Yahoo Searches Skies With Boeing
Yahoo has entered into a multi-year agreement to provide search and paid search ads for inflight satellite Internet service Connexion by Boeing.
The service, offered by aircraft manufacturer The Boeing Co., is currently deployed on several long-haul air routes. Fliers who use the Yahoo search function on the Connexion portal will see co-branded search results pages that include Yahoo’s featured Web content and paid search ads from the Yahoo! Search Marketing network.
The companies involved describe the deal as exclusive, but that exclusivity appears to refers to Yahoo’s presence on the Connexion portal page. When users log on to the network in the air, they will begin with a Connexion home page that includes a Yahoo search query box. However, they will still be able to switch to other search engines if they choose.
Boeing’s Connexion service is just beginning to roll out into the airlines’ fleets now. The service is currently available on selected long-distance flights from Lufthansa, SAS, Japan Airlines, Singapore Airlines and China Airlines, among others. Boeing also has agreements to install the service on other carriers, including Korean Air and El Al Israeili Airlines.
Frederick Marckini, of iProspect, says that while the deal may only expose a limited number of new users to Yahoo Search now, those users are a pretty desirable demographic for the search engine. “It’s certainly not going to bring them a huge audience today,” he said. “But I think it has the potential to bring them an unusually focused audience. You have a lot of business travelers stuck on long flights with nothing to do but surf the Internet and use search.”
Marckini points out that advertisers pay large sums to be included in the advertorial sections of in-flight magazines precisely because they reach a captive audience made up of an attractive demographic. “This is going to create some major competition for those,” he said. “And if you can persuade a portion of this really valuable business audience to use Yahoo! Search, perhaps for five or six hours, you stand a good chance of getting their loyalty when they land. The deal has a lot of possibility.”
