Yahoo | Internet Marketing Blog

Q&A: Wenda Harris Millard

Wenda Harris Millard is an icon in digital advertising and media. As co-chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and before that chief sales officer at Yahoo, not to mention chair of the IAB, she's long been as out there as she has been outspoken - a passionate advocate for the industry.

In April of 2009, Millard became president of advisory firm MediaLink. Her role is less public, but no less hard-hitting, overseeing a potfolio of Fortune 50 clients such as Microsoft, AT&T, Unilever, Home Depot, Disney, Viacom, Fox Television, Comcast, Bain, GM, Sony, GE, NBC, GlaxoSmithKline and CBS.

We caught up with her to learn more about her latest role, and to hear her always-trenchant thoughts on media and marketing.

by Rebecca Lieb 05 August 2010 17:10pm 0 comments

Foursquare looks to ink search deals, but is it smart business for the search engines?

Is Foursquare about to go 'mainstream' like Twitter before it? The Telegraph thinks so.

In terms of size, Foursquare is still just a baby. Its growth is impressive and it just surpassed 2m registered users, but in the overall scheme of things, that's still a relatively small number. But soon, Foursquare and Twitter may share a potentially important business accomplishment: deals with major search engines.

by Patricio Robles 20 July 2010 13:58pm 4 comments

Numbers Game: Bing goes up as Google's search share drops

Microsoft has been pouring a lot of time and attention into its new search engine Bing. At first, Bing's gains in marketshare came at the expense of smaller search engines — like Microsoft partner Yahoo. But that is changing. According to comScore, Bing bit further into Google's marketshare in June.

More important for the state of online advertising — paid search spending is on the rise.

by Meghan Keane 13 July 2010 19:57pm 6 comments

Yahoo's outsourcing: why the weak will get weaker

Yahoo's identity crisis is nothing new. And under the reign of the company's current CEO, Carol Bartz, Yahoo's identity crisis has arguably turned into an identity tragedy.

Nothing reflects that better than Yahoo's newfound 'product development' strategy: outsource everything to third parties, some of which were previously competitors. Recently, Yahoo outsourced Yahoo Personals to online personals competitor Match.com, and yesterday it was announced that Yahoo is outsourcing a good chunk of Yahoo Real Estate to real estate competitor Zillow.

by Patricio Robles 09 July 2010 09:10am 5 comments

The future of media lies in access — not ownership

Media companies — whether they produce video, print or social content — are all struggling to price and sell their products today. In a digital world, stolen content is also an increasing concern. But at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York Monday, speakers seemed to agree that the future of media lies in providing access — not ceding ownership — of content.

by Meghan Keane 24 May 2010 22:26pm 2 comments

The Big Six: mandatory sites for local bricks-and-mortar businesses

local shopkeeper If you're a local merchant with a bricks-and-mortar presence, it's time to kiss the yellow pages goodbye. There's no longer any excuse for not having a web presence or for ignoring digital marketing. Eighty-two percent of people use search engines to find information about local businesses - more than any other media. Even if you don't have a website (you should, but that's another story), there are six sites no local business can afford to ignore.

Not only is getting listed dead simple, it's a great leveler. If you own a pizza place, you can compete head-to-head with national chains like Dominos. Hardware? Go up against Home Depot and Lowes. You get the idea.

Claiming your business and getting listed and on all five of the Big Six should only take an hour or so (though most require you wait for a postcard or phone call o verify that you are who you say you are). Once you've enlisted, and taken advantage of some of the special features these sites offer (mostly for free), you'll reap many advantages. You'll have a presence in organic search results, not only on the web, but also on mobile platforms.

You can offer special deals and inducements to lure new business, you can encourage positive reviews and, to a degree, manage your online reputation. You can precisely map your location and help people to find it, and broadcast your hours of operation. And you'll have access to analytics that can inform you of the keywords used to find your business, the time of day people search for you and other data that can help improve your online presence, offers and advertising and promotional campaigns.

With a near-zero investment of time and money, there's absolutely no excuse to not get started with The Big Six.

by Rebecca Lieb 13 May 2010 18:09pm 5 comments

If Yahoo's new anti-Google ad campaign fails, it's not You!, it's them

Yahoo is launching new ads today. This fall the company launched a $100 million campaign with its vaguely worded "It's You!" ads. But failing to see a return on that investment, Yahoo is shifting focus with the rest of its $85 million ad campaign.

It helps that Yahoo has a clearer target now. Its new video ad takes aim at a nearly blank homepage that looks suspiciously like Google, which they call a place you come to "so you can leave."

Yahoo, in contrast, positions itself as a place "that gets to know you." For Yahoo to succeed as a portal (and to sell advertising), it needs to direct people to its homepage, which this campaign purports to do. But there's one thing about its focus on Google that doesn't work: do people really use Google as their homepage?

by Meghan Keane 06 May 2010 17:04pm 3 comments

Portals: don't be dazzled by the traffic

There was a big hoo-ha last week as eMarketer’s recent research concluded that portals remain effective ad platforms. This came as Yahoo! was all over the press for attributing their financial recovery to a revival in online advertising spend.

Display advertising on Yahoo! has grown by 20% this quarter and the four big portals – Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and AOL – all took in a total of $191,707 million in the US in advertising revenue between 2008 and 2011.

by Harvey Sarjant 06 May 2010 10:01am 0 comments

Is diversification overrated?

Which company would you rather own stock in: Google or Yahoo? Chances are, like most people, you'd respond 'Google'. And for good reason: by just about every measure, Google is by far the better company.

But that isn't stopping Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz from giving some advice to the search giant. Last week, she told BBC News that Google needs to diversify its business. "Google is going to have a problem because Google is only known for search … it is only half our business; it’s 99.9 [percent] of their business. Google has to grow a company the size of Yahoo every year to be interesting," she said.

by Patricio Robles 04 May 2010 13:14pm 2 comments

Do other search engines matter, or just Google?

In a recent conversation with a client, I was asked: “Does it really matter if I buy ad space in Bing and Yahoo! search results? Doesn’t everyone just use Google?”

This got me thinking. In terms of organic search, following SEO best practice will help you rank in other search engines and not just the mighty Google. So a well-optimised page will score highly with all the major search engines.

But what’s best when it comes to buying paid ad space alongside search results? Should all your budget and analytical efforts be focused on Google?

by Kevin Gibbons 29 April 2010 09:25am 18 comments