Time: 1:30pm – 2:45pm Panelists: David Madelorot, VP Search Content, Yahoo! Search Will Johnson, VP & GM, Yahoo! Publisher Network Online Anne Frisbie, Sr. Director of Category Search Marketing, Yahoo!
David: ecosystem: publishers, users, advertisers; incorporated into mission statement; yahoo being glue in the middle; overarching vision: FUSE.
Find: re Search Subscriptions product
–> not just “free online content”, but looking at deep content (eg sits behind reg’n wall)
–> how to open up deep web content: solution “search subscriptions”
Use: helping people use info (once they’ve found it). –> Yahoo search for creative commons service.
Share: how to narrow down search results; take advantage of others research/my knowledge. –> My Web 2.0 (“social search”) –> leveraged Flickr and tagging.
Expand: in a lot of ways the most challenging. how much content is available offline (not available online)? eg books, greet speeches, music, etc. How to do it via search engine –> Open Content Alliance. Digitize major works (both books and multimedia). Different approach than other digitization efforts, esp re openness. Need to form relationships with others to use their content –> Open Content Alliance both public domain works and getting permission from copyright holders. Using common formats (html, adobe), not proprietary formats. Other search engines can spider the content etc. International content too.
Will Johnson
from Goto.com days; Yahoo acquired them (as Overture). focused on large publisher space –> helping them monetize their content.
New dymanics in publishing: – small media re getting bigger –> blog networks – Big media becoming smaller –> NY Times buys About.com; Newscorp and myspaces – Marketers becoming publishers – Consumers too
–> opportunities to deliver broader publisher offerings: 360, Yahoo small business, MyYahoo feat. RSS, Y!Q
small subset of things Yahoo is building re publisher services.
Yahoo! Publisher Network – self-serve platform; beta program to extend distribution; same advert network (leveraging off their work with big publishers); competitive revenue –> this is about getting broader content to users.
Content distribution –> monetize and drive traffic (get in Yahoo directory); yahoo maps –> just the beginning – creating broader platform
example: search engine roundtable –> ads now; then search; long-term hosting?
Niche content publishers Publisher priorites: targeted content, build traffic etc, generate ad revenue How Y! can help: ads, access content via APIs (eg Shopping) and related content via Y!Q, drive traffic via paid search, rss buttons, web hosting
Anne Frisbie:
search offers an engaged audience; customers find u. (re marketers)
Web search #1 way consumers finding website
Company websites extremely influential to consumers now.
offline media plan integrated with online (“offline media drives online activity” –> more engagement
eg Yahoo: GM’s pontaic adverts on The Apprentice; interested viewers go to search for more info –> eg search term “apprentice car” + associated terms spiked after show aired. GM had contextual ads next to search results, plus Yahoo Apprentice Car website.
Questions…
qst: Adsense-like program –> Will: publisher control a key tenet and “real differentiator”; eg users can define ad categories. more control over what shows on their page.
qst: financial writers recently hired – how will that impact publishers in publisher community (re search)? Dave: media team and search team operate separately. search team focused on delivering relevant content – regardless of whether it’s yahoo writers or other publishers.
qst: blocking domains: Will: up to 200 today, but will be broadened even further.
Originally published on ReadWriteWeb (archived copy)