Well, the RomCom that was the Yahoo and Microsoft relationship looks like it’s finally there. Tall, dark and handsome Microsoft has finally come running through the rain, banging on the door of Yahoo as she was about to make the biggest mistake of her life, and they finally kissed as the Whitesnake song “Is This Love” swells and the credits roll…
I should have known better
Than to let you go alone
It’s times like these
I can’t make it on my own
Wasted days, and sleepless nights
And’ I can’t wait to see you again
So, I’ve been reading all the reports tonight, and The Wall Street Journal and AdAge are all reporting that a deal is forthcoming. Heck, even Kara Swisher said “pretty please” looking for a comment - so you know this is big news.
The new partnership has to be a huge relief to both organizations – since they’ve been trying to get something done for the last year while Google continues to rake in record revenue.
So, it’s not a merger of the two companies – as many had speculated – but will rather be a deal where Microsoft provides the Bing Search Engine to Yahoo – ostensibly putting Yahoo out of the Search Engine business. Yahoo will provide the media, content and eyeballs that Microsoft needs to tackle Google. And, Microsoft provides some walkin’ around dough that Yahoo probably could really use right about now.
I thought I’d take my first blush shot at what I think this really means for Marketers. Certainly as things become more solidified, and the strategies become more evident – oh who am I kidding – this is Microsoft and Yahoo. This first guess is probably as good as it’s gonna get.
Here’s my top four things that I think Binghoo means to you as an online Marketer:
1. One less Search Engine you have to worry about optimizing your content for.
Information has just recently started to come out about how to specifically optimize your content for the Bing search engine - and with Yahoo search gone, you can now really focus your efforts squarely on Google and Bing as the two search engines to optimize your content for. It’s not that you were terribly worried about Yahoo before mind you – but now at least you can officially take it off your list.
2. You are going to ultimately have to learn a new interface. Good news it’s better.
Yahoo introduced their new interface a few years ago – and if you’re like most marketers dealing with Search Engine Marketing you’ve either come to love or hate it. The current reports that I’ve seen are saying that you’ll ultimately be using the Microsoft Ad Center platform - and that interface is really good. Complaints about slowness seem to have mostly dissipated – and they’ve got some very interesting targeting capabilities.
Also, theoretically, Microsoft will be inroducing more and more tools to integrate bid management directly into desktop tools such as Microsoft Excel. There are already some posts on this – and the Microsoft Ad Center Desktop will be a very interesting addition once (or if) you can control your Yahoo ads from this.
Note this may have an indirect positive or negative effect on your existing vendor or internal bid management tools. It’s worth asking your team about.
3. Search Marketing (theoretically) just got more powerful
Because it’s down to two now – Google vs. Microsoft – I really think the pace of new tools and value of search marketing should see some improvement. Both are going to be competing for marketing dollars now in a big way, and the new tools and API’s that both solutions will make available very quickly should really improve our ability to make Search Marketing better and more fruitful. In short, I think this partnership is really good news for search marketers and agencies.
Integrations with our other tools such as email and content management systems (for landing page management) and new testing options should be forthcoming from both solutions at a faster pace. I predict new API’s for testing and new capabilities from both Google and Microsoft to quickly follow.
4. The number of ad pages for tech publishers will decrease by 5%
Okay this one’s a bit of a joke – but let’s face it – the Tech Press has had a field day on the speculation of Microsoft and Yahoo for the better part of the year. I guess it’s now on to whether Amazon is going to buy Netflix? Nah, that one just doesn’t have the same kind of romantic notion…
Guess I’ll just hit replay on this one and hope that Steve and Carol can somehow re-ignite the acquisition rumors once this has started to get some traction.. Can anyone say sequel….Cue up Whitesnake…
Is this love that I’m feeling
Is this the love that I’ve been searching for
Is this love or am I dreaming
This must be love
Cos it’s really go a hold on me
A hold on me……..
