Yahoo! Opens Up oneSearch to Mobile Publishers

New Yahoo! Mobile Publisher Services will Broaden the Powerful Yahoo! oneSearch(TM) Experience for Consumers

SUNNYVALE, CA based Yahoo! and the new Yahoo oneSearch has reinvented the mobile search experience for consumers, and today Yahoo! will open it up to publishers through Yahoo! Mobile Publishers Services. This will extend the range of content consumers will be able to easily discover and access using Yahoo! oneSearch on their mobile phones.

"We believe Yahoo! oneSearch finally gives consumers what they want - instant answers and not just links to Websites," said Marco Boerries, executive vice president of connected life, Yahoo!. "But this is only the beginning. Opening Yahoo! oneSearch to the universe of mobile Internet content and services provided by other publishers will give consumers even more instant answers and information right at their fingertips."

Yahoo! Mobile Publishers Services will allow publishers to include their exclusive content and virtual tour software clips in Yahoo! These new services include:

-- Yahoo! Mobile Site Submit: that allows mobile sites to increase exposure and reach with mobile Web sites consumers.

-- Yahoo! Mobile Media Directory that makes it easier for consumers to find mobile media content, such as ringtones, games, 360 video tour and applications

-- Yahoo! Mobile Content Engine - will add to the types of content, such as classifieds, costa rica retirement real estate listings, philadelphia apartments so that mobile searchers can easily find relevant sites on their mobile phone.

-- Yahoo! oneSearch now accessible on more than 85 percent of mobile phones through the mobile Web in the U.S.* and is also available through the gamma version of Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0. It is designed to make mobile searching as quick as possible for consumers by listing relevant search results right on the page such as news headlines, images, business listings and more as well as easy navigation to other websites. Yahoo! oneSearch will also roll out internationally with additional country and language versions over the coming months.

For more info visit: Yahoo One Search -- or try Yahoo Mobile Search on Your Mobile Phone

Online Advertising to Surpass Television as Number One Advertising Medium.

New Advertising and Media Forecasts predict that within five years online advertising will surpass the television industry as the largest and most popular advertising medium.

As the six major TV networks align their fall programming lineups and begin making their upfront sales pitches, the reception from large agencies has been frigid.

Insiders report that Internet is making a stronger impact and influence with buyers who plan on shifting more budget into online mediums away from Television, radio, print, billboards, and direct mail. Advertising allocations are being shifted to the Internet as marketers are requiring more immediate and personal contact with their target market. The web is becoming a more attractive advertising delivery system.

Internet advertising is projected to grow to 20% of all ad spending by 2010 as more marketing money is moving to the Web. Network TV advertising is considered less powerful as cable fragmentation, high-def programming, TiVo and media on demand vehicles are eroding television's viewing audience.

In short, TV is not being watched by as many consumers as in years past.
The couch potato is quickly being replaced by the web surfer.

The major search engines led by Google are launching Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed vehicles that allow advertisers to display ads in appropriate content and feed vehicles, this is eliminating waste and increasing impact as advertising messages can be more aligned and targeted with in-market media programming.

Web advertising is the most relevant advertising medium.

Organic/Natural Search Engine Optimization the most effective and powerful foundational element within successful web advertising efforts.

Key Organic Search Engine Optimization Facts:

• Keyword search is the 2nd most popular online activity, rapidly approaching the popularity of email retrieval.
• 
  90% of all new website visitors are delivered by a major search engine and/or directory.
  
• 98% of all keyword search activity results are powered by the big 4 search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL.
  
• Keyword search results on Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL are all determined by a search engine spider and/or robot crawler.
  
• Recent internet marketing studies confirm that keyword searchers prefer the organic results at a 6 to 1 ratio vs. pay-per-click sponsored search advertising listings.

Also online advertising medium continues to evolve and grow. The next logical extension for online advertising is growth for advertisers within the blogging industry as blogs allow advertisers to tie their advertising messages into topic-centric blogs that are more content relevant than the often; bland, dated, and waste-filled programming and content of: TV, print, radio, etc.

Advertisiers also realize that media consumption is changing daily and broadcast mediums are not as popular or as effective in reaching huge pockets of consumers as they once were and the costs associated (cost per ratings point) have increased dramatically in recent years. These same television campaigns that are losing impact and reach with consumers are now more expensive as TV rates continue to rise.

Editor's Aside:

It is especially painful to watch the domestic automakers continue to pour millions into TV advertising campaigns as they lose billions per quarter. Here in Metro Detroit as thousands of our colleagues, relatives, neighbors, and friends lose their auto jobs, retirement benefits, pensions, healthcare coverage or all of the above, its becomes quite the bitter pill too swallow when the big three automakers continue to pour hundreds of millions of fresh dollars into redundant television advertising campaigns that are not driving product sales.

Can the executive teams at the big three ever seriously adjust to advertising market conditions? Do they truly understand that television viewing levels and newspaper readership levels are declining? Television is not having the impact it once did with prospective car and truck buyers. The vehicle buying public is no longer watching or responding to the redundant television advertising campaigns executed by the big three.

Once again the car makers are actively negotiating their upfront television buys seeking to pour billions more into the televsioins medium throughout this decade. Quite ironic to consider that the same executive decision making teams that have handed sales market share to foreign automakers and responsible for their corporate turnaround plans are the very same groups signing off on TV heavy ad campaigns.

The latest reports show that the automotive manufacturers continue to lead the charge into TV spending the most on the television medium. This is simply another indication that the executive teams at the big three are stuck in the past. The domestic automakers need to reeducate and adjust their marketing efforts rapidly and embrace the new global paradigm sooner rather than later.

MSN Search Director to Leave Microsoft

Another Microsoft search executive is rumored to be leaving the company. The latest news broke in early March 2007 as Microsoft continues to struggle to compete with Google in Internet search.

According to Reuters news service, the Microsoft executive most responsible for closing the gap on Web search with Google is leaving MSN. Chris Payne, corporate vice president of the new Windows Live Search, is leaving Microsoft to start his own company in Seattle, said the source, who asked not to be identified. Microsoft representatives declined to comment.

The news comes at a time when Microsoft continues to struggle for share of the keyword search market against Google. Microsoft has overhauled MSN and related search products several times in the last two years with many new looks and features.

Google still handles over 3 billion keyword search queries monthly, while Microsoft averages just over 700 million searches a month according to the latest comScore numbers.

Microsoft has improved its share of the keyword search pie however the market share increases have only been marginal.

Mr. Payne, who rejoined Microsoft in 2001 after a three-year stint at Amazon.com, played a key role in persuading the company to develop its own search engine instead of relying on Yahoo to power MSN search results. Prior to Amazon, Payne spent eight years at Microsoft.

Microsoft's failure to recognize the keyword search medium and late start in the search medium has kept MSN at a huge disadvantage versus Google and Yahoo. Those companies made billions selling advertising tied to keyword search results while Microsoft scrambled to build a search business model of its own.

Payne could become the second executive from Microsoft's Internet arm in the past week planning to leave the company. Blake Irving, a Microsoft vice president who oversees the new MSN AdCenter that sells ads next to search results, also plans to retire from Microsoft.