Yahoo’s Search Marketing will make some changes to the information made available to its clients, as they announce alterations to the Manage Bids pages during the transition to its new paid search service.
But what Yahoo giveth Yahoo can taketh away, as Graywolf noted at Threadwatch. “It looks like the folks at Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) have started to drink from the Google keep everybody guessing and in the dark kool aid,” he wrote.
The point of contention comes from the changes Yahoo will make to its Manage Bids pages. Their Search Marketing blog described what is coming:
In early December some of the information you’re used to seeing on the Manage Bids page will no longer be available. The “Top 5 Max Bids,” “Position” and “Your Cost” columns will be removed from the current account interface. The View Bids tool will also no longer be available.
Instead, you’ll see two new columns on the Sponsored Search Manage Bids page:
1. Estimated Average Position
This column provides an estimate of the average position in which your ad may be displayed on the results page, based on your max bid and the bids of other advertisers.
2. Bid Range for Top Positions
This column displays the bids for the positions at the top of the search results page for each of your keywords.
As a few commenters at Threadwatch pointed out, this will make Yahoo more like Google in its practices. Since Google has been making money hand over fist with AdWords and relevant connections of ads to queries, it makes sense for Yahoo to try and emulate this.
Especially since there are billions of online ad revenue dollars at stake, not to mention MSN snapping at their heels too.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
