The Yahoo Search Blog announced they are now testing favorite icons (favicons) in the search ads. For example, a search for expedia may return an ad that shows Expedia.com’s favicon. Here is a picture:

Why is Yahoo testing this? Yahoo said:

Well, it’s just one more way for users to know they’re really looking at your site, which will improve the search experience. And if they know you’re really what they searched for, they may click on you more frequently, helping your click-through rate and improving your quality score.

If you do not want your ads to show the favicon, just tell Yahoo and they will remove it.

Google recently has been testing favicons on AdWords as well.

Related Topics: Yahoo: Search Ads

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz

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