Search Love Triangle: Ask.com Wants Those Looking For Yahoo.com On Google.com

It’s not new for search engines to advertise on other search engines. We wrote about Live.com doing that on Google earlier this year, and that was just the latest in a long line of examples over the years. But we’ve never heard of a search engine advertising for those seeking another search engine on a […]

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It’s not new for search engines to advertise on other search engines. We
wrote about Live.com doing that on Google
earlier this year,
and that was just the latest in a long line of examples over the years. But
we’ve never heard of a search engine advertising for those seeking another
search engine on a third search engine until now.

The screenshot above explains it all. It’s a search for yahoo.com
on Google, bringing up an ad from Ask.com. Ask — going after Yahoo users who
are searching for Yahoo at Google.

It’s a pretty popular query, actually. I
wrote recently about
how Yahoo is one of the most popular search terms on Google, even above some of
the terms that were originally mistakenly reported by Google as the most popular
last year. More recently, Yahoo
was even found to
have more queries that perennial top search “sex” on Google.

It is odd that these ads don’t show in the US. Someone tipped us to the ad
after spotting it
in Germany, and I can see it in the UK. But in the US, it’s not showing.

This is a good time to remind people how to see ads targeted to various
countries. To do this, simply add:

&gl=COUNTRYCODE

The country code is a two digit combination for a particular country. The UK
code works like this:


https://www.google.com/search?q=yahoo.com&gl=gb

The two letter country codes can be found
here,
and more information about country targeting can also be found
here
from Google.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Danny Sullivan
Contributor
Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land and MarTech, and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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