It seems as though Yahoo have been getting there house in order after the recent announcement of the much anticipated Yahoo Bing partnership agreement. Already this week we have seen the update of Yahoo owned Delicious and now, close on its heels, Flickr search has undergone a facelift.

Flickr, one of the internet’s most popular image sharing communities, has undergone an update of its search facility. The changes have been designed to improve the user experience of the site and offer more relevant results to the user. Instead of scrolling through a massive list of images, the results are now displayed in a grid formation. This simple change dramatically improves the user experience and simplifies the process of search.

 

Another new addition is the ability to filter image search results by size, although a very simple interface it does offer new value to the user. Something we particularly like is the new information feature, if you hover over an image you will see a small “i” (information icon), clicking on the icon reveals image information including the number of views, comments, date added, favourites and associated tags.

Although the changes are only small it is great to see Yahoo paying an active interest in its website assets. The changes to Flickr improve the user experience, let’s hope Yahoo’s new interest in its products continues and we start to see some exciting new features developing.

Article by Creative SEO UK

Technorati Tags: Flickr, images, news, social networking, tech, technology, update, Yahoo, yahoo images

Delicious.com, one of the forefathers of social networking, has been updated with a whole bunch of great new features. Finally Yahoo has taken the time to upgrade this ageing dinosaur with a set of fresh new features which embrace real time search, social sharing and provide more relevant information to its users.

Delicious has remained extremely popular with the online marketing community but its appeal to general users has been over shadowed by the likes of Digg, Stumble and Twitter. The “Popular” page generated massive amounts of traffic for anyone lucky enough to be part of the list but finding relevant information was always difficult for the average user. The new updates are set to improve the user experience and include a newly designed “fresh bookmarks” section, new sharing features and an improve search facility.



The most noticeable addition is the integration of Twitter content; you’ll notice that related tweets are now attached to bookmark listings. This is not just a great addition way of monitoring what people are saying about a bookmarked page, it is also an essential part of the ranking process for bookmarks. The new algorithm uses both Twitter and Delicious popularity to generate rankings, which it has to be said, seems a very intelligent method of gauging the importance of a topic. The biggest concern is the potential to spam and manipulate the ranking of Delicious bookmarks. Delicious will need to carefully monitor the ranking process in order to provide relevant results.

The new send tab allows users to login to their twitter account and share their bookmarks directly with their followers. Ok this really isn’t giving us anything new but it does help to improve the sites user experience.

The new and improved Delicious search is perhaps one of the more important updates to the site. The new search features a filter by tag option and displays a timeline of tag performance. This cool new feature could be used to identify tag trends or identify high popularity tags, a very popular addition which will be utilised by the marketing community.

Since Yahoo bought Delicious back in 2005 we have seen little if no major changes to the network. The new updates are an extremely important move by Yahoo to improve the quality of its assets in light of the recent Yahoo Bing partnership agreement.

What we can say is the changes are a massive improvement on the original platform and let’s hope this is just the beginning of a new interest in the development of Delicious by Yahoo.

Article by Creative SEO – Search Marketing Consultant

Technorati Tags: Delicious, internet, news, social, social networking, tech, technology, Twitter, web, Yahoo

After over a year and a half of negotiation both Microsoft and Yahoo have finally come to a deal which is set to challenge Google’s 65% share of the online search.

Under the terms of the new 10 year deal, searched on Yahoo.com will be powered by Microsoft ‘s brand new search engine Bing and Yahoo will be responsible for attracting and selling premium advertising.

Microsoft is set to pay Yahoo 88% of the revenue it gains from searches on the Yahoo website and Microsoft will also have the rights to integrate Yahoo search Technology into its existing search platform. Yahoo is reported to have said that the new agreement will generate the company an annual income of over $500 million.

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said that the deal will allow Microsoft to “create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company.”

In a joint statement from Microsoft and Yahoo, it was said that “advertisers no longer have to rely on one company that dominates more than 70% of all search.” This was obviously an attack on Google’s dominance in the marketplace.

Article by Creative SEO

Technorati Tags: bing search partners, bing yahoo, Microsoft, Microsoft yahoo, Microsoft yahoo deal, Microsoft yahoo partners, Yahoo

According to a new report by Chikita, Bing users are over 50% more likely to click on an advertisement on a third party website than both Google and Yahoo generated users. According to Chikita the click rate averages are as follows:

Google: 0.97%

Yahoo: 1.24%

Bing: 1.5%

It looks as though Bing has made some good gains since its launch at the end of May. Although growth has been good and Bing has made up some ground on its competitors it is unlikely to directly affect the existing search marketplace. Microsoft still need to strike a deal with Yahoo to broaden the Companies advertising reach and start to make an impact on Google’s monumental popularity. AdAge is reporting that that a deal between both Microsoft and Yahoo is due to be released anytime this week. The article mentions that the payment structure has been the main issue preventing the deal from going forward. Yahoo has requested a revenue share rather than upfront payments and revenue guarantees.

“Execs in Redmond never conceived of the deal as an upfront purchase of Yahoo’s search traffic but as a deal in which Yahoo would be compensated from a share of revenue from the sale of search ads. Yahoo would be allowed to sell search ads on Bing.com as well as its own site, giving it more search inventory to sell and making it a bigger player in the search sales front. It would also immediately be able to save millions by not having to maintain its own search infrastructure.

The latest terms of the deal underscore Microsoft’s devotion to developing and owning technology vs. selling media. The deal won’t make it a bigger seller of online advertising but it would allow it to eliminate a search-technology competitor in Yahoo and consolidate roughly 30% of the search marketplace on its own platform — a large enough share, CEO Steve Ballmer seems to believe, to dent Google’s dominance”

If the article at AdAge is correct then Yahoo would still be able to sell search and display to its existing advertisers. Let’s hope the article is correct and deal is announced this week.

Article by Creative SEO UK

Technorati Tags: Bing, Microsoft, Microsoft deal, Microsoft yahoo, Microsoft yahoo deal, Yahoo, yahoo advertising bing, Yahoo deal

Yahoo and AT&T have finalised a deal and announced a new partnership. The telecoms company will sell Yahoo’s Display Ad Inventory using its 5000 strong sales team. The target market is local business and industry.

“Local businesses are looking to drive in-store traffic, and our alliance with AT&T Interactive will help them reach a local audience of highly-engaged potential customers on Yahoo!,” said Jim Schinella, Senior Vice President, North America Region, Yahoo!. “As local businesses shift their advertising spend to reach the growing number of Internet consumers, AT&T Interactive and Yahoo! can equip them with the tools and expertise they need to be successful online.” A Yahoo representative said.

AT&T “Our local advertisers are focused on growing their business so they look to us to help find the most comprehensive and effective ways to reach consumers,” said Matt Crowley, Chief Marketing Officer, AT&T Interactive. “Adding Yahoo!’s reach through highly targeted display advertising enhances our existing portfolio of local advertising products, allows our advertisers another way to raise their visibility and reach more online consumers. This joint effort is a natural extension of our existing relationship with Yahoo! and takes advantage of each company’s assets in the local market.”

This is not the first time Yahoo has brokered a deal to promote and develop a product. Yahoo Local is currently powered by Yellow Pages and offers a very valuable service to its users.

This last month has seen a big shift in Yahoo’s ongoing business development strategy, but why are they making so many changes?

So far this month we have reported about rumoured talks between Yahoo and Microsoft, the potential sale of Yahoo HotJobs, the launch of a new Yahoo home page and the possibility of selling Yahoo Search. So what is really happening and why this sudden reduction in Yahoo’s assets? It’s difficult to say but it does look like Yahoo is completely refocusing its direction and changing the fabric of its business. We will have to wait and see if the rumours are correct or just more internet Hot Air.

Article by Creative SEO – Search Engine Marketing

Technorati Tags: at&t, at&t interactive, Yahoo, yahoo ads, yahoo advertising, yahoo display, yahoo sale, yahoo sell

Reuters is reported as saying that Yahoo is currently seeking to sell its Job Search website, HotJobs, to one of its competitors. The Rumour currently surrounds Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com.

The past week has seen many rumours floating around about Yahoo and Microsoft. If we were to consider these rumours as true then the sale of HotJobs would make total sense. But this does lead to the possibility that Yahoo is considering getting completely out of the search engine game. HotJobs would not be an asset that would be of interest to Microsoft and therefore would potentially be sold before any agreement was made.

We can understand why Yahoo would want to concentrate on advertising but moving away from search would be a very big move for Yahoo.

What do you think, Leave your comments below and share your opinion!

Article by Creative SEO

Technorati Tags: Bing, hotjobs, Microsoft, Yahoo, yahoo Microsoft, yahoo sale, yahoo sell, yahoo sell hotjobs

Yahoo has been promising a redesign of their home page for months and finally it’s here, but was it worth the wait?

Yahoo seem to be having a very good time, second quarter earnings are up and rumours of a Microsoft deal seem to be back in the public arena. Yahoo have updated their website with a new home page, but have they listened to their users?

“By focusing on what people have told us they want, our new homepage is designed to help them stay on top of what is going on in their world, and in the rest of the world,” said Ari Balogh, EVP of products and CTO, in a statement.

A bold claim but although the new homepage can be user personalised there still remains one problem, advertising! It’s everywhere, all over the homepage and in the My favourites section. No matter how hard you might want to personalise the homepage, you will never be able to remove the advertising. Is this really what Yahoo’s users were expecting?

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has admitted that Yahoo has a problem with excessive advertising, so why was this not addressed with the redesign of the site?

This short sighted view could potentially upset many of its users, Google offers a clean and simple user interface and iGoogle can be configured and personalised in any way a user sees fit. Yahoo have a long way to go before they truly understand there users.

Article by Creative SEO UK

Technorati Tags: new design yahoo, new yahoo homepage, Yahoo, yahoo home, yahoo home page, yahoo redesign

Yahoo is all set to launch a brand new search feature, later this week, which is hoped will increase Yahoo’s share of the search engine marketplace. But will the new feature truly challenge Google and increase Yahoo’s active user numbers?

Search Pad is a new cloud based smart tool which will recognise when a user is doing research using search queries from within the Yahoo interface. After three searches for related search queries a small popup will appear and ask if search pad should be taking notes. Search pad will keep a running list of all the sites you have been searching for and have selected, displaying the page title, URL and snippet information. This would be particularly useful if a user was looking to buy a product and wanted to compare prices, reviews and demos. But why is Search Pad a threat to Google?

With the massive growth of the internet and the increase in new indexed websites, search engines have been battling to offer their users more and more relevant information. This has become increasingly difficult and as a result new methods of filtering and displaying content are being investigated. Google is working on personalised search and a number of other similar features and filters. Search Pad is the first indication that Yahoo are looking to refine and improve their search engine results. Search pad itself is a useful and interesting product, but what is more important is the technology behind it and the data which is being recorded and data based. Potentially Yahoo will be able to use Search Pad data to understand search habits, improve related search results and more effectively assess keyword popularity. It is possible that like Google, Yahoo are looking at ways to offer their users personalised search results based on their users specific search habits and demographics. This would potentially dramatically improve the quality of Yahoo’s results.

This is an important first step in Yahoo’s ongoing development and it will be very interesting to see how Yahoo plans to move forward.

Article by Creative SEO

Technorati Tags: Google, google personalized search, google yahoo, Search pad, Yahoo, yahoo search pad

Yahoo’s Site Explorer has had a makeover and is now sporting a brand new look and feel.

Site Explorer has been around for a few year and was designed to offer site owners a set of tools that would offer them better visibility into how their site was being indexed in Yahoo. Site owners can submit feeds and sitemaps, delete Urls and report Spam. Probably the most successful service is the Dynamic URL Rewriting.

Yahoo have now launched an updated version of Site Explorer which can be found on a separate Url, http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/new . The New Site Explorer offers a more dynamic interface and has been designed to allow Yahoo to continue to add new functionality. It’s worth checking out the changes, let us know your thoughts.

Technorati Tags: explorer, site explorer, Yahoo, yahoo feed, yahoo site explorer, yahoo sitemap, yahoo webmaster, yahoo webmaster tools

Yahoo are to lay off 1,430 employees on Wednesday of this week, as reported by the Dow Jones’ AllThingsD site. Yang has also noted that more jobs might be at risk in 2009, an anonymous source is said to claim another 500 positions may go.

Yahoo move to reduce its workforce by 10% is a direct result of the current economic situation. Let’s hope 2009 see an end to the financial downturn, is Yahoo at risk of closure and are Google slowly monopolizing the online search engine industry. Only time will tell.

Technorati Tags: search engine, Search Engine Marketing, search marketing, seo, seo uk, Yahoo