Google Launches Yahoo-Google Facts Site

Google has launched a new informational site designed to tell its story about why there’s no need to fear an ad partnership between it and Yahoo. Within the site, you’ll find lots of information about the deal except for one key fact: when exactly does it start? The launch of the site suggests any day now.

Here’s what’s on the site:

• Facts page: Why Google says ad prices won’t be set between it and Yahoo; how Yahoo should earn more off the deal; how Yahoo won’t be able to see prices at Google; how Google & Yahoo will set minimum bids independently and much more.
   
• What People Are Saying: Quotes from advertisers, publishers, ad agencies, commentators and others generally in support of the deal, or at least explaining why it is not necessarily a bad thing.
   
• What The Deal Means For Advertisers: One page pitch that the deal means advertisers will be able to reach more people efficiently.
   
• Why The Deal Is Good For Competition: One page pitch that this helps keep Yahoo as an independent company and that Yahoo is pledging to reinvest the money it earns to improve and compete against Google.
   
• Terms Of The Deal: One page summary that Yahoo can carry Google’s search and contextual ads through an initial 4 year deal, renewable for two 3 year periods. There’s much more that could have been added here such as revenue guarantees. See our Yahoo’s Google & Microsoft Deals, Side-By-Side post for some of the stuff that’s not included.
   
• Voluntary Delay For Regulators: Explains the Google view that regulatory approval is not needed but that it voluntarily decided to wait 3 1/2 months from when the deal was announced on June 12. It notes that though the deal doesn’t involve any of Google’s or Yahoo’s European operations, Google is "cooperating" with the European Union, as it does a review.

From the home page, a number of other things are listed. Google especially highlights a New York Times commentary that came out this weekend saying there was nothing to fear about the deal. Written by Randall Stross, I saw some people poke that the piece should have been disclosed that Stross is working on a book about Google. Personally, I didn’t see this as an issue — in fact, writing a book means he might have better understanding of the situation and so write a better commentary.

Google also highlights a blog post about a SearchIgnite study that concluded prices will go up 22 percent on Yahoo. Google calls the study flawed.

The site also has video content along with a slide deck on the deal. Check out slide six. It was this slide that I saw two weeks ago from Yahoo, showing me how Yahoo will benefit from new ads it doesn’t have for terms like "red roses birmingham alabama."

My post from this weekend, Yahoo’s Poor Ad Targeting & Thoughts On Google-Yahoo, explains how Yahoo might indeed get new ads out of this but not new advertisers. Most of those advertising on Google for that term also advertise already on Yahoo. Yahoo just uses really bad broad matching technology, something that shouldn’t require months of improvement and a Google deal to fix.

Having said that, my piece also gets into why I generally think the deal does make sense to go ahead — why prices won’t be fixed in the way some people are saying. I didn’t get into part of the trade-off I think Google should provide to help engender more trust: greater transparency about pricing, if it goes ahead. In particular, I think advertisers should be able to know exactly how much they paid for each and every click. I also think Google needs to provide an interface where anyone can see exactly how much any advertiser is paying for any particular search.

Sadly, the fact site lacks the answer to the most important question. When do the ads start on Yahoo? I’ve asked Google for an exact date. We’ve had 3 1/2 months pass already from the announcement, so technically, they should go live at any moment. The launch of this site makes me think that’s about to happen.

Postscript: Google tells me consistent to what they’ve been saying recently, the ads will go live “at some point in early October.”