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.
