The past week or so has been an eventful one for Yahoo!, the second most used search engine in the U.S. First it swooped up online advertising exchange Right Media, which follows on the heels of Google’s DoubleClick acquisition. Then on Monday, Yahoo! grabbed Comcast away from Google’s grasp in a multi-year agreement.
In a move that strengthens the Web portal’s hopes of expanding its advertising efforts to external sites, Yahoo! and Comcast agreed to give Yahoo! the opportunity to deliver display and video advertising on Comcast.net, which welcomes 15 million unique visitors per month, according to Comcast’s press release.
The ads will be integrated in a revamped version of Comcast.net, which is expected to be rolled out sometime this year.
"We are delighted with our new long-term strategic partnership with Yahoo!," said Amy L. Banse, president, Comcast Interactive Media. "Their scale, experienced sales force, advertiser relationships and industry leading display advertising capabilities will bring significant new monetization opportunities to Comcast.net."
The press release also added, "Yahoo! and Comcast Interactive Media will collaborate to create and market new sponsorships and custom advertising packages that are supported by Yahoo!’s platform."
Victories require losers, and in this case two stand out the most. The first is obviously Google, which had publicized difficulties negotiating a new contract with Comcast. Though a search service agreement is not currently finalized with Yahoo!, it is expected that in the coming months Comcast will come to terms with the search engine in order to utilize Yahoo! search on Comcast.net after its current deal with Google expires at the end of 2007.
Though losing Comcast will not cause the Google empire to crumble, 2.5 billion page views per month are nothing to turn your nose up at.
The second loser is Microsoft, which was reported to be a leading contender to take Comcast away from Google last month. It seems that Microsoft has lost an opportunity to gain ground on the search leader, and now has to contend with the reality that its number three position in the search market share rankings will probably see a bigger gap to cross in order to get to the second spot that Yahoo! currently holds.
All in all, the past week has been a strong one for Yahoo!.
Sources:
http://www.adweek.com/aw/iq_interactive/article_
display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003578441
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6180385.html
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/070430-165354
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