Yahoo is getting a lot of coverage for its move into Google’s domain, here’s a roundup and a few thoughts.
The New York Times has a piece quoting yours truly:
Yahoo says its new small-site service will let a Web site specify what categories of advertising it does or does not want on a given page. Moreover, Yahoo will offer a telephone number that even small publishers can call for help, something that Google does not make readily available.
Yahoo appears to be focusing on a weakness in Google’s offering for small publishers, said John Battelle, a blogger and author of “The Search,” a book on Google and its rivals to be published in September by Portfolio Hardcover.
“Google is the 800-pound gorilla and until now there aren’t even any chimps around,” he said. “You hear two complaints over and over again: They are a black box and you can’t get anyone on the phone to help you.”
I’ve already gotten a couple of raised eyebrows from my pals at Google, but guys, don’t be defensive, I’m just the messenger here. Yahoo is doing what you might expect a competitor to do – hit ya where you’re soft.
Jensense reports some of her initial thoughts as a user. SEW as usual has a report. YPN is only available as an invitation beta, I have been invited to check it out, and plan to in my copious spare time.
The Wall Street Journal (free link) rounds up all the action in Google’s once solely owned space, including from MSFT.
Microsoft next week will announce that an invitation-only test of MSN Keywords will begin in October with 500 advertisers and search-engine marketing specialists. The service will move MSN closer to how Google handles advertising, by using live auctions of keywords. MSN Keywords is one tool of a broader set of new advertising services called adCenter that Microsoft is building on MSN. Microsoft executives say they hope the tools will allow companies to tailor advertisements by giving them more detailed information on Web users than is currently available.
Will be interesting to see both what exactly Yahoo delivers and how Google responds.
On the one hand, you hit the nail on the head that Google is the consummate black box in both their approach and human responsiveness. On the other, Fortune had a good article on how increasingly media companies are looking at Yahoo as a competitor. In the realm of long tail, this is probably less of an issue but it is suggestive of a chess board that is getting really interesting.
At the end of the day, the long tail community of consumers, producers, aggregators and filters benefits by having more competition in the space, and would expect to see enhancements on ability for consumers to set contextual preferences in addition to publishers. Plus, the next wave of this invariably involves better APIs for web app developers.