Getting Granular: The DigitalGrit Blog

Yahoo Fully Acquires Right Media

Yahoo today announced that it has fully acquired Right Media, expanding on the 20% stake they've held since October. Right Media is an ad exchange, rather than a standard ad network, which facilitates transactions between publishers and advertisers, auction-style and in real time.

Forrester's Charlene Li asserts that this is a "smart move" by Yahoo:

While this looks like a defensive move against Google's Doubleclick acquisition, as I note above, this expansion has been in the works for the past year. Depending on your perspective, I think it's actually an offensive strategy for Yahoo! to build on its dominance in the graphical ad marketplace.

According to their press release, Yahoo sees exchanges as a key element in the online advertising ecosystem, and views this acquisition as the differentiator that puts them at the front of the pack - especially with all the talk about monetizing all the user-generated content out there.

More from the press release...

Right Media's open exchange will facilitate a frictionless model where buyers have equal opportunity to engage with the largest, most valuable audiences and to extract the maximum value from their campaigns and sellers can access an enormous pool of advertisers and foster competition for their inventory to maximize revenue. Yahoo! will increase its participation in the Right Media Exchange both as a buyer and seller to help increase liquidity in the exchange while empowering publishers and advertisers to generate more value for themselves within this vibrant marketplace.

An open exchange will provide tremendous opportunity for advertisers, publishers, advertising networks, and for Yahoo!:

-- Advertisers will have greater inventory and audience options from Yahoo! and other participants in this exchange, as well as increased control and visibility into the buying process.

-- Publishers will be able to bundle their own ad inventory with Yahoo!'s inventory and the exchange's inventory - thereby boosting demand and generating the highest returns for each ad placement.

-- Advertising networks will reap the same benefits as advertisers and publishers, and additionally, the exchange will benefit those ad networks with unique value propositions, giving them an opportunity to compete with the largest players, thanks to reduced friction and increased transparency.

-- For Yahoo!, this more open approach will allow the company to increase liquidity, allow advertisers to more efficiently ascertain the true value of display ad inventory, and generate greater returns for Yahoo!'s own display inventory. It will give Yahoo! a new channel and inventory for excess demand and provide an opportunity to derive more value from non-premium inventory.

As the largest online publisher and one of the leading ad networks, Yahoo! can help drive additional participation in Right Media's open exchange and ensure a level playing field for all parties.

Hmm. While Li, in her quote above, was quick to point out that this isn't defense against "GoogleClick," but it does seem like RATHER an enormous coincidence, wouldn't you say?

Yahoo - 70 Character Limit on Titles and Descriptions

Yahoo will be shortening  ad descriptions to 70 words or less, forcing all to be a little more brief and concise in our marketing copy. Yahoo claims that the change is driven by a better user experience, which will result in a higher conversion rate. (DigitalGrit team: Please comment with your experiences on conversions vs. copy length?)

The skinny on short copy rules from the Yahoo blog:

As an advertiser, you have two options for your ad descriptions, one long (up to 190 characters) and one short (70 characters or fewer). At present, you may use either. Starting in May, however, a short description will be required, while a long description will be optional. This means for all new or modified ads you must provide a short description.  And starting in June, ad descriptions longer than 70 characters may automatically be cut off in Yahoo! Sponsored Search results. We will shorten the description at the nearest complete word to 70 characters, followed by an ellipsis (”…”).  Long descriptions will continue to be shown on some of our external distribution partner web sites.

One more change: "The space limit for titles will remain at 40 characters, while display URLs will be reduced to a maximum of 35 characters." Yahoo promises more information on this soon. 

I see many, many long nights ahead for the SEM team...

Thanks to MarketingVox for the tip!

Google, Yahoo, MSN - Like Any MEDIA COMPANY - Can Block Ads

According to Forbes.com, a judge ruled on Monday that Google and its competitors have the same right as any media company to block ads they feel are inappropriate or offensive to customers or partners.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Farnan dismissed a suit filed last May in Delaware by would-be advertiser Christopher Langdon, who claimed Google, Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) and Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) infringed upon his rights to free speech by refusing to publish his ads. The ads in question promoted Langdon's Web sites, which criticize some North Carolina politicians and the Chinese government.

"Search engines have a First Amendment right to reject ads as part of their protected right to speak or not," Farnan wrote.

The legal opinion will help search engines in future litigation, wrote Eric Goldman, director of Santa Clara University School of Law's High Tech Law Institute. "It's an emphatic and helpful win for the search engines."

The ruling allows the search engine to refuse an advertiser for any reason -- without the need to site any specific rule or regulation they might be violating. 

Ask -- not Google or MSN -- Powers Lycos Search

That's right -- Lycos has selected the dark horse, IAC's Ask.com, to fuel its search. See the article on MediaPost today:

STRIKING A BLOW AGAINST TWO of its far bigger rivals, Ask.com will replace MSN and Google as the natural search and sponsored listings provider on Lycos. Previously, MSN Windows Live powered organic search results and Google supplied sponsored search listings.

By partnering with Lycos, which had 25.7 million unique visitors in September, Ask.com will be able to boost its brand and expand its paid listings business. Lycos generates about 125 million search queries per month, according to internal company numbers. 

Ask has made headlines since its February relaunch, becoming the fastest-growing search engine among users this year -- but still owning only 5% marketshare, next to Google's 44%. The new partnership will help fuel that growth, making Ask.com a much bigger contender in the space.

Windows Live Search -- Open for Business, Officially

The "beta" has been removed from WindowsLive Search. With a sleek, celan design that makes Google's look old and clunky, the new Microsoft Search is certainly attractive.

Now let's get some feedback on the results! (Jeremy Zwadony has already weighed in on speed and relevancy, with a review that's mixed overall, but notes that the Web search has "greatly" improved. Read his commentor reviews, too.)

Also, now in beta: QnA -- Microsoft's newest community effort, similar to Yahoo! Answers.

Seven Types of Searchers (Thank you, AOL Leak! -- And Slate!)

Account Manager Cate Dunn shared this email with the team today:

Following AOL’s recent data leak, Slate columnist Paul Boutin synthesizes the data from http://www.splunkd.com/ (which has preserved the data despite AOL’s attempts to recall) to create the seven types of searchers.  Mostly general (and some humorous) information, but some interesting bits including:

“The guy who searches for the same thing over and over and over. . .(is) most likely to craft advanced search terms like "craven randy fanfic -wes" and "pfeffern**sse."

http://www.slate.com/id/2147590/?nav=navoa

Thanks, Cate!

Seven Types of Searchers (Thank you, AOL Leak! -- And Slate!)

Account Manager Cate Dunn shared this email with the team today:

Following AOL’s recent data leak, Slate columnist Paul Boutin synthesizes the data from http://www.splunkd.com/ (which has preserved the data despite AOL’s attempts to recall) to create the seven types of searchers.  Mostly general (and some humorous) information, but some interesting bits including:

“The guy who searches for the same thing over and over and over. . .(is) most likely to craft advanced search terms like "craven randy fanfic -wes" and "pfeffern**sse."

http://www.slate.com/id/2147590/?nav=navoa

Thanks, Cate!

UXP Rant: Web Server Error Code Copy … Say WHAT????!!!!

A special guest post from Jane-Anne, our "Queen of User Experience."

You have to admire Google. I do, because they gave me an opportunity to talk about something related to User Experience (although really, everything is related to the user experience. See my follow-up post to our mascot blog entry as well for proof!).

Too often, web server error messages are full of technical-ese and don’t tell the user what is going on, what happened or what they should do. And too often, marketers are missing a really nice way to strengthen, or at least keep, the relationship with the user and build upon their brand.

All it takes is a little creativity. Say something in simple, understandable language and if you can, make sure it reflects the tone, style and culture of your organization. The DG employee who received the Google error message said it made her laugh. This is a big change from a user who would get the standard 404 error message and be left confused or worse – frustrated.  Even better, it won’t get ignored like the typical error message will, and you might even get some viral activity around it like this Google one did.

At the very least, we’ll think you’re pretty cool.

UXP Rant: Web Server Error Code Copy … Say WHAT????!!!!

A special guest post from Jane-Anne, our "Queen of User Experience."

You have to admire Google. I do, because they gave me an opportunity to talk about something related to User Experience (although really, everything is related to the user experience. See my follow-up post to our mascot blog entry as well for proof!).

Too often, web server error messages are full of technical-ese and don’t tell the user what is going on, what happened or what they should do. And too often, marketers are missing a really nice way to strengthen, or at least keep, the relationship with the user and build upon their brand.

All it takes is a little creativity. Say something in simple, understandable language and if you can, make sure it reflects the tone, style and culture of your organization. The DG employee who received the Google error message said it made her laugh. This is a big change from a user who would get the standard 404 error message and be left confused or worse – frustrated.  Even better, it won’t get ignored like the typical error message will, and you might even get some viral activity around it like this Google one did.

At the very least, we’ll think you’re pretty cool.

Screenshot: Google Tells Us to "Give our Mouse a Break"

How's this for a Google Error Screen?

One of our AMs got this while trying to access a campaign in AdWords. It's very sweet that Google's so concerned about the well-being of her mouse, isn't it?

(BTW, our "Queen of User Experience" loves this because they've used plain English instead of tech-talk.)