Yahoo Canada has just entered a strategic alliance with another company, and the company, in typical press release-ese, calls itself “a leading local and national interactive media provider of news, entertainment and services.” Yet in what has to be an example of Canadian humor, the company’s name is Canoe.
Think about it: the American corporation insists on putting an exclamation point after its shriek of a designation. The Canadian entity likens itself to a small, floating tub.
Still, Canoe, regardless of its connection to primitive watercraft, is thoroughly modern – a network of sites focuses on subjects like social networking, education, and automobiles, and on the whole, receives about 9 million monthly visitors. And this partnership with Yahoo should help Canoe become even more up-to-date.
“Yahoo! Canada will provide Canoe.ca and SUN Media online holdings with the Yahoo! search engine to enhance their sites’ search functionality and give Canoe.ca content and classified services broader exposure across Canada,” according to Canoe Money.
As for what Yahoo will get out of the deal, the same exchange of Canadian content (in both English and French) should benefit its users.
Part of the integration is already complete, and everything else is slated to be wrapped up by the end of 2008’s first quarter. But if you find yourself wanting more understated, quirky comedy in the meantime, “The Red Green Show” and “Corner Gas” are always good bets.
