If you have a Yahoo! email account, no doubt you’ve received a message about the new Yahoo! search. It’s nothing that revolutionary and I think they are behind the eight ball not to have done this sooner. It seems to only be the normal Ajax search suggest that Google and MSN have already had for some time now…..I’ve even added this feature to a number of web sites for customers. At any rate, Yahoo! is improving no matter how slow they are.
The biggest difference is that Yahoo! has made this their standard search whereas for Google and MSN it’s not their default.
From the “It’s About Time” Department comes Yahoo!’s integration of data from other sources. The open search platform enables 3rd parties to build and present search results. Now it’s even more important for you to obtain listings on those other databases that you thought nobody used. (Like it wasn’t already important?)
It’s just like something from a gossip column. Yahoo! set to merge with AOL? Or at least talk about it. This doesn’t mean much for searchers or search marketers yet as a merger like this would take years, but interesting coffee break conversation none the less.
Yahoo! set to revive merger talks with AOL after rejecting hostile takeover – Times Online
It should come as no surprise as history repeats itself. Yahoo! will be rejecting Microsoft’s offer to purchase Yahoo!
Microsoft has offered to purchase Yahoo! for $44.6 billion. Yahoo! is in trouble with internal bickering, layoffs and less than stellar performance this past year. Are they ripe for purchase? Microsoft seems to think so. What do many search marketers think of the move? Isn’t is just taking two troubled companies (as far as search is concerned) and combining them for even more woes or will this provide a needed competitor for the Google Goliath? (As if Microsoft wasn’t already a giant.)
Microsoft offers $44.6 billion for Yahoo – U.S. business- msnbc.com
A terrific new tool is available to obtain some interesting link data from the Yahoo! API. While there are still bugs in this new tool, it does provide a new look at data and even allows you to download the information in CSV format.
Personally I’m not all to fired up about this one which is why I’m one day late posting it here. I’m sick and tired of being slammed constantly with ads everywhere I turn. It’s no wonder people are ignoring anything that even remotely looks like an ad. Sometimes valuable content is ignored because we’ve been trained to ignore certain types of items. Well, ad to the list because Yahoo! has a program where publishers can attach ads to PDF documents. Now I don’t mind it if it’s a valuable document that I received for free, but this is going to mean loads of junk documents being pushed on us just so some loser can make an extra $20 a year. Sigh.
Searchviews – Daily insights on Search Marketing, Social Media and SEO by Reprise Media.
Here’s an excellent post that let’s us in on some search coolness on Yahoo!. Examples include specifying the order of search words in queries, searching only on a certain domain and link data you cannot get from Google. Now read the comments and learn how you can do some of these on Google.
The Five Things That Yahoo! Search Can Do But Not Google | India Inc | Digital Inspiration
In more exciting news (and expected), Yahoo! is now allowing users to block domains in their PPC advertising. Want to stop your ads from displaying on certain URLs? Jump to it!
Run a search at Yahoo! Site Explorer and notice how many results you have. Now log in and run the same search. Notice that you have a different number of results? What’s missing or added? Good luck determining the answer to that question unless your search returns very few results.