Yahoo, eBay Join Forces to Fight Google - Terms of the Agreement
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There are four points to the multi-year strategic partnership. The areas covered include search and graphical advertising, online payments, a co-branded toolbar, and “click-to-call” functionality. As with any good partnership, it looks like each side is bringing equal resources to the table, and both sides will probably benefit about equally. I’ll cover the first two areas in this section, and the next two in the next section.
First, let me touch on the search and advertising element. Yahoo will become the exclusive third-party provider of all graphical advertisements throughout the eBay.com site. With the search engine company having just recently finished upgrading its advertising system with its Project Panama, this comes at an excellent time.
Additionally, the two companies are going to work together to improve the quality and comprehensiveness of Yahoo web search results for eBay.com. This could be a major win for Yahoo, depending on how it is implemented. eBay historically has not wanted search engines to crawl its site, at least not for the sake of returning actual auction listings. The Internet auctioneer prefers to have users come to its website to conduct their searches. If Yahoo were suddenly permitted to do the kind of “deep linking” that other engines can’t, that could be quite a competitive advantage. (eBay, of course, would gain the advantage of having a lot more people who do search for a living in their corner).
Next I’ll cover online payments. Many of us still think eBay buying PayPal was one of the smartest things the auctioneer ever did. PayPal is used for a lot more than buying Beanie Babies these days, though its most prominent usage continues to be online payments of various kinds. Consequently, as part of the agreement, PayPal will become the exclusive third-party provider of Yahoo’s online wallet. This will allow customers to pay for Yahoo services from bank accounts, credit cards or balances associated with their PayPal account.
Right off the bat, this means 73 million people in the U.S. alone can purchase Yahoo services more easily. PayPal has an international reach, so there are actually many millions more for whom this works. Incidentally, the services covered include Yahoo’s small business and advertising services – so yes, you will now be able to pay for your search engine advertising through Yahoo with your PayPal account. Google doesn’t offer that option; for those who prefer transacting business through PayPal, that gives Yahoo a competitive advantage.
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