Saturday, October 30, 2004

Yahoo Yellow Pages

Earlier this Spring, Yahoo bought Overture, which meant great Yahoo placement with your Overture ad. Now though, there's a new contender to deal with in your Yahoo search results. One aspect of the new "local" version of Yahoo is called the Yahoo Yellow Pages.

A while back, someone called me from Performance Advertising in Texas, representing Yahoo Yellow Pages, and I listened to the pitch. He and I have talked at great lengths about various subjects related to the future of search on the internet, and I believe this can be a big advantage to early advertisers, because it's first come first served. You can't be outbid.

(Of course, whether the results actually show up at all on any given day is still in question, but they're trying to work out the bugs, I think.)

If you want to phone him, his name is Jason Svatek j_svatek@yahoo.com (512) 637-3099 is his direct line, I believe.


Scott Hendison

Portland Technology
Consultants

503-522-9244




Update 1/05
As it turns out, Yahoo weaseled the rules, and now the Yahoo Yellow Pages do not come up in the regular SERPS. Those wesaels.

I still pay for a monthly listing though, to improve inbound linking. Directories are still a part of any strategic Internet marketing plan, and Yahoo is definitely in the game plan, but the sales tactics in the summer or 2004 were shoddy.