{"id":405,"date":"2007-07-20T07:44:17","date_gmt":"2007-07-20T14:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/archives\/405"},"modified":"2014-12-04T13:38:37","modified_gmt":"2014-12-04T20:38:37","slug":"is-yahoo-selling-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Yahoo Selling Out?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not talking about them selling the company, (although there are rumors) I’m talking about their integrity and their overall credibility as a search engine, by appearing to sell the number one organic search result to the highest bidder.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I attended the Internet strategy conference<\/a> in Portland, and one of the speakers was Cammie Dunaway, the chief marketing officer for Yahoo.<\/p>\n

During her presentation, she explained some new ways that Yahoo is working with advertisers, and she showed a TV commercial where the words “Special K” were typed into a Yahoo search box.<\/p>\n

When the search result page appeared, there was Kellogs, at the top of the search results, with a Special K logo right there by the SERP.<\/p>\n

Something about it looked odd to me, then it hit me… Directly above the advertisement, were the words “Search Results” but the tinted box and the words<\/em> “Sponsored Results” had been removed.<\/p>\n

Apparently this campaign is still running, as I just tried a search and here’s the result –<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nPerhaps this is nothing new, and Yahoo has done it before, but I’ve personally never noticed it.<\/p>\n

What bothers me about this, is that by removing the tinted box<\/strong> and leaving out the words “sponsored results<\/strong>“, Yahoo is effectively selling the number one search result.<\/p>\n

Is that option available for all advertisers? Is that option available for all phrases? Are they selling the number two, three, fours and five search results as well?<\/p>\n

Cool, where do I sign up before my competition does, and how much does it cost?<\/p>\n

Yahoo does seem to be leaving the actual ranking numeral to the left of the organic result, does not make this any less confusing for the end user.<\/p>\n

Yahoo, I think I would I would like my graphic for my “ad” to be a large red #1? Would that be all right?<\/p>\n

Clearly, it appears that Yahoo has gone out of their way to seamlessly blend an advertisement with their search results. Has anyone seen other instances of this?<\/p>\n

Do you think we’re seeing the beginning of the end of organic search on Yahoo?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not talking about them selling the company, (although there are rumors) I’m talking about their integrity and their overall credibility as a search engine, by appearing to sell the number one organic search result to the highest bidder. Yesterday I attended the Internet strategy conference in Portland, and one of the speakers was Cammie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-search-engines","category-yahoo"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Yahoo Selling Out?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I'm not talking about them selling the company, (although there are rumors) I'm talking about their integrity and their overall credibility as a search\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Yahoo Selling Out?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I'm not talking about them selling the company, (although there are rumors) I'm talking about their integrity and their overall credibility as a search\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Scott Hendison's Old Search Commander Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SearchCommander\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-07-20T14:44:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-04T20:38:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/images\/yahoo-specialk.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scott\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@shendison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@shendison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scott\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/search-engines\\\/is-yahoo-selling-out\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/search-engines\\\/is-yahoo-selling-out\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Scott\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3142c7d28dc676725ac62cd6c9de8371\"},\"headline\":\"Is Yahoo Selling Out?\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-07-20T14:44:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-04T20:38:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/search-engines\\\/is-yahoo-selling-out\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":355,\"commentCount\":23,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/search-engines\\\/is-yahoo-selling-out\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/images\\\/yahoo-specialk.gif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Search Engines\",\"Yahoo\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/search-engines\\\/is-yahoo-selling-out\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/search-engines\\\/is-yahoo-selling-out\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/search-engines\\\/is-yahoo-selling-out\\\/\",\"name\":\"Is Yahoo Selling Out?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/search-engines\\\/is-yahoo-selling-out\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/search-engines\\\/is-yahoo-selling-out\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/images\\\/yahoo-specialk.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-07-20T14:44:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-04T20:38:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3142c7d28dc676725ac62cd6c9de8371\"},\"description\":\"I'm not talking about them selling the company, (although there are rumors) I'm talking about their integrity and their overall credibility as a search\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/search-engines\\\/is-yahoo-selling-out\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/search-engines\\\/is-yahoo-selling-out\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/search-engines\\\/is-yahoo-selling-out\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/images\\\/yahoo-specialk.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/images\\\/yahoo-specialk.gif\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/search-engines\\\/is-yahoo-selling-out\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is Yahoo Selling Out?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Scott Hendison's Old Search Commander Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pdxtc.com\\\/wpblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3142c7d28dc676725ac62cd6c9de8371\",\"name\":\"Scott\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ba275e23c0aad37526141e715b54cd3eeac27b071e4395b2b39e801ca68355d6?s=96&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ba275e23c0aad37526141e715b54cd3eeac27b071e4395b2b39e801ca68355d6?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ba275e23c0aad37526141e715b54cd3eeac27b071e4395b2b39e801ca68355d6?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Scott\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/shendison\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is Yahoo Selling Out?","description":"I'm not talking about them selling the company, (although there are rumors) I'm talking about their integrity and their overall credibility as a search","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is Yahoo Selling Out?","og_description":"I'm not talking about them selling the company, (although there are rumors) I'm talking about their integrity and their overall credibility as a search","og_url":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/","og_site_name":"Scott Hendison's Old Search Commander Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SearchCommander","article_published_time":"2007-07-20T14:44:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-12-04T20:38:37+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/images\/yahoo-specialk.gif","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Scott","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@shendison","twitter_site":"@shendison","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scott","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/"},"author":{"name":"Scott","@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/#\/schema\/person\/3142c7d28dc676725ac62cd6c9de8371"},"headline":"Is Yahoo Selling Out?","datePublished":"2007-07-20T14:44:17+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-04T20:38:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/"},"wordCount":355,"commentCount":23,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/images\/yahoo-specialk.gif","articleSection":["Search Engines","Yahoo"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/","url":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/","name":"Is Yahoo Selling Out?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/images\/yahoo-specialk.gif","datePublished":"2007-07-20T14:44:17+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-04T20:38:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/#\/schema\/person\/3142c7d28dc676725ac62cd6c9de8371"},"description":"I'm not talking about them selling the company, (although there are rumors) I'm talking about their integrity and their overall credibility as a search","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/images\/yahoo-specialk.gif","contentUrl":"http:\/\/pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/images\/yahoo-specialk.gif"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/search-engines\/is-yahoo-selling-out\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is Yahoo Selling Out?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/","name":"Scott Hendison's Old Search Commander Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/#\/schema\/person\/3142c7d28dc676725ac62cd6c9de8371","name":"Scott","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba275e23c0aad37526141e715b54cd3eeac27b071e4395b2b39e801ca68355d6?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba275e23c0aad37526141e715b54cd3eeac27b071e4395b2b39e801ca68355d6?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba275e23c0aad37526141e715b54cd3eeac27b071e4395b2b39e801ca68355d6?s=96&r=g","caption":"Scott"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/shendison"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}