Yahoo Partners With Google for New Advertising Deal
posted Saturday Feb 9, 2013 by Scott Ertz
It has not been easy to be Yahoo over the past few years. They have seen their marketshare decline rapidly, attempted lawsuits to pay the bills and let's not forget a revolving door on the CEO's office. The most recent of five CEOs, Marissa Mayer, came to the company from Google with the intent of leaving her mark on this company the way she did on Google. Unfortunately for her, and possibly Yahoo, the legacy she leaves at Google will forever be remembered as her final position in charge of the disaster known as Google's local services.
While small businesses and users might not be too happy with the way local happened, Google seems to have very few hard feelings. In fact, they are teaming up with their former employee #20 to provide advertising services to the once-giant Internet portal. Google will provide contextual advertising programs to Yahoo and Yahoo, will, of course, receive part of the revenue generated.
Contextual ads from Google might seem like a partnership made in heaven for Yahoo; Microsoft has other ideas. Entirely unrelated to the announcement, but impressively timed, Microsoft has fired up its anti-Google policy program, Scroogled, once again. In the past the program has gone after Gmail's policy of reading your email so it can sell context data to advertisers, promoted by their "Gmail man" videos. The site has expanded to include Google Shopping, but maintains its focus on Gmail and how Outlook.com is a better, safer and more private service.
This is bad timing for Yahoo, as they are hoping that the public's trust in Google, which is one that begins to wane, will help them financially. Personally I attempt to avoid all interactions with the company, sticking to services like Yahoo, but I, and all Internet users, will have to examine that position as they begin their descent into Google partnerships. This could turn out to be a successful partnership for Yahoo, but it is going to turn away some users. No big decision comes without big risks, and Yahoo has not succeeded in big risks lately.
