You look familiar. Are you on Twitter? Subscribed to my feed yet?
In a single day, Bing has increased the number of fans of their Facebook page by 500 percent. How? By using clever social media advertising embedded within the popular Facebook application Farmville.
The advert appeared yesterday inside the game Farmville, encouraging players to become a fan of Bing in exchange for free farm cash (the virtual currency used within Farmville). As an incentive for players to act, Bing positioned themselves as the ideal search engine to help them win the game with tips and solutions for how best to use their crops and animals. Probably the cleverest part of the promotion was the fact that users could fan the Bing page without interrupting their game.
As a follow up, Microsoft’s social media team then set about creating dedicated updates for Farmville users on the Bing Facebook page.
The Bing Facebook page started the day yesterday with around 100,000 fans and that figure is now well above 500,000.
Microsoft and Yahoo announced today that their planned Search Alliance has been given the go-ahead by the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission without any restrictions.
The exact implementation is yet to be announced, but will involve Yahoo shifting their organic and paid search operations to Microsoft. Yahoo will then display primary search results from Bing and enhance them with Yahoo content.
From Yahoo’s official press release:
“Implementation of the deal is expected to begin in the coming days and will involve transitioning Yahoo!’s algorithmic and paid search platforms to Microsoft, with Yahoo! becoming the exclusive relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers globally. Once the transition is completed, the companies’ unified search marketplace will deliver improved innovation for consumers, better volume and efficiency for advertisers and better monetization opportunities for web publishers through a platform that contains a larger pool of search queries.”
Advertising for both companies will be managed by Microsoft’s adCenter platform (meaning the closure of Yahoo Search Marketing) and prices for all search ads will be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process.
According to a memo sent to all Yahoo advertisers today:
- Yahoo Search Marketing advertisers will log into one place – Microsoft’s adCenter – to manage campaigns, for greater efficiency and a better ROI.
- Yahoo is hoping to transition advertisers and partners in the U.S. prior to October 2010, but may wait until 2011 for efficiency reasons.
- Advertisers will reach users on Yahoo! and Microsoft sites as well as other premium partner sites, with a single buy on adCenter.
- Yahoo will give Search Marketing advertisers 3 months warning of any changes to take place.
The two search giants have created a web site dedicated to the partnership and Yahoo has implemented a Transition Center for advertisers.
What does it mean for the search industry? To use a silly dinosaur analogy, (because who doesn’t like those?), it means that Bing the Triceratops and Yahoo the Brontosaurus have just combined to become an aggressive Tyrannosaurus Rex that’s going on a hunt for the Google Gigantosaurus.
Should be quite a spectacle.
News has just broken on Twitter that Microsoft and Yahoo! have finally closed a deal where Bing will power Yahoo! search results while Yahoo! will become the worldwide sales force for both companies’ search advertising.
@Bing broke the news with this tweet:
“Bing. Yahoo! Two great tastes that are now going to be great together. Check out http://bit.ly/9eUh7″
I can hear the mobile phones of a hundred Google executives ringing from here. Talk about a wake up call!
More details available on my SiteProNews blog post: It’s Official: Bing to Power Yahoo! Search.
Added: more industry coverage here:
It’s Finally Official, Microsoft and Yahoo Make a Deal, Yahoo Gives Up on Search (Search Engine Land)
Microsoft and Yahoo Finally Announce Deal (WebProNews)
Live Blogging The MSFT – YHOO Search Press Conference (Search Engine Land)
Top 10 Things the Microsoft/Yahoo! Deal Changes for SEO (SEOmoz)
The Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal, In Simple Terms (Search Engine Land)
Could the Google Gigantosaurus be challenged by a Yahoo / Bing Tyrannosaurus-Rex?
That’s the question I pose in my latest SiteProNews blog post Could it be Bing(o) for Yahoo? in response to the rumors that Yahoo and Microsoft are about to announce a major search advertising partnership.
What are your thoughts? Is a Yahoo / Bing T-Rex going to be strong enough to take a bite out of the Google Gigantosaurus? Please leave your comments below.
Has anyone else been following the drama unfolding at Yahoo this week?
A battle of wills between a major shareholder, Carl Icahn, and the Yahoo board of directors has seen Microsoft take a step closer to a Yahoo acquisition. The in-fighting has seen board members step down, new ones get appointed and the majority of them having to stand for re-election when the company holds it’s Annual General Meeting on August 2.
Read the whole saga in my latest blog post at SiteProNews.
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