The never ending struggle between Yahoo and Google for supremacy in the online world was bound to have casualties, the latest one this week comes from the Yahoo side of the equation as the company have this week revealed that they will be shutting down the Yahoo Publisher Network.

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For a while now I’ve been talking about the dangers of assuming that one search marketing approach will work across a number of platforms, with mixed results. Unfortunately, some people just don’t want to believe that the approach required to make a success of a PPC campaign on Google is that much different to the approach required to do well on Yahoo, Bing, etc. Some people unfortunately will not be swayed from the notion that search is search and what’s good for the good is good for the gander.

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In recent weeks, the US Justice Department has been taking ever closer looks at Google and, in particular their settlement with publishers and authors over Google’s Book Search. This has once again raised the ever thorny question of whether or not Google is a Monopoly and, if so, what can be done about it?

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Yahoo have launched a range of new enhancements to its search marketing tool, though anyone who has ever used Google AdWords will be more than familiar with them. The changes include, a day parting tool, that allows you to target ads to specific times of day, bid customisation, allowing customers to target specific bids to different audiences and enhanced Geo targeting.

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Rumours abound this morning about a major shakeup at Yahoo. The thinking is that the company will undergo a major shakeup at some point in the week. It appears that after taking a few weeks to think things through, new CEO Carol Bartz is now in the market for fresh high-level personnel and executives.

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Yahoo is today set to announce that it will be offering a new type of search advertising which will include both images and video in its paid listings. Traditionally, search advertising triggers only text ads, the venue for more elaborate video and text-based ads is thought to be banner, box and display advertising, where there is more room to get creative.

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Recently it was announced that Yahoo would be wrapping up its Content Match service in Germany, the UK and other non US locations. The last chance for users in these territories to bid on ads will be the last day of March, after that it’s over. This change will mean a much smaller inventory for Yahoo to put in their yahoo Publisher Network.

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A few days ago we reported that Yahoo were to team up with television makers to provide a range of internet services through television sets. The move was exactly the kind of bold, ‘game changing’ kind of thing that was required of Yahoo, who have been faltering to say the least recently after a horrific 2008 that saw their lifesaving deal with Google disintegrate and a Microsoft buyout fall through, along with general staff losses and cutbacks.

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Talk of some kind of convergence between TV and the Internet has been talked about as long as people have been watching videos online. However, it appears that 2009 may just be the year that people start getting serious about making it a reality. This year we’ve already had the announcement of the new LG TV that allows you to download film and TV from certain bespoke sites, now it seems that Yahoo are getting in on the act, and committing to making full synergy between the two mediums a reality.

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This old chestnut again I’m afraid. According to a report in the Times, Microsoft and troubled search engine, Yahoo are attempting to hammer out a search deal and are thought to be close to agreement. The deal is reported to involve Microsoft buying the company’s search business – the Times has the figure being paid at about $20 million. If that’s accurate it would be a very good deal for Yahoo, especially considering that the market capitalization of the whole company is less than $16 billion.

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According to various online sources, Live Search’s days are numbered. The rumour is that software giant Microsoft has decided that Live Search needs a new persona and plans to rebrand the search engine next year, the rebrand will include a new name. For the time being at least, that name would appear to be, Kumo, after Microsoft bought the domain Kumo.com and began using internal traffic to test the new site.

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It would seem that there’s just no let up in the misery at Yahoo. Not even a week after their CEO Jerry Yang announced he is stepping down, and with key staff and engineers continuing to jump ship at an alarming rate, their shares have fallen to a five year low. 

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Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is set to resign his post. Amidst a plummeting stock price and widespread predictions that the company are on the way out, at least as an independent entity, the 40-year-old’s position would appear to be untenable.

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A longstanding problem for online advertisers has been that the Internet is simply too broad an advertising tool for many companies. In the grand scheme of things very few traditional companies actually need to reach a worldwide or even national audience. There is no real reason, for instance, why a hairdresser with three branches in Inverness really needs to have its online advertising viewed by people in Portsmouth.

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