Microsoft and Yahoo officials noted a week ago that the pair are working out their ad/sales transition plan, via which Microsoft will be supplying Yahoo with search results and Yahoo moving its ad customers to the Microsoft adCenter ad platform.
In a new blog post on May 13, Yahoo execs shared a few examples of the kinds of thorny issues they're having to work out with the Softies in order to make this transition happen.
Acknowledging "there were naturally a lot of concerns by our search advertisers" as to how the transition might affect them, Yahoo officials posting some of their ad partners' questions and some answers on the Yahoo Search Marketing blog. Among the queries:
(The answers all are fairly involved, so check the blog post for the particulars....)
Last week, Yahoo and Microsoft officials said they hoped to complete the ad/search transition in time for holiday 2010 ad campaigns to be unaffected, but if that weren't possible, they'd hold off on transitioning until early 2011.
SearchEngineLand's Danny Sullivan noted there are many things to keep in mind when looking at this data. ("Yahoo has turned the corner! or "Google is starting to lost share!" proclamations are unrealistic and hasty, he notes.) Plus, there are some (including Sullivan) who believe Yahoo's gains are a result of navigational changes that are "gaming the system," Sullivan noted.