I just received the following email announcing the new search alliance. I will comment on it as soon as I have time to test the new “alliance”.
Microsoft® and Yahoo! have now received regulatory clearance to form the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance in the United States and European Union. This milestone is an exciting step in our effort to give your business a time-saving and cost-efficient way to connect with a larger combined audience of potential customers.
How the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance benefits you
After the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance is implemented, you will:
Reach more potential customers: Search ad inventory from both the Yahoo! and Microsoft networks will be joined in a new, unified search marketplace powered by Bing™ , with a combined audience of over 150 million searchers in the U.S and nearly 577 million searchers worldwide.1
Save valuable time and effort: You’ll use a single platform—Microsoft adCenter—to manage your campaigns easier and faster. With just one buy, your search ads will reach users on Bing, Yahoo!, and other premium partner sites and networks, such as The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, msnbc.com, FoxSports.com, Facebook, and Buy.com.
What’s ahead
For now, it’s business as usual; there is no change to your account or service. Your ads will continue to serve on Bing search results pages, and you will continue to receive the same great service from Microsoft.
Both companies are committed to making this transition a seamless experience. Our goal is to bring the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance to the U.S. by the end of 2010, prior to the crucial holiday season, with additional countries following on a staggered schedule beginning in 2011.
As our transition dates approach, we will contact you with information about what to do next. In order to ensure you continue to receive important service updates, please verify your contact information is current in Microsoft adCenter. View our help topic: Change contact information.
How to learn more
In the meantime, you can familiarize yourself with the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance by visiting our new resource, searchalliance.com, where you’ll find plenty of additional details, including press releases, FAQs, and more!
We appreciate your business and look forward to bringing you the benefits of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance.
Sincerely,
The Microsoft adCenter Team
Fabian says
Hi There, I received the same email today from Microsoft and from Yahoo!. I wrote about it on my legal marketing blog at http://www.advoltlegal.com/category/legal-marketing-blog/. What I found interesting and funny was that as a reader of both emails, which i received almost simultaneously, you can’t help but assume that engineers at Yahoo! are less confident in their abilities than Microsoft’s. The reason I’m saying that is because Yahoo’s email states that the Search Alliance will come to users and advertisers before the 2010 Holiday season. However, they state that they might postpone that to early 2011 in case that turns out to be more suitable. Essentially, they’re saying we’re trying, but don’t hold us to it….
Jerry West says
Yeah, it is typical spin in case they can’t get everything done in time they don’t want you to blame them. Whatever happened to “personal responsibility”?
Ben Pate says
Does this mean my Bing Paid Search honey pot is gonna go bye bye?
Jerry West says
Hey Ben,
I hope not as my Bing contact is MUCH better than my Yahoo! contact!