.
On the product side, the company in April released a flashier version of its popular instant messaging software. The launch illustrated the company's commitment to its free IM product. In June, however, the company scrapped its long-struggling IM product for corporations. Meanwhile, it also began shutting out third-party IM integration services such as Trillian and Gaim, causing many users to complain.
Source: C-Net News
As the Instant Messaging wars escalate again, consumers are claiming they're the casualties.
Yahoo on Wednesday evening began blocking third-party instant messaging clients in what it claimed was a "pre-emptive" action against IM spam, or "spim."
Just a few hours after Yahoo changed its instant messenger protocols, Cerulean Studios issued a patch to allow users of its popular Trillian software to connect again with users of Yahoo's messaging program.
For people who use popular third-party messaging clients such as Cerulean's Trillian, or smaller services such as Gaim, the reaction was instantaneous and negative. Speculation began flying about whether battling spim, currently a minor issue, was Yahoo's true intention.
"This is just Yahoo's attempt to stifle progress," one person wrote on CNET News.com's message board. "Trillian brings the IM worlds together. Why does (Yahoo) keep splitting it apart and saying it's to increase 'security' on their network?"
Regardless of intention, Yahoo's management of its IM network preserves the network's exclusivity. Like Yahoo's service, other major messaging services such as America Online's AOL Instant Messenger and Microsoft's MSN Messenger are proprietary networks that cannot communicate with competing systems. People who have contacts on different IM services must launch multiple messaging clients to talk to everybody.
Historic battles between the Big Three of Internet services have been ugly. In 1999, AOL and Microsoft engaged in a public spat after MSN Messenger launched with the ability to chat with AIM users. AOL considered Microsoft's action a "hack" into their systems and blocked MSN.
Microsoft eventually relented, but the block would later haunt AOL. A coalition of companies led by Microsoft launched an aggressive lobbying campaign to point out AOL's unfair IM market dominance when AOL was trying to acquire Time Warner. Yahoo was part of that coalition.
What Trillian and other third-party providers do is combine multiple buddy lists under a common interface. But that interface means Yahoo, AOL and MSN can't differentiate themselves via features such as emoticons. They also can't serve advertisements or direct users to other areas of their site networks.
"I don't think security is the biggest driver behind this" decision, said Genelle Hung, an analyst at market researcher The Radicati Group. "It's not something that Yahoo is really as concerned about as keeping its user base loyal."
Yahoo remained firm with its assertion that third-party providers are a spim threat to Yahoo Messenger users.
"Spammers are being aided by entities that are accessing our systems without our consent," said Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako.
A Cerulean representative did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Some analysts support Yahoo's decision. They point out that though spim remains a minor problem, e-mail in its early days also saw few issues with spam.
But the spam problem has gotten worse every year. E-mail providers such as ISPs and Web sites have been forced to devote significant resources to battling spam and filing lawsuits against alleged spammers. Consumers themselves have clamored for companies to do more to battle the problem.
"By the time spim becomes a problem, there's not much to do about it," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Media. "You're in reactive mode."
One developer who works on Gaim, an open-source IM integrator like Trillian, expressed dismay that its users were blocked. Still, he supported Yahoo's move to stop spim before it starts.
"If Yahoo's motives are true, if they are honestly trying to help solve a spam problem, more power to them," Christian Hammond, a Gaim developer, said in an e-mail response.
In the meantime, Yahoo's Osako said consumers will see "frequent protocol changes" should third parties continue hurdling its blocks. In the meantime, angry Trillian users will keep pointing fingers at the Web giant and claiming foul.
"They should be honest with the public and explain (that) their beef with third-party software is potential lost advertising revenue, rather than pretending it is part of some noble antispam quest," wrote another News.com message board contributor.
Source: C-Net News
Yahoo launched a Chinese-language search portal on Monday, following Google's lead for a stronger foothold in one of the world's biggest Internet markets.
The introduction of Yahoo's new Web site, www.yisou.com, follows Google's acquisition last week of a minority stake in Baidu.com Inc., China's biggest independent Internet search engine and one of Google's strongest rivals here.
"Yahoo believes the introduction of Yisou will help extend our reach into the rapidly growing search market in China," David Lu, Yahoo North Asia's vice president of search and marketplace, said in a statement.
Yahoo China already has a Chinese search company, 3721, which it acquired last year for $120 million.
Google has offered Chinese-language searches since 2000 and is hugely popular among China's more than 80 million Internet users --the world's second biggest Internet market after the U.S.
Source: The New Nation
The cancellation of Yahoo Messenger Enterprise Edition marks the end of the Web portal's now-defunct enterprise software division.
The unit was created in 2000 to sell customized Web portals and video conferencing services for internal use in corporations. But in October 2003, Yahoo scrapped the division and melded its businesses with their consumer counterparts.
Yahoo confirmed on Thursday that it is no longer selling a version of its popular instant-messaging service for corporations, ending the Web portal's attempt to sell IM as a software package.
In an informal interview earlier this week, Yahoo's Chief Information Officer Lars Rabbe said the enterprise instant messenger was shelved, because Yahoo is largely a consumer company and not structured to take on the kind of support tasks and other responsibilities that come with selling corporate software.
The move will consolidate Yahoo's consumer and enterprise products into one product package.
"We have reorganized our instant-messaging business to optimize our ability to leverage the Yahoo network, whether our customers are at work or at home," Lisa Pollock Mann, senior director of Yahoo Messenger, said in a statement.
A Yahoo representative declined to comment Thursday on when the company had stopped selling the service.
To the Big Three Web portals--Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN and America Online--selling IM to companies has sounded like a good idea. The companies all offer popular, free IM clients that millions of Internet users have downloaded. IM technology lets people exchange messages in real time, and it has evolved features that let users play games, make phone calls and hold video conferences.
Instant messaging has made its way into companies as well. Some 85 percent of all enterprises in North America use a form of IM in their networks, according to a survey by research firm The Radicati Group. This penetration was mainly spurred by employees downloading Yahoo, AOL or MSN software to keep in touch with personal and professional contacts.
However, IM flourished in businesses without the oversight of corporate information technology departments, leaving many system administrators concerned about IM's safety against viruses. Some industries regulated by the federal government, such as the financial services and health care industries, are concerned that the use of IM in their offices might violate compliance or privacy laws.
The Big Three saw in this an opportunity to sell adapted versions of their free service to companies. The revamped software included features such as conversation logging, authentication and identity management. The companies also partnered with third parties such as IMLogic and Facetime Communications to add these applications to their IM products.
But consumer Web companies often have a hard time becoming enterprise software vendors, some industry watchers have noted.
"The market has shown that you cannot bring continuity from the consumer market to the enterprise market," said David Gurle, an executive vice president of Reuters Messaging. "You need to think about the enterprise market very differently than the consumer market, which doesn't pay you directly."
In addition, experienced vendors such as IBM and Sun Microsystems have begun offering their own IM products through their established sales channels.
Like Yahoo, AOL has retrenched its enterprise IM division. It has opted instead to sell add-ons such as video conferencing for a fee. Microsoft has focused less on MSN Messenger and more on its Live Communications Server--which combines IM, Net phone calling and video conferencing--as its enterprise communications product.
Source: C-Net News
Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO - news) has rolled out a new e-mail product designed to compete with Google's forthcoming Gmail offering and dark horse Lycos' similar service, which made its surprising debut last month.
New features include 100-megabytes of free storage -- 25 times more than Yahoo's prior offering. Premium customers, including subscribers to SBC Yahoo! Dial and DSL, will have virtually unlimited storage at 2 gigabytes, or 200 times the amount offered by most other Internet service providers, according to Yahoo.
The company also has redesigned its e-mail page: It now includes new search capabilities, and graphical ads from Yahoo! Mail Plus and SBC Yahoo! Mail have been removed. And Yahoo is opening up over 50 million Yahoo IDs to give consumers more address options for their e-mail accounts.
Market Moves
Yahoo's plans initially were reported at a corporate meeting last month. Shortly thereafter, Lycos jumped the gun with a similar e-mail offering, albeit at different price points. The concept of free, near-unlimited storage first was introduced, though, by Google, as it announced its Gmail offering with great fanfare.
"The Internet-portal and search-engine market, in general, is becoming increasingly competitive just in the last six months," Yankee Group analyst Patrick Mahoney told NewsFactor. "All of them are looking for any way to differentiate themselves to garner more customers or keep current customers satisfied."
Indeed, within the space of a few months, free e-mail with unlimited storage has become the de facto minimum standard for Internet content providers, such as Yahoo, AOL (NYSE: AOL - news) and Google -- much to their chagrin, no doubt. E-mail accounts, at one time, were considered a revenue source for these providers, Mahoney noted. The premium accounts still will be, of course, but given the storage available in the free accounts now, the paying accounts will represent a much smaller portion of revenue.
Pay IM
Even this model may change once again. Online consumer and business products, such as e-mail or instant messaging, are in a constant state of flux as Yahoo, Google, AOL and others seek ways to make Internet services pay. For example, AOL is hoping to turn its instant-messaging product into a paying concern by attaching value-added services and marketing the enhanced product to business.
AOL recently launched AIM Business Services, a voice and Web-conferencing product it has developed through partnerships with technology providers Lightbridge and WebEx, respectively.
AOL can use AIM as a launch pad for conferencing, drawing more corporate customers, IDC research manager Robert Mahowald told NewsFactor, noting that Yahoo has Business Messenger, a similar product that offers the same WebEx conferencing technology.
The difference between the two offerings is that any AOL AIM customer can use the business services, while Yahoo requires users to sign up separately for its business messaging service and charges a subscription fee.
Erika Morphy, www.newsfactor.com
The cancellation of Yahoo Messenger Enterprise Edition marks the end of the Web portal's now-defunct enterprise software division.
The unit was created in 2000 to sell customized Web portals and video conferencing services for internal use in corporations. But in October 2003, Yahoo scrapped the division and melded its businesses with their consumer counterparts.
Yahoo confirmed on Thursday that it is no longer selling a version of its popular instant-messaging service for corporations, ending the Web portal's attempt to sell IM as a software package.
In an informal interview earlier this week, Yahoo's Chief Information Officer Lars Rabbe said the enterprise instant messenger was shelved, because Yahoo is largely a consumer company and not structured to take on the kind of support tasks and other responsibilities that come with selling corporate software.
The move will consolidate Yahoo's consumer and enterprise products into one product package.
"We have reorganized our instant-messaging business to optimize our ability to leverage the Yahoo network, whether our customers are at work or at home," Lisa Pollock Mann, senior director of Yahoo Messenger, said in a statement.
A Yahoo representative declined to comment Thursday on when the company had stopped selling the service.
To the Big Three Web portals--Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN and America Online--selling IM to companies has sounded like a good idea. The companies all offer popular, free IM clients that millions of Internet users have downloaded. IM technology lets people exchange messages in real time, and it has evolved features that let users play games, make phone calls and hold video conferences.
Instant messaging has made its way into companies as well. Some 85 percent of all enterprises in North America use a form of IM in their networks, according to a survey by research firm The Radicati Group. This penetration was mainly spurred by employees downloading Yahoo, AOL or MSN software to keep in touch with personal and professional contacts.
However, IM flourished in businesses without the oversight of corporate information technology departments, leaving many system administrators concerned about IM's safety against viruses. Some industries regulated by the federal government, such as the financial services and health care industries, are concerned that the use of IM in their offices might violate compliance or privacy laws.
The Big Three saw in this an opportunity to sell adapted versions of their free service to companies. The revamped software included features such as conversation logging, authentication and identity management. The companies also partnered with third parties such as IMLogic and Facetime Communications to add these applications to their IM products.
But consumer Web companies often have a hard time becoming enterprise software vendors, some industry watchers have noted.
"The market has shown that you cannot bring continuity from the consumer market to the enterprise market," said David Gurle, an executive vice president of Reuters Messaging. "You need to think about the enterprise market very differently than the consumer market, which doesn't pay you directly."
In addition, experienced vendors such as IBM and Sun Microsystems have begun offering their own IM products through their established sales channels.
Like Yahoo, AOL has retrenched its enterprise IM division. It has opted instead to sell add-ons such as video conferencing for a fee. Microsoft has focused less on MSN Messenger and more on its Live Communications Server--which combines IM, Net phone calling and video conferencing--as its enterprise communications product.
Source: C-Net News
Revolver Communications, TheFishCanSing, Cow PR and Naked Communications are the PR agencies understood to be about to lock a contract with Yahoo.
PRWeek understands that Yahoo! is prepared to spend up to £2m on activity coordinated by the selected agency. The account will involve non-traditional PR, such as guerrilla marketing and event-based promotional work, and an appointment is expected within weeks.
It is understood that the focus of the promotional activity will be a single major event that is set to take place in England later this year.
The communications blitz will aid Yahoo!'s bid to compete with market-leader Google in the internet search market. Yahoo! wants to become the number-one global provider of search.
The internet company currently retains Cow to handle its consumer PR and Revolver to promote its Yahoo! Personals service.
A Yahoo! spokesman confirmed that 'meetings' were ongoing with agencies. He declined to comment on the fees of the planned PR contract.
The spokesman stressed that the company's pre-existing contracts with PR and marketing agencies -- such as Cohn & Wolfe, which handles corporate PR and press office work for Yahoo! Personals -- were not being reviewed.
Yahoo! is investing heavily to strengthen its search engine capabilities, having bought paid-for search companies Inktomi and Overture and French online shopping comparison service Kelkoo within the past 12 months.
It is understood that Yahoo! UK & Ireland marketing director Yonca Brunini is planning imminent further discussions with the four agencies battling for the new account and that head of PR Georga Douglas and PR manager Jon Wayth are also involved in the review.
Source: Digital Bulletin
Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) on Tuesday made good on its promise of a month ago and boosted the storage allowance for users of its free and for-fee E-mail services.
In a move to pre-empt Google's Gmail, the search site's announced-but-not-yet-final E-mail service that started the arms race in the Web-based mail space by offering 1 Gbyte of storage, Yahoo handed out 100 Mbytes of storage space to all users of its free E-mail and boosted storage for premium customers to 2 Gbytes.
Previously, users of the for-free version of Yahoo Mail were limited to just 4 Mbytes. With the capacity expansion, Yahoo is also allowing users to send and receive files as large as 10 Mbytes.
Paying customers, including subscribers to SBC Yahoo Dial and DSL Internet services, which Yahoo co-markets with SBC Communications Inc., have "virtually unlimited storage," Yahoo said. For $19.99 annually, Yahoo Mail Plus provides 2 Gbytes of storage space.
Yahoo also introduced a new design to the Yahoo Mail interface, increased search speed, and put back into circulation more than 50 million long-dormant Yahoo E-mail addresses so users can sniff out a better or shorter address.
The move is in reaction to Gmail, a free Web-based E-mail service that Google is still testing. One of Gmail's most-touted features is a 1-Gbyte storage allowance.
While Yahoo's redesigned homepage appears to be a preliminary test, the mock-ups show minor layout changes rather than a drastic overhaul of the home page.
According to this version, the six "buttons" that flank the Yahoo logo have been moved down into a "Y Services" box that also displays links to other areas on its site.
The buttons are graphic links to popular tools such as instant messaging, e-mail, finance, travel, job search and the company's My Yahoo page. The links in the Y Services box are regrouped alphabetically rather than by theme.
Another shift is the prominence of Yahoo's advertising box along the right side of the page. It's now above the box that links to e-mail and Yahoo Messenger. Meanwhile, its search bar remains a major focal point on top of the page.
Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako could not confirm the authenticity of the screen shot, but she said the company routinely tests changes in its products to get feedback.
"We value our consumer insights, and from time to time, we will test a few simple modifications to see if these ideas and enhancements are beneficial to our broad base of visitors," she said in an interview.
The home page redesign has been expected. Yahoo executives last month told Wall Street analysts that a handful of its high-profile Web properties would undergo changes later this year, including its e-mail service.
The e-mail revamp, slated to launch this summer, will include a boost in memory to 100MB for free users and "virtually unlimited" storage for its paid customers. The move is meant to counter archrival Google, which plans to launch a free e-mail service called Gmail that offers 1GB of storage.
The latest home page update comes about two years after Yahoo's last facelift, when the company opened larger portions of the site for online advertisements and promotions.
Still, Yahoo's home page changes are few and far between. The company has long remained militant about maintaining the site's speedy load time and visual style, resisting a heavy use of graphics and animation. Before its 2002 makeover, Yahoo's home page had maintained its basic framework since 1995.
Source: C-Net News
Even if the two companies are acknowledged competitors, Yahoo has begun advertising on Google, using Google's AdWords program.
AdWords works by having clients bid on keywords that can be used to query search engines. These keywords, when searched, will cause Google AdWords to display text ads associated with the content of the search.
The keyword which Yahoo is using to advertise on Google is "RSS." RSS, which stands for Rich Site Summary, is a format for, according to XML.com, "syndicating news and the content of news-like sites." When users search the term RSS in Google, Yahoo's keyword related advertisement garners the top AdWords position.
If Yahoo's AdWords ad is clicked, the user is taken to a landing page for Yahoo Shopping, Yahoo's shopping portal. The landing page is a Yahoo Shopping SERP.
In Google's AdWords program, clients who won the keyword bid must pay the cost for the click to Google. This applies to Yahoo as well.
MarketingVOX suggests "the campaign may be an effort at keyword arbitrage. In keyword arbitrage, Yahoo would pay for clicks with the expectation that the Yahoo advertisers will pay more once the original Google visitor arrives."
Who says competitors can't work in unison to benefit each other. Google is receiving money each time Yahoo's RSS ad is clicked.
Meanwhile, Yahoo has the opportunity to sell items and gain click revenue from advertisers on their landing page, once the user reaches Yahoo's ad destination.
Source: Web Pro News
About.com just finished a survey that polled a focus group of 181 men and women between the ages of 20 and 64, and found that metasearch engine Vivisimo tied with Yahoo for the second place in popularity, with a score of 4.6 out of 5.
Vivisimo employees a clustered approach to its search results. Clustering organizes the results into meaningful groups providing users a quick overview of the main ideas buried in the results.
For example, with Clustering, if you search for the keywords "German shepherds", Vivisimo will also offer you results organized by "breeds", "training", "breeders", "rescue", and "clubs".
"Vivisimo is an excellent alternative to Google. It is fast, clean, and relevant, and it offers guiding search suggestions in the form of 'Clustered Results'," said Paul Gil, About.com Guide and long time Internet veteran.
"It offers all the functionality and speed of Google, with 'Clustering' added. Once the users discovered Vivisimo, it quickly became a favorite."
Not only has Vivisimo gained the second position in About's poll, Vivisimo has also been selected twice as the "Best MetaSearch Engine" by Search Engine Watch.
Saman Haqqi, Director of Marketing at Vivisimo stated, "We are pleased with the growing recognition for Vivisimo's Clustering.
As the size of the Web indices continues to grow, Web searchers need to have this huge amount of data organized meaningfully. At Vivisimo, it is our mission to help people handle large amounts of data by presenting them with organized information."
Source: Web Pro News
Finding prices at the gas stations too much to handle this summer? Yahoo is offering a new search engine shortcut to help save a couple of cents a gallon when filling up for road trips.
Yahoo! Search has launched an online gas price shortcut! The Yahoo! Search Gas Price Shortcut enables users to get the lowest gas prices for their area with just one click.
Just type in gas prices [location] into the Yahoo Search bar http://search.yahoo.com
Example: “gas prices San Francisco” or “gas prices 94111” (your zip code).
Yahoo! Search has teamed up with two sites to provide consumers with easy access to search for their local gas stations carrying the lowest prices.
Disclaimer:
* Gas Price Watch has no affiliation with any of the fuel vendors or other advocacy groups listed on the site. Its mission is to become a voice for the consumer and continue to improve value to the consumer.
* Gas Buddy the portal site to more than 170 web sites that help consumers find cheap gas prices. All web sites are operated by the non-profit organization known as Gas Buddy Organization Inc, which is a registered non-profit organization.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Yahoo just released a beta version of its downloadable toolbar that detects and removes spyware installed on a user’s computer.
Yahoo will be testing the anti-spyware technology, which has been supplied by antispyware company PestPatrol.
The software will be available to a limited number of users and no date has yet been set for the full release of the toolbar including anti-spyware.
A spokesperson for Yahoo said the toolbar can be used to “perform a high-level scan of files on the PC to detect viruses or other applications that were installed surreptitiously and are used to spy on computer behaviour.”
The Yahoo Companion toolbar already offers search features as well as a pop-up ad blocker. Companion Downloads are probably bound to increase with the release of Yahoo Messenger 6. The two downloads are bundled together on Yahoo, making the popularity of each beneficial to the other.
Spyware has become a large online problem with user PC’s becoming infested while downloading certain tools like screensavers or peer to peer software which batch in spyware to help turn a cool buck.
Strictly defined, spyware is computer software that gathers information about a computer user without the user’s knowledge or informed consent, and then transmits this information to an organisation that expects to be able to profit from it in some way.
Data-collecting programs installed with the user’s knowledge are not, properly speaking, spyware, if the user fully understands what data is being collected and with whom it is being shared.
Wikipedia adds that more broadly, the term spyware is applied to a wide range of related malware products which are not spyware in the strict sense. These products perform many different functions, including the delivery of unrequested advertising (pop-ups in particular), harvesting private information, re-routing page requests to illegally claim commercial site referral fees, and installing stealth phone dialers.
Spyware is normally installed through either one of two common methods. The first is to hide a spyware component within an otherwise apparently useful program. Often, the containing program is made available for download free of charge, so as to encourage wide uptake of the spyware component.
The second common method is to take advantage of security flaws in Internet Explorer.
Source: Yahoo News
Yahoo's Messenger 6.0 release has the makings of an aggressive leap ahead for Yahoo's real time communication technology and comes on the heels of product refreshes from rivals America Online, ICQ and MSN.
With the upgrade, Yahoo! has graduated Yahoo! Messenger to version 6.0 – the client's first major jump in digits since October 2001. A beta of the client puts entertainment features on par with the competition.
Customers can now tune into LAUNCHcast Radio and occupy themselves with two-player games such as Chess, Checkers, Dominoes, Pearl Hunter, and Word Race.
In addition, gamers will have the ability to compete for high scores in single-player games, which are recorded in Messenger's new games tab. Games are launched from directly within the IM window.
Like the competition, Yahoo! has brought self expression to the forefront of the user experience. Yahoo! Messenger 6.0 includes build-your-own avatars, more Yahoo! IMVironments, new emoticons, and verbal animations that express attitude and emotion called "audibles."
The release taps deeply into Yahoo!'s wealth of Web properties. The most obvious add-on is a Yahoo! Search field embedded into the client's interface. Yahoo! recently ditched Google in favor of its own homegrown algorithmic search engine technology. Tight integration with Yahoo! Mail remains a key feature of the client, although much improved in version 6.0.
Mirroring Microsoft's MSN Messenger 6.2, Yahoo's installer provides users with the option of installing a browser toolbar and assigning themselves to the Yahoo! Internet homepage. Yahoo! has also borrowed a page from the AOL playbook with a new pop-up window.
Other noteworthy features include Yahoo!'s new "Stealth Mode" and address book. Stealth Mode allows users to manage contacts so that they can now either appear to be on or offline to a specific friend or group of friends. The Yahoo! AddressBook searches, sorts and communicates with contacts all from within the client.
Commenting on the release, Lisa Pollock Mann, senior director of messaging products at Yahoo! said, "With this newest version of Yahoo! Messenger, we are changing the instant messaging landscape by introducing new ways for people to express, share, and manage, making instant messaging more essential to their lives.
By integrating unique features with compelling services from across our network, Yahoo! Messenger continues to enable powerful interactions between friends and family."
Source: Beta News.com
People spend hours a day with instant messaging programs, sending text to friends and co-workers online.
These free products already go well beyond the typed word: People can swap files and chat with webcams and microphones.
Instant-messaging software has evolved into the latest weapon in a fierce battle among major Internet companies to reap revenues off whatever you do, wherever you go online.
Now there's even more. On Monday, Yahoo Inc. launched Internet radio and other new services around its messaging software. Microsoft Corp., meanwhile, is leveraging IM as a subscription gaming hub, while America Online Inc. is packaging weather.
"They are becoming much more of a destination as opposed to just a communications front-end," Rob Enderle, an independent analyst in San Jose, Calif., said of instant-messaging services. "They want to own the user experience."
Expanding IM gives Yahoo -- the No. 2 instant-messaging service, with 19 million U.S. users in March, according to comScore Media Metrix -- a way to introduce users to services they may not have known about.
"The more Yahoo services people use, the more loyal they are, the more likely they are to come back and the more likely they are to tell friends," said Lisa Mann, Yahoo's senior director for messaging products.
The new Yahoo! Messenger software, available in a "beta" test Monday with a final version due in late May, reconfigures the main window so your list of friends can remain on the screen as you visit other Yahoo services such as news, stocks and calendar.
The software adds several free features: You can invite friends to play chess or dominoes. The titles of songs you listen to appear on friends' "buddy lists" next to your name so they can listen in, too. You can perform searches with a co-worker and have results appear on both ends.
The integration of search, in particular, could give Yahoo an edge over current search leader Google, which unveiled a Web mail service this month to rival Yahoo's and Microsoft's. Google officials say they have no immediate plans for IM.
"Google would be smart to roll out an IM strategy and to do it fairly quickly," Yankee Group analyst Paul Ritter said.
But while IM can foster collaboration among co-workers, Ritter said, new features can also create distractions.
A February survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project finds that 29 percent of full-time workers use IM at work. A study conducted last year by Harris Interactive for the Internet filtering company Websense Inc. says one in five workplace IM users populated at least 70 percent of their IM lists with personal as opposed to business contacts.
Nonetheless, IM providers aren't shying from new features. Last week, AOL began bundling WeatherBug with the most popular IM software, AOL Instant Messenger. The company is working to integrate features -- for example, issuing localized weather alerts through IM.
AOL also lets you obtain movie times, stock quotes, recipes and phone listings for local businesses by sending IM queries to special "buddy" addresses. And paid subscribers can update their AOL Web journals by sending an instant message.
AOL's main messaging products -- it's the market leader with 44 million U.S. users -- have become key delivery platforms, said Edmund Fish, AOL's senior vice president for desktop messaging.
"We know that the application is open more than six hours a day per user on average," Fish said. "It's a lifeline."
ICQ, a separate service from AOL with 4 million users, last week added its ICQ Xtraz platform for automatically delivering new features such as games, some of which carry a fee.
Still missing, though, is a way for users of different services to reach one another directly, just as people can send e-mail to anyone with an Internet e-mail account regardless of service provider or software used.
Fish said users haven't clamored for such interoperability as much as other features.
Even Microsoft, which once joined Yahoo in a coalition to press AOL for interoperability, is happy to direct the 17 million U.S. users of MSN Messenger to the company's own offerings.
So one tab gets you traffic reports and gas prices from MSN Autos; another lets you sign up for news alerts through MSNBC.com, which Microsoft partly owns.
The company is testing a companion called Threedegrees, which lets IM users listen to music together or share photos. By early this week, Messenger users can also invite friends to play brand-name games like "Wheel of Fortune" for about $5 a month each.
"IM is such a social experience," said Brooke Richardson, an MSN product manager. "We think of these activities and doing things together as a natural extension of messaging."
Source: CTV News
