There's a report from Reuters this morning that Microsoft and Yahoo are considering expanding the scope of their search deal "outside the United States": Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday the company could look to extend its search engine partnership with Yahoo outside the United States, if it gets regulatory approval. Wasn't that already the intention? I thought it was a global deal already. European regulators wouldn't be considering it if it didn't apply to their markets; they wouldn't have jurisdiction. So I guess I'm a bit confused I guess. Regardless, if [...]

Related Topics: Ask: General | Channel: Search Marketing | Legal: General | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Outside US | Microsoft: Partnerships | Yahoo: Outside US

Yahoo reported today that the company had "entered into an exclusive, multi-year, partnership with O2 Germany to become the preferred partner for mobile search and services, displacing Google." Paid search results are reportedly part of the deal (and likely a revenue share as well). According to press materials: O2 users now have direct access to Yahoo!’s mobile-optimized search engine, which is specifically designed to provide quick and easily accessible answers for users on the go. Yahoo! most popular properties including Yahoo! Mail, News, Weather, Finance, Flickr, Eurosports and Soccer [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Yahoo: Mobile & Go | Yahoo: Outside US | Yahoo: Partnerships

Bloomberg is reporting this morning that the US Department of Justice has decided to look more closely at the MicroHoo search deal. Microsoft and Yahoo are to provide more information on their "ad pricing and product plans, a person familiar with the matter said." This is not a surprise. The companies must convince regulators that the deal will not harm competition or adversely affect SEM pricing. They must also do a similar dance in Europe, where a parallel process will take place. In the end, however, it's likely the deal will be approved given broad US and EU concerns about Google's mark [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Legal: General | Microsoft: Bing | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Legal | Yahoo: Outside US | Yahoo: Partnerships

This morning Yahoo announced that it was acquiring Maktoob.com, "the leading online community in the Arab world." According to Yahoo the site has an audience of 16.5 million people. The purchase price has been estimated at between $75 and $100 million and was apparently in the works before the search deal with Microsoft was announced last month. Yahoo said the acquisition is part of a larger strategy to grow its audience in emerging markets and become the "destination of choice" in those locations. Yahoo described its Maktoob rollout strategy in in a blog post: Initially, we’ll plan to [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Outside US | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Outside US | Microsoft: Partnerships | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Outside US

As expected, Yahoo earnings were down, about 13 percent YoY. According to the earnings press release: Yahoo! Inc. today reported revenues of $1,580 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2009, a decrease of 13 percent from the first quarter of 2008.  Excluding the impact of currency rate fluctuations, revenues for the first quarter of 2009 would have declined 8 percent from the first quarter of 2008.  The Company’s non-GAAP operating cash flow for the first quarter of 2009 of $409 million exceeded the midpoint of the outlook range provided by the Company last quarter. Query volume was [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Top News | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Display Ads | Yahoo: General | Yahoo: Outside US | Yahoo: Search Ads

A month ago, I wrote about my meet up with Google Israel, from my trip to Israel about two months ago. This week, I am back in Israel on a sponsored Blogger Delegation to meet with Israelis and see their way of business and life. Today, I had free time and used it to meet up with some of the larger search marketing agencies in Israel. The meet up took place at Compucall, one of the largest SEM companies in Israel. Several of those that attended have been in the SEO/SEM space for about ten years and have extensive experience both running an SEM company and performing SEM services. Gilad [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Outside US | Microsoft: Outside US | SEM Industry: Community | SEM Industry: Organizations | Top News | Yahoo: Outside US

As the MicroHoo dance continues, here's a wacky idea that just occurred to me: why doesn't Nokia invest in or acquire Yahoo? It's partly suggested by this Fortune article that discusses the challenges that the world's leading handset maker faces in penetrating North America. Nokia has added a bunch of online services that try and bridge the internet and mobile. Indeed, Nokia is trying to position itself as an internet company of sorts. And mobile search will be a big ad-revenue driver in the medium term. It's already a critical element of an overall mobile offering. Yahoo, obviously, is [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Features: Analysis | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal | Yahoo: Mobile & Go | Yahoo: Outside US | Yahoo: Partnerships

India is something of a parallel universe in terms of search and internet activity. It's a massive and incredibly dynamic market but distinct from the US and Europe in important ways. All the major engines are competing there and it's also often a testing ground for new products. For example Yahoo's "Glue Pages" were released and tried there before coming to the US. Now Yahoo has bought a 30 percent stake in a local information database and directory assistance provider in the market: Info Network Management Company, which runs the Call Ezee service. Seen as a way to secure local data and prov [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Outside US | Microsoft: Partnerships | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Maps & Local | Yahoo: Mobile & Go | Yahoo: Outside US | Yahoo: Partnerships

In response to court orders, Yahoo and Google are censoring search results in Argentina about a variety of celebrities, including public officials, models, actors, and sports stars. According to an in depth article on OpenNet Initiative, this has been going on since 2006 and more than 100 people have succeeded in getting Google and Yahoo to filter search results in Argentina. Astonishingly, a search on Yahoo Argentina for [Diego Maradona] -- one of the world's most well known soccer stars and the current national team head coach -- produces zero results, along with a message from Yahoo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Google: Web Search | Legal: Censorship | Top News | Yahoo: Legal | Yahoo: Outside US | Yahoo: Search

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have agreed on a common set of principles governing how they intend to do business in countries that restrict free speech and human rights. All three companies have been criticized by rights groups and the US Congress in the past for putting profit over principles and human rights, in China in particular. According to the article: Under the new principles, which were crafted over two years, the technology titans promise to protect the personal information of their users wherever they do business and to "narrowly interpret and i [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Outside US | Legal: General | Microsoft: Outside US | Top News | Yahoo: Outside US

Last week the Association of National Advertisers sent a letter on behalf of its 400 member companies to the US Justice Department (DOJ) asking the government to block the pending Google-Yahoo search advertising deal. Then there were reports that the DOJ had hired attorney Sandy Litvack, its chief antitrust attorney under former US President Jimmy Carter, as a consultant on the matter. Today comes a communiqué from long-time Google critic the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) asking the DOJ, European Commission and equivalent Canadian authorities to prevent the deal from happening. The [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Partnerships | Yahoo: Outside US | Yahoo: Partnerships

Yahoo just started redirecting people in the UK who are trying to reach Yahoo.com instead to its Yahoo UK web site, something that Google has done for a long time. With the change, this seemed a good time to revisit how all the major search engines may intercept people trying to reach their ".com" versions from countries outside the United States. Below, the examples are drawn from someone in the UK trying to reach .com versions of each of the major search engines. Those in other countries often will find similar interception in place. Yahoo If you are based in the UK, Yahoo will [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Web Search | Channel: Consumer | Google: Outside US | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Outside US | Search Engines: Outside USA | Search Features: General | Yahoo: Outside US | Yahoo: Search

The Chinese Internet has surpassed the US in terms of overall users. According to BDA China (reported in USAToday), there are more than 220 million Chinese Internet users (17 percent of the population) compared with 216 in the US (71 percent). This is simply a function of the huge scale of the Chinese market, with much more growth to come. In the Q1 earnings release, Google said, "Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $2.65 billion, representing 51% of total revenues in the first quarter of 2008, compared to 47% in the first quarter of 2007 and 48% in the fourth quarter of 2007. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Google: Outside US | Microsoft: Outside US | Yahoo: Outside US

Yahoo! Found Guilty of Mass Copyright Infringement from TorrentFreak reports Yahoo China lost the case over linking to unlicensed music in China. Didn't they already lose the case? Well, in April they were ordered to remove those links and ordered to pay 200,000 yuan. But they then appealed that ruling in November. Now the Beijing Court rejected that appeal and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is victorious. What confuses a lot of people is that Baidu was sued for a similar issue and they won the case against the music labels back in November of 2006. Joh [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Legal: Copyright | Yahoo: Legal | Yahoo: Music | Yahoo: Outside US

According to the Guardian, Yahoo has named former BlackBerry and Orange executive Kristof Fahy to be vice president of marketing for Europe. Fahy is a seasoned executive facing a challenging time for Yahoo, which has properties across Europe that are performing in an uneven fashion. The article goes on to say, "poorly performing parts of the European business have until the end of the first quarter next year to improve or faced being closed down or sold." [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Yahoo: Employees | Yahoo: Outside US

Yahoo China Appeals 'Deep Link' Ruling from Billboard reports Yahoo China is appealing the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Legal: Copyright | Yahoo: Legal | Yahoo: Outside US

Yahoo put out a dizzying slew of press releases today aimed at highlighting its carrier partnerships and what it claims is its mobile leadership position. The core of these releases is the announcement of nine new Asian mobile operators, adding to the company's other Asian carrier relationships. Yahoo's oneSearch will provide mobile search for these operators, with monetization and revenue sharing as well. The mobile search utility is now available in 19 countries throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. The new carriers announced today include: Aircel Limited (India), BPL Mobile (India), [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Yahoo: Mobile & Go | Yahoo: Outside US

News.com has live blogging of the "Yahoo! Inc.'s Provision of False Information" hearing by the US House Of Representatives today. Jerry Yang, Yahoo's CEO, and Michael Callahan, Yahoo's General Counsel, stood before congress to give answers on the information the company provided to China that lead to the jailing of journalist Shi Tao imprisonment. Yang offered a personal apology to Tao's family today, saying: I want to take a moment to recognize the families of the dissidents sitting behind me. I want to say we are committed to doing what we can to secure their freedom. And I want to perso [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Legal: Privacy | Yahoo: Legal | Yahoo: Outside US

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal both report on the IPO and first day of trading for Alibaba.com. The offering was the biggest IPO by any Chinese company and raised an estimated $2 billion. The market capitalization of the company is now nearly $26 billion. Yahoo owns 39 percent of Alibaba Group, the parent of Alibaba.com, and previously said it would buy 10 percent of the available shares. Some analysts believe the stock is overvalued and unsustainable. But that's what many analysts also said about Google in its early days of trading. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Search Engines: China Search Engines | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Outside US

Yahoo Executive Offers Apology to Lawmakers from the Wall Street Journal reports Michael Callahan, executive vice president and general counsel of Yahoo, issued a statement apologizing for providing incorrect information to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs over the jailed Chinese reporter. Part of the statement read: I neglected to directly alert the committee of this new information and that oversight led to a misunderstanding that I deeply regret and have apologized to the Committee for creating It is alleged that Yahoo's actions have lead to the imprisonment of a dissident in Chin [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Legal: Privacy | Yahoo: Legal | Yahoo: Outside US