Yahoo! Search Marketing is Released

[webpundit]

I noticed today that Yahoo has rolled all of its search marketing offerings together to form Yahoo Search Marketing: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/

I thought Overture was being renamed to Yahoo Search Marketing, but this page boasts a range of products, including Shopping, Travel, Directory, PPI & Overture (sponsored search).

Haven't seen it before or anywhere else yet, so I'm assuming it's new?

[Nacho]

I went through the tutorial flash movie, it ends with a nice tag line, "Yahoo! Search Marketing - Powerful Ideas for Smart Marketers."

Seems like they changed the name from Site Match Xchange™ to "Search Submit Express" and Site Match™ Self Serve™ to "Search Submit Pro".

[Nacho]

This little wizard was a great feature to help "Find the products that meet your business objectives". But after playing around with it for a while, it seems like it needs a bit more fine tuneing.

[cryptblade]

I wonder what Al Reis and Jack Trout would think about Yahoo violating the "laws of marketing"?

I remember reading their books and I used to think they were "gods" until I realized their theories didnt hold a lick in interactive marketing. Not to say their stuff is bunk - but their "laws" don't always hold up so lawful in interactive marketing - especially search marketing.

Regardless, I don't know if this rebranding of Overture is going to do Yahoo any good. Personally, I don't like it. Overture is a lot easier to say than YahooSearchMarketing....! And calling it YSM doesnt really work either...well, not for me.

I won't say this is a mistake - cause Overture's branding isn't for common folks - but I think it's silly and pointless for Yahoo to change things around like this...

[Nacho]

I used to think the same when Overture killed the brand GoTo.com. At that time I believed it was a sad move, but then with more time the scar tend to fade away.

I agree that "Yahoo! Search Marketing" is a very long name, but with time it will be kept to just Yahoo! as we commonly say "I do PPC with Google" rather than "Google Advertising Programs" and specify it (perhaps???) to Adwords and Adsense.

In my opinion, keeping it under the umbrella brand is a good strategy to make Yahoo! have a stronger brand to fight Google and MSN.

[Randolph]

I'd say this was partially a result of the contract with MSN expiring next year as well...it would be silly to have a different brand just to provide paid listings to yourself