Contentinople - Ryan Lawler - News Bits: Yahoo Spruces Up Search

Written by Ryan Lawler

Thursday, February 19. 2009 at 11:15 AM EST Post a comment

Digg

Del.icio.us

Email This

no ratings

Could this be the reason new Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz is in no rush to sell the company's search business? Yahoo is coming to market with a paid search offering that blends images and video along with user search results.

Introduced five years after Yahoo launched its search business, the new offering, called Rich Ads in Search, effectively blends the company's strength in display advertising with its paid search business.

Yahoo is charging advertisers monthly for their participation, rather than tying the price to auction rates, as is typically done with paid search ads. So far, the company has also limited participation in the program to large brand advertisers -- SoBe, Pepsi, and Home Depot -- that aren't necessarily looking for the direct-response engagement that comes with most search advertising.

The news comes at a critical moment for Yahoo, which has been under pressure from Wall Street to sell its search business ever since Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) made an offer to acquire it last year.

But new CEO Carol Bartz told investors in the company's fourth-quarter earnings call that, while she would explore all options, she would not jump to sell off any parts of the Yahoo business without careful examination.

"This is not a company that needs to be pulled apart and left for the chickens," Bartz said.

In other news:

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has struck a deal with music royalty collection agency SoundExchange, in a move that will effectively lower licensing costs for member stations that stream music over the Internet. The new deal lowers royalty rates by approximately 16 percent in 2009 and 2010. But it's not all good news for broadcasters. While stations will pay $1.50 per thousand listeners per song in 2009, that rate will rise to $2.50 per 1,000 listeners in 2015.

While the founders of Pirate Bay face trial in Stockholm, supporters are striking back at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) by hacking some of the organization's Websites. A hacker group called The New Generation (Den Nya Generationen) targeted ifpi.se, ifpi.org, and ifpi.com, leaving a message on the sites that read:

"The ruthless hunt conducted by the IFPI, Anti-Piracy Office, Warner Bros., and all the other companies with a pawn in the game has now resulted in a trial in which four innocent men are accused of copyright infringement.

"This is a declaration of war against anti-piracy outfits and the industry players behind them, and we urge the public to boycott and lynch those responsible. IFPI is just the beginning. To be Continued."

Leave them for the chickens!

Tags: Advertising, Business, Legal, Microsoft, Music, Search, Yahoo

Digg

Del.icio.us

Email This

Comments
Be the first to post a comment regarding this story.