21 July 2010 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter

Yahoo! begins tests of Bing search and advertising platforms

With their fully combined search-advertising platform drawing ever close to implementation, Microsoft and Yahoo! have begun migration of both search traffic and advertisers.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Yahoo! has commenced "shadow tests" to determine whether it can successfully migrate its keyword-based search ads to Microsoft's adCenter platform. Under the 10-year search deal between the two companies, Microsoft adCenter will ultimately power search-based ads on both Bing and Yahoo!

Writing for Search Engine Land, Yahoo!'s director of search engine marketing, David Roth, explained: "Yahoo has shared that we're going to begin live testing of both organic and paid listings (showing search listings from the Microsoft platform on Yahoo Search) this month.

"The idea as I understand it is to test the integration points for both organic and paid results, and if all goes well we could see a transition of organic ('algo') listings in the August/September timeframe, with the paid transition right on its heels.

"The goal is to migrate all paid advertisers to adCenter by October 15. The key here is quality. Yahoo! and Microsoft have been very clear that only if we can ensure a high-quality experience for users, advertisers and publishers will we hold to this timeline."

Yahoo! has also revealed that up to 25 per cent of search results currently delivered through Yahoo! Search may be powered by Bing.

Writing for the Yahoo! Search Blog, vice president of Yahoo! Search product operations, Kartik Ramakrishnan, said: "We've started testing organic (also referred to as algorithmic) and paid search listings from Microsoft for up to 25 per cent of Yahoo! Search traffic in the U.S.

"The primary change for these tests is that the listings are coming from Microsoft. However, the overall page should look the same as the Yahoo! Search you're used to - with rich content and unique tools and features from Yahoo!

"If you happen to fall into our tests, you might also notice some differences in how we're displaying select search results due to a variety of product configurations we are testing."

Under the 10-year agreement, which hopes to challenge Google's dominance of the search sphere, Yahoo! will manage the consortium's premium advertisers and retain 88 per cent of revenue earned through ads on Yahoo! sites.

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