As most everyone knows by now, Yahoo! and Microsoft announced a Search Alliance last year and it was recently approved by the US government in February . Essentially, the two companies will continue with two separate search engines, however Microsoft will run the technology for the organic search algorithms for both engines and the paid search for both will be powered by Microsoft’s current adCenter system.
A recent announcement from the new partners laid out a more defined time line for the upcoming transition as well as a bit on what advertisers can expect as the transition moves along.
The goal, as of now, is to get the transition process for US and Canada advertisers started in late summer 2010 and have it complete before the 2010 holiday season rolls around. If things are not looking good for that holiday target, the transition team has promised to hold off until 2011 so as to not interrupt the critical holiday sales season.
To keep things running as smoothly as possible regular communication and updates, as well as tools to guide advertisers through the process have been promised.
Stay tuned for more as we get closer to the Yahoo! and Microsoft search alliance becoming a reality and tips and tricks we pick up as the transition begins to take place.
Mike Small
Mike Small leads the SEM and paid search efforts at WebShare. You can find out more about Mike here.
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