Yahoo today announced that all systems are go to combine with Microsoft to form a Search Alliance. Their plan is to have they the transition completed either late 4th quarter of 2010 or early 2011. Obviously the concern for all domainer’s is how will revenue be effected by the change. Here is a copy of the announcement:
Yahoo! and Microsoft have now received regulatory clearance to form a search alliance. This is a significant milestone and an exciting first step in our combined effort to innovate search and search advertising, and drive better results for our partners.
What’s Ahead
We’re committed to making this transition as seamless and beneficial to you as possible, minimizing the effort on your end. Our aim is a high quality transition of advertisers and partners in at least the US prior to the 2010 holiday season. However, we may wait until 2011 if we determine this will be more effective. Approximately three months before any changes occur, we’ll provide you with detailed information about what to expect and how we’ll assist you.
How the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance Will Benefit You
Once implemented, the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance will provide you with:
Better Monetization
• Advertisers will reach up to 150 million searchers1 and get approximately 62% more search volume2 than on Yahoo! alone through a new, unified search marketplace combining the Yahoo! and Microsoft networks.
• Better value for advertisers will likely drive increased participation through increased budgets, more competitive bids, and new keywords added to campaigns.
• This, in turn, will create more advertiser competition for placement and broader keyword coverage, resulting in potentially better monetization for you.
A Stronger Relationship
• Forging strong relationships with publishers like you is absolutely essential to Yahoo!’s success. Through this transition and beyond, your Yahoo! contact will be there to guide you and answer any questions.
• Yahoo! will continue to help you drive your business objectives, from custom implementation and user interface consultation, to first-class customer service and overall revenue optimization.
More Rapid Innovation
• A unified search marketplace creates greater scale than either Yahoo! or Microsoft has today, enabling both companies to more rapidly innovate on the overall search experience and platform selection of ads, to ultimately drive better results for you.
• Beyond search, we will focus more time and resources on innovation in content, mobile, and display advertising, to improve and expand partner offerings to help keep your users loyal and engaged.
We appreciate your business and look forward to bringing the benefits of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance to you.