Little cause to yodel

Add advertisers to the list of parties unenthused about the search advertising deal between Google and Yahoo, reports The New York Times.

Advertisers fear that without competition from Yahoo, Google will be less inclined to improve its services. And while Google claims it will not raise prices unfairly, prices will likely creep upward anyway.

In May, Google surpassed 68 percent share of US searches; Yahoo commanded 19.95 percent of searches. Those figures give Google's AdWords platform almost 90 percent dominance over sponsored US searches.

Advertisers also see the deal as the end of Yahoo's Panama ad platform. It also throws into doubt Yahoo's long-term plans to merge its disparate ad systems. While those plans may still move forward, their success will depend on Yahoo's ability to continue serving effective — and proprietary — search advertising units.
In a statement made when the deal was announced, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said advertisers will benefit because Google's inclusion in Yahoo's sponsored searches will likely improve the quality of ad placement.