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Yahoo Panama Update Continues to Roll Out

The long rumored Yahoo Panama update is gradually rolling out at Yahoo search. The Organic SEO engineering team here at Peak Positions has noticed many irrelevant organic/natural search results in the Yahoo results over the last 10 days. The Yahoo search engineering team has confirmed that they are working hard on converting the organic Yahoo search results pages over to more of a robot-spider controlled search system. The organic search conversion involves moving further away from the old Yahoo directory listings and this Panama Quality Purge is expected to take at least a few more weeks for all of the Yahoo search datacenters to fully synchronize to a cleaner, more accurate and content relevant, keyword query search system expected to fully resolve out: on/or about Nov 14, 2006.

More confirmation that Yahoo Panama is underway here in 4th qtr. 2006 versus many earlier reports that Yahoo would wait until 1st qtr. 2007 arrived in a Yahoo press release tonight. Yahoo has to move aggressively on many fronts in a rapid effort to stem click fraud, curb Google's market share dominance, legally respond to the recent CheckMate PPC lawsuit settlement, and also to combat their falling share price.

In short, Yahoo has peformed poorly for shareholders most of this year and needs to finish 2006 on an upbeat note to calm the stromy seas and stunt the negativity movement in Sunnyvale and senior management's hopes are that this Yahoo Panama project can ignite some much needed postivie buzz for YHOO in the holiday months and hopefully carry over to kick start 2007.

We have posted the latest upgrade announcement from Yahoo paid search below:

Earlier this year, we announced that a completely redesigned marketing platform is on its way, full of advanced, easy-to-use features that will help you better connect with Yahoo!'s vast and valuable audience. We wanted to take a moment to provide you with an update on the availability of the new Sponsored Search.

We've begun inviting U.S. advertisers to upgrade their accounts. We've been thoroughly testing our systems to help ensure a quality experience once advertiser accounts are upgraded, and we are now beginning the process of inviting advertisers to upgrade their accounts.*

Invitations will be sent in stages to U.S. advertisers over the remainder of the year and early next year. You'll also be able to access a preview of what your account will look like after the upgrade. This preview can help you become familiar with the features and the layout of the new control panel, called the Yahoo! Marketing Solutions center. If you're happy with your preview, we encourage you to upgrade your Yahoo Paid Search account as soon as possible. This will help ensure that your upgraded account closely resembles the preview. Advertisers that are invited to upgrade before the end of the year may choose to do so after the holidays, to avoid any disruption during this important time. If, however, you can't wait to get your hands on the new Sponsored Search, you can request that your upgrade date be scheduled as early as possible by filling out the Online Request Form.

Many resources will be available to help you make a smooth transition. We've created an extensive Upgrade Center to assist you during the transition. Full of tips, tutorials and FAQs, the Upgrade Center will walk you through all of the new features within the Yahoo! Marketing Solutions center, as well as the best practices for managing your new Sponsored Search account. We'll also be launching the Yahoo! Marketing Solutions blog soon, to provide you with timely information about the new Sponsored Search, as well as inside tips from our own online marketing specialists and much more. You can find all of these resources by visiting the Upgrade Center.

The bid information displayed within your current account will soon change. As advertisers upgrade their accounts, their bids will no longer be reflected in the current system. To ease this transition and help provide you with accurate bidding information, in approximately six to eight weeks (approx. Nov. 14) you will see two new data points on the Manage Bids page: First, you will see a bid range for prime placement. This bid range will tell you what advertisers are currently bidding for the spots at the very top of the search results page for each keyword (Example: $8.75 - $6.25). Second, you'll see an estimate of your average position for each listing. Each time you enter a new bid this estimate will change, so you'll be able to tell where your listing is likely to appear for a given bid. Once these two new pieces of information become available, you'll no longer see the Top 5 Max Bids column displayed in your account.

Please note that there will be no change to the way listings are ranked for the remainder of 2006; they will continue to be ranked by bid as they are today. Early next year, we will change the way ads are ranked, taking ad quality into account (by spidering PPC landing pages for content relevance), as well as by bid. More detailed information will be provided regarding this change before it occurs.

New Terms and Conditions will take effect once your account is upgraded. Once you've upgraded, your account will be governed by a new set of advertiser Terms and Conditions. Review the new terms and conditions.

We hope you are as excited about the new Sponsored Search as we are. Bringing this powerful new marketing platform to you is just the first step towards helping you better connect to the Yahoo! audience. So please be on the lookout for more information about this important change and be sure to visit the new Upgrade Center to learn more. You may also contact us at www.yeahoo.com - Tel: 866-YAHOO-98 (866-924-6698) if you have questions.

Sincerely,

Your Partners at Yahoo! Search Marketing

*The new Sponsored Search will roll out to advertisers in the U.S. market first. Details regarding international availability of the new Sponsored Search will be made available at a later date.

Peak Positions encourages many sites, especially Ecommerce sites to consider upgrading their Yahoo Paid Search account in the coming days for maximum exposure in the 2006 holiday shopping season.
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