Why Most Attribution Analysis Is Fatally Flawed
At SMX West last week the halls were echoing with passionate cries about attribution analysis. It seemed as if all topics (other than the Yahoo-Microsoft search deal) had taken a back seat for a moment, and suddenly the most important thing to consider was attribution analysis, specifically whether or not you are giving too much credit to SEM and not enough to other media.
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Yahoo Gains AT&T, Loses T-Mobile Search Deal
Earlier this week, we discovered that Yahoo would be the default search engine on AT&T’s first Android handset, the Motorola Backflip. That’s a first as far as I know, an Android device that doesn’t present Google as the featured search engine.
However, in the bad-news column for Yahoo, according to PaidContent, T-Mobile has now swapped it [...]
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The Microhoo Bunch
The recently approved Microsoft-Yahoo search deal, set to a song of my youth…
Here’s the story, of a lovely lady
Her name is Carol Bartz, and she runs Yahoo
It’s a search engine, and a portal
And it’s getting hard to run the two
Here’s the story, of a man named Ballmer
Who was bringing up a search engine of his [...]
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Microsoft Yahoo Search Deal Passes Regulatory Hurdle
Well, it’s official. The partnership which will lead to the blending of the “other search engines” Yahoo and bing, has been given the government seal of approval by both the US Department of Justice and the European Commission.
The integration of the two engines will be started immediately and it will take until 2011 before the advertising part of the deal is integrated. According to the Yahoo Search Blog what lies ahead is something they are pretty excited about.
And what you’re seeing today is just the tip of the iceberg. With Microsoft providing us the underlying list of search results, our Yahoo! team can now focus on making the overall experience of finding stuff online and getting things done easier for you – whether you’re searching at yahoo.com or just looking for specific information in the moment while using our many great products and properties on any device. We have lots of ideas for things we can do to help you with three main aspects of searching:
Ways to find things faster when you’re just starting your search – by continuing to enhance our great Search Assist technology and also weaving search more deeply and conveniently into other Yahoo! products.
New ways to help you explore the things that matter most – whether that’s with more rich results and options for organizing the search results page, or by showing you interesting Search topics that you might want to browse through in other relevant places that you spend your time on Yahoo!
More apps and other tools to help you get things done as quickly as possible. We know that people don’t want to search per se – you want to complete tasks in your day, and we’ll be inventing new ways to help you do that.
Yahoo sounds like a politician with lots of generalities and little hard information but at least we now know that there is nothing standing in the way of looking at what bingahoo means to the overall search picture.
Now that this is back in the news I guess it’s time to make predictions about whether this union will ding Google. So what do you think? Are you ready for the rest of the year filled with announcements about “improvements” in search while the world continues to use Google?
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Holy 1999: MySpace in Google Search (Oh, with Real Time)
Buzzy buzz buzz. Google would really like to keep us from thinking about PAY NO ATTENTION Buzz TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN, and old pal MySpace is here to help: the real time search deal the two discussed in December is now live. Oh boy, oh boy, real time updates from that cutting edge social MySpace right in Google!
Hm? What’s that? Is 2010 and Google’s had real-time results from social networks including Twitter and Facebook for months?
Oh. Much less cool 
.
Yep, as they said a while ago, Google’s using MySpace’s real time API to import real time updates (they do that on MySpace?) into selected SERPs. I’d go out looking for these results in the wild, but somehow I think they’re pretty hard to find. Even when I look for updates on news and current events in Google, I seldom see the real time results (or maybe I just don’t scroll down). Luckily, MySpace provides a few examples for me:
I love the Olympics. Every (other) year, I think, “Meh, I don’t really care about the Olympics,” and then I get sucked in and watch them obsessively. (“Go, go, person I’ve never heard of, representing a country I don’t care about, in a sport I’ve never seen before! Win!”) And I’m super glad that I can see what MySpacers think about the events. (Not. Did you read those comments?)
Um, anyway, I like that MySpace’s integration with Google is so flawless that the best way to get their real-time results is to actually include “MySpace” in the query. I suppose that’ll keep extraneous social results from showing up in my SERPs, though, so I’m happy 
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On the other hand, it is convenient if you want to know what people are saying about a topic on MySpace. I can’t imagine a scenario where I’d want to, but . . . you know, it could happen.
What do you think? Are you looking forward to oh-so-pertinent results from MySpace coming to a SERP near you?
Yahoo & Microsoft Receive Go Ahead To Implement Search Deal
Yahoo and Microsoft announced they have clearance to implement their proposed search deal where Microsoft will power Yahoo Search and search ads. Today they received “unrestricted” clearance from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission to proceed. And proceed they will.
Yahoo said the implementation will begin in the next “days.” [...]
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Microsoft Extends Bing Search Deal With Facebook
The Bing Search Blog announced Microsoft has extended their search deal with Facebook. In addition to extending the search deal, as expected, Facebook will drop Microsoft on the display ad side of the deal.
The extended search deal includes a more robust Bing search experience on Facebook. This includes “richer answers combined with tools [...]
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Yahoo Gains “Default” Search Deal With Ubuntu
One small search victory for Yahoo: a new default search deal with Ubuntu, the free Linux-based operating system. According to Ars Technica:
Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, revealed today that it has established a revenue sharing agreement with Yahoo. As part of the deal, the Firefox Web browser that is shipped in [...]
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Yahoo to Keep BOSS under Microsoft
And I don’t mean job security for Carol Bartz. Yahoo’s BOSS (Build your Own Search Service) is a popular, free way for developers to access the Yahoo index and to implement Yahoo search for your site. With the pending Microsoft-Yahoo deal outsourcing the search business, there has been some concern over whether BOSS will be discontinued.
Never fear, says Yahoo—BOSS is sticking around. Like the main search results, the BOSS results are slated to use Bing’s index as well. But the bad news is that BOSS may not continue to be a free offering. Ashim Chimbra addressed developers’ concerns in the Yahoo Tech Group and alluded to possible pay structures in the future (emphasis added):
Under this agreement, Yahoo! is permitted to continue offering the BOSS web service, with search results that would integrate Yahoo! services and content with algorithmic results provided by Microsoft. As always, our intention is to provide a BOSS offering as long as it makes business and economic sense to do so. We are still examining what the BOSS offering will consist of, with some services powered by Microsoft, unique content that Yahoo! currently provides, and the potential for additional Yahoo! content in the future.
Prior to the announcement of the Yahoo!-Microsoft search agreement, we’d already shared our intention to explore a fee-based structure for BOSS. We continue to explore an appropriate fee structure or other revenue model as we work through the future of BOSS.
As you know, we must receive regulatory clearance before actual implementation of the search deal with Microsoft can occur. Only then can we finalize the future shape of BOSS. Of course, we will provide additional clarity and certainty when we can.
So clearly, they’re keeping their options open for pricing. What do you think? Will they be able to keep it free, or is the deal with Microsoft underlying evidence of the need for revenue?
Armstrong: Google Gets “First Dibs” At AOL Search Deal
AOL’s CEO: Google To Get 1st Shot At New Search Deal from the Wall Street Journal reports AOL’s CEO, Tim Armstrong saying that Google will get “first dibs” at a search deal.
Armstrong said this at Citi’s annual entertainment, media and telecommunications conference today. This was prompted by a question about possibly using Microsoft Bing [...]
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