So I was going through the news of Yahoo collaborating with Twitter to share social content all across Yahoo network. Here are the main things that is going to happen:
- Yahoo users can have direct access to their Twitter feeds directly from Yahoo account. That means they can read, share any content from Yahoo or update their status in Twitter when they are logged in Yahoo network.
- Social actions like blogs, buzzes or article ratings that users have allowed to appear in Yahoo! Updates will be shared with their Twitter friends automatically.
- Yahoo Search and Yahoo media properties like sports, news, finance and entertainment will now include real time public updates from Twitter. So you will know the latest social buzz on your favourite area.
This collaboration is understandable. With new Google Buzz, Twitter will not want to leave an inch of space. And Yahoo is not going to make it easy for their strongest rival. But some months ago Yahoo launched a service called Yahoo Meme. We thought of it as a rival to Twitter microblogging service. But as predicted it didn’t get that popular. So perhaps Yahoo have given up hope on Meme as rival to Twitter, and they would rather try to block the popularity of Google Buzz with the help of Twitter. Google is their arch rival after all 
Yeah, the deal is approved by both European and US regulators as a latest news says in the BBC website. The European Commission ruled that the deal “would not significantly impede effective competition” as together Yahoo and Microsoft control less than 10% of search market compared to 90% by Google in Europe and so it will rather help to increase competition in search engine market by making Microsoft a stronger competitor to Google. The deal also got the approval of the Department of Justice in the United States.
Microsoft and Yahoo have announced that they would start implementing the deal “in the coming days”. The boll is surely rolling.
It was proposed that Microsoft & Yahoo would finalize negotiating the search deal by 27th October. But Yahoo has filed a document in SEC saying that the two parties have failed to close the deal before intended deadline as still some transaction details remain to work out. But they also stated that both the parties are working hard & a lot of progress have been made. This is exactly what they have said:
On October 28, 2009, Yahoo! Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Yahoo!”), and Microsoft Corporation, a Washington corporation (“Microsoft”), mutually agreed to extend the period to negotiate and execute a Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement and a License Agreement (the “Definitive Agreements”) reflecting and supplementing the provisions of such agreements as set forth in annexes to their binding letter agreement dated July 29, 2009 (the “Letter Agreement”). The Letter Agreement specified that the parties would execute Definitive Agreements by October 27, 2009, but given the complex nature of the transaction, there remain some details to be finalized. The parties are working diligently on finalizing the agreements, have made good progress to date, and have agreed to execute the agreements as expeditiously as possible. The Letter Agreement was the subject of a Current Report on Form 8-K filed by Yahoo! on August 4, 2009.
And Nathania Johnson from Search Engine Watch contacted Microsoft. They replied that the deal might be implemented by early 2010 hopefully.
This big deal may got delayed. But more importantly it is still on course.
So, it’s done! Microsoft & Yahoo have come to a deal on online search & advertising. In a nutshell, Yahoo Search will now be powered by Bing. And in return, Yahoo will handle the sales & customer support for online advertising.
Here is the official news from BBC. Today I was browsing through the news of the probable deal, and was waiting for the official news to be published. So from webmaster’s perspective, you can now concentrate on two search engines. Time has come to stop worrying about Yahoo search. Perhaps I won’t use Yahoo Site Explorer again, just use Bing’s webmaster tools
And this deal will make Bing’s challenge to Google search more realistic. Now Bing will have about 30% of search market in USA, while Google retains its share to about 65%.
Some quick notes on the deal:
- Yahoo will get 88% of the search ad sales from its site for the first 5 years & will also have the rights to sell ads on some Microsoft sites.
- Yahoo has said that the deal would boost their annual operating income by $500m & secure $200m as savings.
But forget about everything. It would take some time to finalize & surely go to through tough antitrust scrutiny. But if it happens Yahoo search is going to be eventually a history. I don’t know how to react! We were listening to all these news about the deal for such a long time, but still it is somewhat bizzare to think Yahoo without its own search!
I have told you before that Geocities is closing this year. Just got a mail from Yahoo about the date Yahoo Geocities is going to close. So just thought of letting you know. It’s official news. Yahoo Geocities will be closed down on October 26, 2009. From that day your Geocities site will no longer appear on the web & you can’t access files from Geocities server. So choose your option for moving & don’t forget to backup your site data prior to that.
As an existing Geocities customer, I have to say I never used it much. I didn’t like it for too many ads & too few features to explore on. But I have got two years of paid hosting & domain from DreamHost for free because of that. It is certainly a good gain 
Yeah! That’s official. You can find it from Yahoo Geocities Help page:
Why is GeoCities not accepting new customers?
We have decided to discontinue the process of allowing new customers to sign up for GeoCities accounts as we focus on helping our customers explore and build new relationships online in other ways. We will be closing GeoCities later this year.
So a long standing free hosting is going down. Though I didn’t like GeoCities, it was at least reliable. Existing customers don’t have to panic immediately. You can still enjoy the service till later this year. Yahoo will update you about the closing date. But be prepared & start searching for a new hosting.
By the way, not only the Free GeoCities accounts but also the Plus accounts will be going down:
Will something happen to my GeoCities Free or Plus account?
Later this year we will be closing all GeoCities accounts and web sites. We’ll send you more details this summer.
Whole Geocities is closing down. Don’t make any mistake about that.
Yes, Yahoo is shutting down Content Match for contextual network ads in Europe on 31st March, 2009. As reported by PPC Hero, they have received a letter from Yahoo saying,
As a valued client we are writing to give you advance notice of the closure of our Content Match product in Europe.
The decision to close Content Match underlines our commitment to focus on our Sponsored Search and Display business and to simplify our solutions to deliver a high ROI for our advertisers.
Content Match will close on 31 March 2009, after which the product will no longer be supported.
All Advertisers should therefore opt out of the Content Match marketplace by this date.
Your account manager will be happy to assist you.
Opt-out instructions:
1. Login to your account.
2. Click on the ‘Administration’ tab.
3. Click on the ‘Edit’ button next to ‘Tactic Settings’
4. Set ‘Content Match Status’ to OFF.
5. Click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.
We aim to work with you to propose alternative products.
So, Yahoo is going to concentrate on “Sponsored Search” & “Display business”. But will they shut it down in USA too in the future? We have to keep an eye on it.
Description page of Yahoo Content Match UK isn’t showing any message still. But I don’t see any reason not to believe PPC Hero.
