ESPN and MLB Strike Out Looking When it Comes to Search and the 2008 Home Run Derby

Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers put on a spectacle during the 2008 MLB Home Run Derby as he hit a single round record 28 home runs in the first round of the contest. I am not quite sure how the ratings will end up, but ESPN, the MLB, and their partners have to be optimistic for decent numbers based on the record breaking performance. And although this year’s derby was probably lacking the star-power of recent derbies past, the network could at least rely on promoting the historic venue-Yankee Stadium in it's final year.

With all of the effort surrounding the promotion and coverage of this event by ESPN, the MLB and their partners, it's hard to believe they could have missed out on the opportunity with search, integrating online opportunities, and driving relevant traffic to a destination where further brand engagement could have occurred.

One missed opportunity was not capitalizing on the spike in searches on “Home Run Derby” that would expectedly occur around the all-star break.

Searching “Home Run Derby” resulted in NO paid ads...

...so it’s clear there isn’t much advertiser competition surrounding these terms. The cheap clicks could have been driven to a special Home Run Derby landing page or microsite with stats, blogs, past Home Run Derby highlights, pictures or even interactive games.

But the good news is- it's not too late! The big game isn't until tomorrow night. It's as simple as coming up with a destination and some ad copy, and bidding on the term "all star game"-there is no advertiser competition here either. And the spike for "all star game" is also pretty high in mid July.

Labels: Google, Paid Search, Search, Strategy

posted by Shane Kelly @ Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 12:03 AM

Extending the Reach and Effectiveness of Your Marketing Efforts with Paid Search

Much has been said about Paid Search and its effectiveness as a direct marketing medium. It’s targeted, cost effective and generates tremendous results.

However, an often overlooked aspect of Paid Search is its effectiveness as a complimentary medium to other forms of media being deployed to market various products and services. For example, when a prospective customer sees an ad on TV or in a magazine, it is highly unlikely that they are going to stop what they are doing and act on the message or offer right there and then. More likely they are going to continue watching the program or reading that magazine. In fact, to assume that your target will be completely captivated by your ad and stop what they are currently doing to act on it, is a big assumption. And you know what they say about assumptions.

So is all lost? Not at all. While your prospect might not be able to recall the entire message word for word, it’s very likely that they can recall a portion of it. They might not know your company name, but remember the product name. They might not recall the headline, but remember a part of the concept. So, once they have finished doing what they are doing, where is this prospect going to go in order to turn this fragmented piece of information into a complete idea? The Search Engines.

Yes, as we all know, search engines are a great place to take an idea or big piece of information and turn it into something more. Therefore a user who is interested in what you have to offer, but does not necessarily have enough information to go directly to the source, is likely going to turn to the search engines in hope of finding the necessary information needed to access your product or service.

This is where Paid Search Engine Marketing can step in and really act as a means to extend the life of your other marketing efforts. By dissecting the message and thinking of all the various ways a user might react to or apply it to their lives, you can build a list of terms that, when searched on, will ensure that the prospect will be able to find your product or service, even if they can only recall a small portion of what was actually said in the advertisement.

Additionally, with Paid Search, you have the ability to choose which terms you want your product or service to be associated with, and assuming you have enough budget allocated, secure a high profile and very visible placement. You can also control the message that appears when users search on these terms to complement the message associated with your other marketing efforts and direct the user to a destination that provides them with everything they need to access or purchase your product and service. Additionally, the fact that you can turn it on and off based on the needs and timing associated with your other marketing efforts provides a huge degree of flexibility that ensures your message is placed exactly where and when you want it to be accessed.

Sounds pretty easy and basic enough doesn’t it? I mean, you’d think that all companies would take advantage of this strategy.

Unfortunately this is not always the case. In fact, more often than not, companies see Paid Search as an island; not something that can be tied into and extend the life of their other marketing or PR efforts.

A Case of Missed Opportunity - Bag, Borrow or Steal & Sex and the City Movie
To support this claim, just take a look at the company Bag, Borrow or Steal. This company received a huge boost – a direct mention in one of the of most hyped movie releases of the summer - Sex and the City, as well as a huge article in the May 27th edition of the Wall Street Journal. This is press and publicity that almost any company would kill for! The focus of the Wall Street Journal was how Bag, Borrow or Steal was planning to leverage the mention in the movie to grow their business.

So what has Bag, Borrow or Steal done to capitalize on their 10 seconds of movie fame? Well, according to the Wall Street Journal article they have trumpeted its affiliation with the movie on their website as well as launched a contest on YouTube. Now this is all great, but it really assumes that you are already somewhat familiar with the company or are going to remember this line from the movie.

My guess is that people will remember bits and pieces from the movie, such as the handbags being carried by the characters, but are they really going to remember a specific line from one particular scene? Not likely.

Therefore, by buying terms such as “Sex and the City Movie” or “Sex and the City Handbag”, Bag, Borrow or Steal could really extend the life of this mention in the movie and procure additional traffic and sales.

Additionally, my guess is that via PR they are pushing their YouTube contest and people are writing about it, just like we saw with the Wall Street Journal article. While this is nice, users still have to go and search out the contest. Therefore, people are likely going to turn to the search engines to search for the contest using terms such as “Sex and the City YouTube Contest” or “Sex and the City You Tube Contest”.

However, after reading this article, I decided to do some searching on my own, and much to my surprise, when I searched on all of the aforementioned terms, Bag, Borrow or Steal was nowhere to be found in the Paid Search results. Talk about a huge missed opportunity. Here is a company that received national press in the second most widely circulated paper in America, and you could not find them. Now this may have changed by now, but below are screen grabs of search results taken the day after the Wall Street Journal Article was published.

Search Result for "Sex and the City movie"

Search Result for "Sex and the City handbag"

Search Result for "Sex and the City youtube contest"

In short, whether they knew when the article was being published or not, once it was printed they should have had a plan of action in place. Therefore, by having a Paid Search campaign ready to go, they could have started capitalizing on their affiliation with the movie some time ago, or at least immediately after the article was published.

The moral of the story here is that Paid Search should not be looked at just as an isolated medium or silo in your online marketing program. Rather it should be closely integrated into all of your marketing efforts as it can really work to extend their reach and life. By considering how people use the search engines to complete ideas and to find what they are looking for based on what they have seen elsewhere, you can really garner tremendous added value from your marketing investment.

Therefore, whether you are doing a big PR Campaign or multifaceted advertising campaign, be sure to think about what happens next and the fact that by integrating Paid Search into your campaign strategy you can really extend its life and grow your business in the process.

Labels: Integration, Paid Search, Search, SEO, Strategy

posted by Ty Velde @ Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 7:33 PM

One Stop Search Shopping

Yahoo! India recently launched Glue Pages Beta, a new search experience that collates and integrates information from across the Web onto one enhanced visual results page. Glue Pages run across searches for select terms in categories such as health, sports, entertainment, travel, technology, and finance. Glue Pages Beta works well when searching for topics that have broad search results.

For example, if you search for “yoga,” the classic paid and natural search results will show up, but the page is also complimented with a Wikipedia definition for yoga, Google Blog Search results, as well as links from HowStuffWorks, YouTube videos on yoga and information from Y! India Answers.

“Searching on Glue Pages Beta will result in an experience that promises more than just web links. Users will receive more relevant, visually appealing search results from across the Web in one topical page. The new Glue Pages Beta feature for Yahoo! India Search supports our strategy to make Yahoo! the leading starting point on the Internet and demonstrates our commitment to provide a compelling online search experience,” said Gopal Krishna, Head of Audience, Yahoo! India.

To try out Yahoo! India Glue Pages Beta, click here

Labels: Paid Search, Search, SEO, Yahoo

posted by Barb @ Monday, May 12, 2008 - 9:35 AM

Paid and Natural Search - Complimentary Mediums

I was recently asked the following question by a client: "If we are appearing in the Natural Search Engine Results, why should we we also be paying to appear in the Paid Search results for the same term?" In short, if they're getting the clicks for free, why should they be paying for them as well?

However, I don't think the answer is really that simple, as a truly effective search engine marketing campaign is not about Paid vs. Natural, rather its about understanding what makes each medium strong thereby playing to and understanding those strengths.

However for the sake of the issue at hand, my task was to explain the value of maintaining a paid search presence in the wake of appearing naturally as well. So below, is what I believe is strong case for why you should continue to go with a Paid Presence for terms that you also may be appearing naturally for.

Message Control
With Paid Search, you have the ability to definitively control the message that is being communicated to the searcher on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). What I mean by this is that the message and copy that accompanies a Natural Result can be pulled from your meta data or page content. However, unless you have taken time to carefully craft you meta data, very often the message that is displayed is not a very solid marketing statement.

Therefore, one must remember that even natural results have a click-through rate and while you might have a great position, if the accompanying description does not make sense, a user may look over it. Therefore, this is where a Paid Search result can supplement this problem, as you can easily craft a tight and cohesive message that says what you, NOT the search engine, want it to say.
Destination Control
With Paid Search, you also have the ability to decide where you want to direct the user. However, the destination for a Natural Result for the same term is determined by the Search Engine’s algorithm, and while the engines are pretty smart when it comes to determining relevancy, their vision does not always match-up with yours.

Therefore, with paid search you can decide exactly where the user will go and what they will see. Of course it must be relevant, but YOU have the ability to determine this.

Change Control
With paid search, you also have the ability to change both your messaging and your destination, whenever you want to. Therefore, if you want change how your site is associated with a certain term; you can do this on both a Messaging and Destination level… all at a moment’s notice.

However, with Natural SEO, your associated message and destination is pretty much fixed and does not necessarily change all that often. While you can update the description, you must wait until the page in question gets re-indexed and you are still relegated to the same destination, as that page is where the search engine has determined the most relevant content resides.

Dominating Page Real Estate
Having both a paid and natural presence also enables you to maintain a more dominant presence on the Search Engine Result Page, which ensures that you will get maximum traction.

Below is a heat map, which shows how and where people look at search results. As you will see there is huge amount of traction with both the paid and natural results. Therefore, if you are not in the paid results you are not necessarily garnering all of the available opportunity on the Search Engine Result Page.

Please do note that while it may sound like I am trying to discount the natural results, that is not the case at all. Natural results most always drive more traffic and getting top positions is the true benchmark of success when it comes to any SEO program. However, what I am trying to illustrate is the value that Paid Search results do have, even when you are also appearing naturally for the same term, as paid search offers a level of flexibility and control that you cannot get from Natural SEO.

In the end, this is not a case of one versus the other, but about illustrating how having a fully integrated SEM and SEO program can ensure that you can take advantage of all that is being afforded to you in the search environment and driving the optimal user experience for all facets of the page.

Labels: Google, Industry, Landing Pages, Paid Search, POV, Search, SEO, Strategy, Yahoo

posted by Ty Velde @ Monday, May 5, 2008 - 6:47 PM

Is Google’s Universal Search Designed to Improve the Experience of the User or Stockholder?

More Relevant Results? Maybe

More Google Revenues? Likely

As Google continues to roll out expanded universal search listings, it will become increasingly difficult to achieve and maintain a strong natural search presence. The new search results will “incorporate information from a variety of previously separate sources – including videos, images, news, maps, books, and websites – into a single set of results” according to Google. Although Universal Search was rolled out in May, Google will gradually include a higher proportion of its local information, maps, images, video, and news results in the prime natural first page real estate.

Although the shift will be gradual, the addition of this content into the natural results means that it will be increasingly difficult to achieve or maintain your coveted first page ranking through traditional natural optimization tactics. Inbound links, metatags, and keyword density will still have their place in making pages pop undoubtedly, but savvy marketers will need to make sure they optimize different types of content as well to ensure continued visibility as the natural results continue to evolve. If maps, videos, images and other non-traditional listings continue to take natural real estate from the standard text listings, it will also be important to develop and optimize this content to at least ensure the opportunity to get the highly desirable above the fold natural real estate.

So how will the shift to universal results impact Google? Revenue.

PPC will become increasingly important for organizations that are currently ranked in the middle and lower portion of page one on Google for their key SEO terms. Now instead of competing with Wikipedia and more direct competitors within an industry, they are also competing with Google itself for a natural first page ranking. Organizations that typically invest more in natural SEO will begin to shift budgets to the paid side if they see universal results bumping their natural listings down to the second page or beyond for important, high frequency queries. When organizations invest in SEO efforts like keyword-centric content development and link-buying, Google loses out on those marketing dollars, so Universal Search certainly makes sense for Google’s shareholders.

The increasing PPC spend from dollars that previously funded SEO, coupled with the increase in the volume of advertisers, means a more highly competitive PPC market, and as a result, click costs will likely increase across the board. Natural SEO and PPC marketers alike will certainly be challenged as Universal Search expands, and the competition for the top paid listings will be amplified. PPC will become an even more crucial marketing tactic as natural rankings become harder to attain.

So is Universal Search really all about improving user experience? What do you think will happen to Google’s revenue if CPCs double? $500 a share might still be a good time to buy.

Labels: Google, Industry, Search, SEO, universal search

posted by Shane Kelly @ Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - 2:36 PM

The Pros and Cons of the Google Network

Google is headed full steam into display advertising with its Google Network. The search engine is offering a full array of online media products, including regular GIF and Flash banners (image ads in the AdSense network), streaming video ads, and rich media ads (Google Gadgets, currently in beta). Through its AdSense network, Google has basically created a huge network of sites. Now its reps are actively selling CPM (define) based banner and video ad packages to clients and agencies alike. These are also available to self-serve clients, of course.

Read more at http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3626369

Labels: ClickZ, Industry, Online Media, Search

posted by Harry Gold @ Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - 11:45 AM

Accessing the Critical Moment

In traditional media, planners and buyers are typically only able to utilize two targeting options to reach their audiences in any significant numbers: the "who" (demographics) and the "where" (designated marketing areas, or DMAs). That kind of media planning creates an incredible amount of waste.

Sure, they may reach a lot of people, and most of them might even be in the right demographic group or geographic location. But so many advertisers are communicating with literally millions of people just to reach those precious few who actually need or desire their products. With many media campaigns, the strategy is to build a brand and create desire, but if you aren't selling products that can be consumed by anyone at anytime, offline mass media can be very wasteful.

Read more at http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3626105

Labels: ClickZ, Online Media, Search

posted by Harry Gold @ Tuesday, June 12, 2007 - 3:43 PM

Pros and Cons of Google and DoubleClick

Google, the Internet behemoth, is swallowing up a critical piece of the online advertising infrastructure -- after devouring YouTube. Not only does it want to control the Web's access points to content, it also wants to assert its control behind the scenes with the DoubleClick acquisition.

Microsoft is crying monopoly (that's a new peak in irony), and most articles and points of view I've seen predict gloom, doom, and control.

Read more at http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3625716

Labels: ClickZ, Industry, Search

posted by Harry Gold @ Tuesday, May 1, 2007 - 10:33 AM

How I tried to Save the Yahoo! Search Term Suggestion Tool

So if you have a little time to read all of this you may actually find this post to be entertaining. Below is an email chain that resulted from me hearing that the person in charge of the Yahoo! Panama launch, planned to do what I consider to be one of the most wasteful things Yahoo! ever did.

It all started when we attended the Panama road show at the Harvard Club in Boston and this person (to protect his privacy I have replaced his name, contact info and title with XXXXX) announced that Yahoo! would be replacing the current Search Term Suggestion Tool with something that, instead of reporting historical search volume, would predict clicks. (Much like the Google Click Estimator.)

Now this flew right over the head of most of the people in the room but I raised my hand and said, "Wait a second, are you saying that the Search Term Suggestion tool that every search marketer on the planet loves and uses every day is going away?" His answer was, "yes." Could this guy be unaware of how essential that tool was and how cool everyone thought Yahoo! was for proving search marketers with this info?

The strange part was his reaction was as if no body had protested before. So from there a whole little feud let loose between me and this person who admittedly said, "I am the one directly responsible for this decision."

The really funny part was I started making a huge stink about this and when I told Yahoo! reps about it one of two things would happen:
A) They would say "Oh my god – I use that tool all the time in my presentations to show potential clients how much people are searching under their keywords – this is terrible." (My reaction.)
B) They would say, "Oh I heard about you." Clearly my protests had made their way around the company.

Ok, so the real reasons why I think they stopped maintaining the tool are as follows. ( It is certainly not that people were "confused" by it or that what they have given us as a replacement is better.)
A) Most people used the tool as an SEO keyword scoring tool and clearly that was of no benefit to Yahoo!
B) All that usage, data storage and other applications that scraped the results of the tool into their interfaces was probably very taxing on Yahoo! from an IT, storage and load balancing standpoint.
C) It could have shown that search volume on a month by month basis for certain terms was trending down on Yahoo! and that they were losing.

Now to XXXXXX's credit he did have a conference call with me, let me express my opinions and engaged in the lengthy email exchange that I am about to share with you and I give XXXX and the whole Yahoo! team major kudos for that. Also Yahoo! did leave the tool up but it often does not work and now only displays 2007 data. However, it is still a good scoring tool and they should use it as a way to build a search marketing community made up of Yahoo! Search Term Suggestion Tool members. (Basically this is what I say in all the emails.)

So as you read these emails realize that they started right after the event at the Harvard Club. The last email was from me to on of our Yahoo! reps that was facilitating the dialogue between me and XXXXXXXX.

Actually, I must add that we did in fact all survive the Search Term Suggestion Tool effectively going away and all is well. Panama is indeed leaps and bounds above were it was and Yahoo! is very often the top performing property in many of our B2C paid search campaigns from a cost per action and ROI standpoint.

******************* Email # 1 **********************

From: Harry Gold
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 13:32:44 -0700
To: XXXXXXX XXXXXXX@yahoo-inc.com
Subject: It was great talking to you!

Hi XXXXXXX,

I just wanted to tell you what a pleasure it was to meet you the other night and talk to you about the coming changes at Yahoo! I also want to thank you for letting me express my views on the importance of the current suggestion tool and for you agreeing to take the time to see how our company uses it in the new business process.

I know you are either on or winding down from the road show so as we discussed I will give you a couple weeks to catch up then I’ll send you some of my pitch materials that use the tool and we can schedule a time to talk though them.

Again thank you so much for this opportunity, I look forward to talking again.

Best regards,
Harry-
___________________________
Harry J. Gold
founder, managing partner
617-254-5000 x 1100 direct
______________________
overdrive
46 Leo M. Birmingham Parkway
First Floor
Boston, MA 02135
http://www.ovrdrv.com/

******************* Email # 2 **********************

From: XXXXXXX [mailto:XXXXXXX@yahoo-inc.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 6:31 PM
To: Harry Gold
Subject: Re: It was great talking to you!

Harry,

Indeed it was fun meeting you and your team. I love the passion around this industry, and getting out of the “Panama factory” to get in front of actual customers really revs me up.I appreciate the perspective you brought me on how valuable keyword search data is to sell the search tactic to customers. Let’s definitely continue the dialog there.

If you have proposals ready to ship my way, please don’t hesitate, as I’d like to put my thinking cap on around this topic as soon as possible. But if you want to think on it for a bit, just send them along when you’re ready.

Looking forward to the next conversation!

XXXXXXX

XXXXXXX Sr. Director, XXXXXXX ManagementYahoo! Search Marketing searchmarketing.yahoo.comAddress: 3333 Empire Ave. Burbank, CA 91504 USAO: XXXXXXXXXXX F: XXXXXXXXXXX E: XXXXXXX@yahoo-inc.com

******************* Email # 3 **********************

From: Harry Gold
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 21:12:17 -0700
To: XXXXXXX XXXXXXX@yahoo-inc.com
Conversation: It was great talking to you!
Subject: RE: It was great talking to you!

Hello XXXXXXX,

Below is a link to a download page where you will find a portion of our capabilities presentation. In order to see the stats we use from the suggestion tool you will want to view it in Slide Show mode and then click on the live links embedded in the Current Search Situation slides. (Some links may require a user name and password to access the destination pages and they are listed in the presentation.)

I have included three Keyword Usage Analysis Tables from past pitches. What I am basically showing here is that there are millions of searches per year that describe these companies’ products and then illustrate with position reports that they have no presence in those terms responsible for the majority of those searches. I then present paid search as the best and fastest way to capitalize on this channel.

Please do let me know what you think and in the mean time I will try and send you more relevant materials as they arise. I have dozens and dozens of these pitches and these types of analysis slides have been critical parts of the close every time.

I look forward to speaking with you about this further and again thank you so much for this opportunity.

Download Page:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (sorry, cannot post this in the blog)

Talk to you soon,

Harry-

******************* Email # 4 **********************

From: XXXXXXX [mailto:XXXXXXX@yahoo-inc.com]
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 1:48 PM
To: Harry Gold; XXXXXXX
Subject: Re: It was great talking to you!

Harry,

Hope all is well and that you’re enjoying a nice early fall in New England. This is the one time of year where we southern Californians are justifiably jealous of your climate. We’re going gangbusters here to get project Panama ready and out the door. You’re going to like it.

I’ve spent time with some of the Product Managers on my team thinking about the use case around search volumes that we discussed in Boston. We think that the Panama offering actually will allow you to make your pitch in a much more compelling manner. We’d like to get an hour to talk with you (and others from Overdrive if you want them there) to kick the tires on what we’ve been thinking. Can you suggest a couple of times in the latter part of next week or early in the first week in October that might work for you? If you can, I can rally our team here and get a call set up for us to talk.

Thanks,
XXXXXXX

XXXXXXX Sr. Director, XXXXXXX ManagementYahoo! Search Marketing searchmarketing.yahoo.comAddress: 3333 Empire Ave. Burbank, CA 91504 USAO: XXXXXXXXX F: XXXXXXX E: XXXXXXX@yahoo-inc.com

******************* Email # 5 **********************

From: Harry Gold
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 8:56 PM
To: 'XXXXXXX'; 'XXXXXXX'
Subject: RE: It was great talking to you!Importance: High

Hi XXXXXXX,

Please let me know that you are getting my emails as for some reason our IP is getting blocked here and there. I sent you some dates but have not heard back from you and I am a bit concerned you didn’t get my emails.

I am very excited about seeing your new tool but I still get the feeling from your email (below) that the tool that is at the foundation of everything we do is going to go away. I am still a bit mystified as to why you would want to remove the most valuable search marketing tool on the entire web. One that is used literally several times a day by every search marketer on the planet. Why not simply leave it and offer the other one to?

Also, look at the interface for your current tool:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

If people are confused by it simply put more info on it to tell them what they are looking at. (Tell them specifically they are not looking at click or traffic projections if it is causing confusion.)

I always look at that interface and the lack of promotions and registration requirements you have on it and think it is the biggest lost opportunity for Yahoo! Again, why not leave it and use it to your benefit? You could:

1) Use the interface as a branding, marketing and cross selling page for search marketers
2) Use it to promote the new tool
3) Make search marketers register for access to it – think of the amazing email/direct mail database you guys will be able to create

I can understand closing it to tools that use it to display the info in their environments but if you put a password on it like the bid viewing tool you would stop those kinds of queries. Finally, why even risk upsetting a community that represents a significant customer base and disrupt their research and selling process? (I know I am incredibly stressed about it. Its absence will rock the foundation of my business and force us to change a winning way of doing this that scored many clients for us and you.

Again, I am very excited about the tool you are launching and if it gives the total search volume on Yahoo! for a previous month then I am all for it and we have no issue. If it does not give that data and replaces it with click and position projections based on max bid levels then you are changing the whole way we and thousands of other search marketers pitch our services. It is my sincere hope that you choose to simply leave the tool alone and add the new one. The current tool is the only credible source of the simple info it provides and the whole industry loves Yahoo! for providing it! (See all the links to it below.)

I hope to connect with you soon.

Best regards,
Harry-

The links below are typical of thousands of pages on the web that promote and link to the tool. (According to Yahoo! there are over 4500 links pointing at the tool. According to MSN there are over 5400 links pointing at the tool. Why not capitalize on that presence with my suggestions above?)

(I removed the long list of links for this blog post.)

******************* Email # 6 **********************

This was the one to the Yahoo! sales rep that was trying to appease me – I definitely commend her for her efforts – she was really great about the whole thing.

From: Harry Gold
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 1:31 PM
To: XXXXXXXXX
Subject: RE: Yahoo! Buzz Index Information

Hi XXXXXXXX,

Thank you for this information. After the call with XXXXXX and team I have to confess that I am still as concerned and confused as ever. I am really grateful that he would take the time to talk to me but I think Yahoo! should ask themselves quick question from a sales point of view:

Taking away a tool that is known, loved and used everyday by the search marketing community (see me email from last week below) will a) make search marketers happy or b) upset search marketers?

The reality is that no matter what John says this new system is not going to make my life easier or my sales process better. I am sure the new tool is great but why take the other tool away? Again – the big question is “Why take the other tool away?”

It is like telling a person who has been eating toast everyday for the past 5 years that your are now going to take the toast away and give him a bagel. On top of that you are telling them that they will like the bagel more because you think bagels are better. Why not offer them both and let them decide?

I am sorry to be such a nudge on this but it just makes no sense to me since the forecasted click and cost data that the new tool is going to provide is going to be equally, if not more, inaccurate as the historical date the current search term suggestion tool provides.

Harry-

Ok, in conclusion I may have devoted way to much energy to this but I still believe to this day that the Yahoo! / Overture Search Term Suggestion tool was an amazing resource and I will miss it. I guess I am grateful that it is still up in its current form but I do wish it was more reliable.

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