As part of the transition, search advertisers that are still on Yahoo’s platform in those countries will need to migrate to adCenter because Yahoo Search Marketing accounts will shift to read-only status. But, in a blog post today about the pending change, Microsoft suggests monitoring both accounts during the transition:

As Yahoo! ad serving moves to adCenter, and your clicks and impressions in that account begin to increase, you’ll see a corresponding decrease in clicks and impressions in your Yahoo! Search Marketing account. It is thus important to continue managing your campaigns across both platforms throughout this transition phase, in order to avoid missing out on any potential clicks.

The transition is expected to begin “as early as” January April 18th and be complete by the end of the month. [Ed. note: Apologies for the typo there on the month!]

Microsoft says the transition is coming later this year to Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

A recently enacted law seeks to remove all such content from the internet in India. Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft were sued under the law and had been arguing in Indian court that it was all but impossible for them to comply as a practical matter. The law makes online publishers potentially liable for the acts of individual users and third parties (think “offensive” blog hosted on Blogger or “objectionable” video uploaded to YouTube).

According to a BBC report Indian Communications Minister Kapil Sibal said the following in December about the desired impact of the new law:

My aim is that insulting material never gets uploaded. We will evolve guidelines and mechanisms to deal with the issue. [The companies] will have to give us the data, where these images are being uploaded and who is doing it.

Google, Facebook and others had argued that they had no control over individuals and should not be held liable for their conduct accordingly. They said they cannot “pre-filter” material generated by millions of users. This is what would be called a “prior restraint” against free speech in the US.

Indian courts have been unsympathetic and demanded that the companies comply or be blocked entirely “like in China.” The BBC says that the companies have now complied and removed offending material at issue in a particular civil lawsuit.

However the overly vague nature of the statute on which these claims are based almost guarantees that Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft and other online publishers in India will face a steady stream of litigation from individuals or groups “offended” by this or that image, article or video.

Stock image used under license from Shutterstock

Related Entries

• Free Speech Battle In India: Google, Facebook Summoned By Court Over “Inflammatory Images”
• India Set To Bring Heavy Hand Of Censorship Down On Facebook, Google
• EU Ready To Impose Tough Privacy Rules On Google, Facebook
• US Government Makes Most Content Removal Requests To Google So Far in 2011

Mittlerweile benutzen fast 10 Millionen Nutzer in Deutschland regelmäßig Bing, das sind 20 Prozent der aktiven Internetnutzer hierzulande.

According to several third-party sources, Bing’s market share is smaller than the 20 percent figure cited above. For example, the following is StatCounter’s search engine data for Germany:

Source: StatCounter

NetMarketshare generally agrees, showing Bing’s PC search share at just over 2 percent.

The combined Bing-Yahoo “search alliance” share in the US is about 30 percent. However the search alliance has considerably less reach in Europe. While the organic-results merger was completed last year, Microsoft adCenter is just now rolling out in Europe.

Related Entries

• Search Alliance Begins First AdCenter Testing In Europe
• December “Explicit” Search Numbers: Bing Now Ahead Of Yahoo
• Report: Google Controls 44 Percent Of Global Online Advertising
• Bing, Yahoo Now Neck & Neck In US Search Market Share

NokiHoo maps are also available in other places around the world, such as Europe, but Yahoo doesn’t have the data or has incomplete data outside of the areas identified above. I did some searching in the UK around London and the data just aren’t there yet. In fairness to Yahoo they haven’t publicly announced areas outside the US and Canada.

When the NokiHoo deal was first announced in May of last year, I wrote that it would potentially improve Yahoo Maps and could open the door to Yahoo-branded mobile navigation or other map-based offerings. I assumed that it would make Yahoo Maps better and that the company might leverage a range of things that Nokia is doing, including Street View-like imagery.

In this initial relaunch none of that is in evidence. I’m generally not impressed.

Though this is only the first “iteration” and the maps cosmetically appear improved in certain ways, the addition of multiple search boxes creates complexity and potential errors. It’s also a step backward from the single maps search box used by Google, Mapquest, Bing — and even Nokia itself.

The “find a location” and “find a business” boxes are somewhat redundant. However if I use “find a location” (single search box vs. two for “find a business”) I get errors if the location isn’t obvious. Yahoo Maps uses IP targeting to set a default location.

You get almost an identical experience on Nokia Maps if you do the same searches. However I would argue the UI and general experience on Yahoo are better overall.

Nokia data is also going to take on a larger role over at Bing Maps as well, as part of the partnership agreement between Nokia and Microsoft. Nokia and subsidiary Navteq are the clear beneficiaries of these deals and may ultimately be able to claim Yahoo (and maybe Bing Maps) as part of the company’s local-mobile ad network. But that remains to be determined.

While there are multiple improvements or enhancements on the new Yahoo Maps “under the hood” (e.g., better routing) there’s nothing in the UI/UX to cause people to choose them over Google Maps. That’s the bottom line.

Now Yahoo is reversing itself.

The Europeans had been demanding search/IP data retention of less than six months. And last January Microsoft agreed to comply with that standard. Google, however, refused to retain search records for less than 18 months. The company claimed this extended time frame was necessary to improve services and prevent fraud.

Yahoo: We Need It To “Compete”

Yahoo’s rationale in “going back” to 18 months is different. Yahoo says it needs the data to better compete with rivals. According to the Associated Press, Yahoo wants to hold on to the search data for more content/services personalization and better ad targeting:

Anne Toth, who oversees privacy matters at Yahoo as its chief trust officer, said the company is operating in a different competitive environment today . . . To keep up, she said, Yahoo needs to be able to offer its own highly personalized services — including online shopping recommendations, customized news pages and search tools that can anticipate what users are looking for. To pick out patterns for such personalization, Toth said, Yahoo needs to analyze a larger set of data on user behavior.

Argument Against Self-Regulation?

The Yahoo decision flies in the face of US government efforts to increase online privacy for consumers. Right now there’s a debate going on about industry self-regulation vs. government-imposed rules. As the AP article points out this move provides ammunition to those calling for externally imposed regulations.

Yesterday Yahoo posted mixed but slightly better-than-expected Q1 results. However search revenues were unexpectedly down and have been declining quarter over quarter:

Extending the time that personal search data are retained is unlikely to address the challenge of falling search revenue. However it may help improve display ad targeting and revenues, which have been growing for the company.

Related Entries

• Microsoft Complies With EU Demand, First To Cut Data Retention To Six Months
• Google Halves Data Retention Time Against Backdrop Of EU Pressure, US Regulatory Scrutiny
• European Groups Says Search Engines Must Delete Search Data Within Six Months
• Microsoft To Anonymize Log Data; Calls For Industry Standards Along With Ask.com
• EU Group May Serve Google With Letter Over Data Retention Policies
• European Union Questions Google’s Data Retention Policy

Yahoo Guilty for Linking to Infringer

Yahoo (in its capacity as a search engine) has been found liable for helping facilitate copyright infringement by indexing and linking to sites that allowed the unauthorized download of an Iranian film called “About Elly.” (It’s curious that this case wasn’t brought against Google, which has a market share in Italy of nearly 90 percent.)

Plaintiffs in the case were the film’s distributor and a media affairs company (PFA, Open Gate Italia). I’m unable to read the Italian reports about the case. But according to Sean Carlos at Antezeta, which is based in Italy, the decision says that once a search engine is notified of any alleged copyright violation they become liable for aiding the infringement if they don’t remove links to the offending sites.

Decisions about Organic and Ads Going Opposite Ways

It would appear that cases involving copyright or trademark infringement regarding “organic” content are going the opposite way from those involving trademark claims in paid search advertising. Increasingly Google and Yahoo/Bing by extension are being absolved of liability for trademark claims involving paid search ads. For example in the celebrated LVMH (Luis Vuitton) AdWords case, the French high court ruled that Google did not infringe trademark law by allowing advertisers to bid for competitors’ trademarks as keywords. (But see European Advocate General Finds Against Trademark Bidding in Interflora Case.)

What’s important here is that while individual advertisers could be held liable for infringement Google was not on the hook for their bad behavior (with some caveats). The YouTube and Yahoo cases feature the opposite outcome, making Google and Yahoo potentially legally responsible for all the content they index. In particular the Yahoo decision puts a heavy burden on the company to become an arbiter of copyright law or simply remove any links from the index once there’s a claim of infringement. Sean Carlos at Antezata argues this might lead to abuse by unscrupulous competitors.

Bad Decision Creates Practical Challenges

That’s less of a concern in my mind than the bad precedent. Assuming this decision stands it creates a host of practical challenges for search engines. For Yahoo and Bing those are potentially compounded.

Under the new liability rules announced by the court, Yahoo would need to pass infringement notifications on to Microsoft because Bing is now the organic index behind Yahoo Search. That relationship adds some complexity (and exposure) to the process because Microsoft would ultimately need to do the link removal or enforcement.

What if Yahoo is notified of an alleged infringement and then conveys that to Microsoft and then Microsoft fails to act. Plaintiffs sue and Yahoo points at Microsoft as the party that failed to act?

Overall it’s a mistake to hold search engines to the same legal standards as traditional publishers, concerning libel and copyright law. The scale and scope of search is very different than conventional publishing or TV broadcasting. Indeed, search engines don’t have control over the many millions of sites they index.

But Italy’s regulators and courts won’t hear any of it. They’ve apparently had enough of this internet thing.

(Image via Shutterstock)

Related Entries

• European Advocate General Finds Against Trademark Bidding in Interflora Case
• Italian Court Finds Google Execs Guilty Of Violating Privacy Code
• Italy To Regulate YouTube & Other Video Sites Like TV Stations
• Google Wins Legal Battle Over AdWords Trademark Issue In Europe
• Europe Needs Bing, But Does Bing Need Europe?

Yahoo Japan, which is controlled by Softbank with Yahoo Inc. as a minor owner, announced in July that it would use Google’s search results instead of Yahoo’s (and then Bing’s when that partnership was implemented over the summer). Days later, Microsoft announced its intention to challenge the Google-Yahoo Japan deal. As a minority owner, Yahoo Inc. wasn’t able to block the agreement.

Depending on what measurement stats you look at, the deal means Google and Yahoo Japan now control somewhere in the neighborhood of 95% to 98% of the search market in Japan.

A Rakuten spokesperson said:

The tie-up between the two firms would result in Google monopolizing information, which could hinder the development and growth of not only search engines but many Internet-related services in Japan.

As we know, Microsoft said they will also challenge the deal where they said:

We plan to present evidence to the Japanese FTC explaining why we believe that this deal is substantially more harmful to competition than Google’s deal with Yahoo in 2008 that the DOJ found to be illegal.

Yahoo closed four European directories earlier this year including France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Yahoo however told us that the US directory is safe and will not be going away.

As many of you know, Yahoo started out as a web directory.

Yahoo told us months ago:

As part of Yahoo!’s ongoing effort to build products and services that deliver the best possible experiences for consumers, we are increasing investment in some areas while scaling back in others. After careful consideration, Yahoo! will no longer offer the Yahoo! Directory service on December 10, 2009 in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Users in these markets will be redirected to their local version of Yahoo! Search for a superior experience. Yahoo! is focused on innovating in search and continually improving the user experience.

Hat tip to Martin Forshaw for spotting this.

It’s all described in this Yahoo blog post, complete with screenshots showing how users can begin their search by using a “handwriting panel” next to the search button.

Yahoo says that’s the Chinese language character for the first letter of Lady Gaga’s name. To the left of what the user has drawn, Yahoo shows six possible character matches. And once the searcher indicates which character s/he drew, Yahoo then shows 10 suggested searches.

Yahoo says this feature should make it easier for searchers who typically type their queries in Chinese, but the feature also accepts handwritten queries in English. Here are the results of me using the writing panel with the letter “s.”

You’ll need the latest version of Adobe’s Flash Player for this writing panel to work. Yahoo says the technology supports Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, English, and numbers.