While the news that Google is pulling out of it’s deal with Yahoo is disappointing in many ways, if I still worked at Yahoo I’d look at this as an opportunity to get back to basics.
One of Yahoo’s issues of late is simply that it keeps trying to compete in playing fields already dominated by other players (search, behavioral advertising, social networking, etc). I have always found this frustrating, because Yahoo has something no one else has and that is deep data on it’s registered users. Believe me, I have looked far and wide for another online property with as much volume and as deep targeting, and I haven’t found anything like Yahoo. There are many sites that have the targeting, but not the volume or have the volume, but not the targeting. Also, Yahoo is priced correctly for the results it produces, leading to positive ROIs on most media plans.
But in recent years, they have reduced the priority of the registration data, especially the industry and occupational data that recruitment and B2B marketers focus on. Instead they have been focusing on behavioral targeting which is more limited in my opinion.
So now that the Google thing is over, I am hoping Yahoo starts focusing on beefing up their registration data, focusing on online display (especially using the registration data across their ad network), leveraging their targeting on their wireless platforms, and generally getting back to being the premier online property it is. Highest on my wish list, putting the industry/occupation data back on the main registration form. I may even put that on my X-Mas list this year.
Maybe begging will help…. Yahoo please, please, please, with a cherry on top, get back to being the best and start embracing what differentiates you from your competitors.
Anyway… best of luck Yahoos! I know you can make it through!
