Microsoft's Bing engine will deliver Yahoo search results once the two companies complete their planned integration. Microsoft's self-serve ads will appear on Yahoo search results. Yahoo's sales team will sell and book premium sponsorships for both Yahoo and Bing.
Bloomberg reported earlier in the deal process that Microsoft and Yahoo would control more than a quarter of the market for ad banners -- commonly called display ads -- and animated ads. Google, the top search ad seller, would have a hard time competing against the pair, because Google has focused on text ads at the expense of taking a share of the display market.
Shashi wrote that there are three ways Yahoo wants to improve its customers' searches:
• "More apps and other tools to help you get things done as quickly as possible." New Yahoo apps will focus on task completion, rather than luring customers to perform more searches. Shashi wrote, "We know that people don't want to search per se." Seth, I have to disagree: A long search session is the next best thing to a bubble bath.
[Image: Bloomberg]