Sunday, July 29, 2007

Why Yahoo Search Is Changing Your Search Marketing Plan

Don't get me wrong. The default search in my firefox is still Google but Yahoo just forced me to take a second look at making the switch back to Yahoo. The Yahoo Search blog announced a new feature enhancement that has gone relatively un-talked about in the search community but I think it deserves some acknowledgment.

Go to Yahoo and search for that place you've been yearning to go, for me its Phuket and see if you get a similar result. Yahoo has mixed up their travel search results in hope to help people research their next vacation a little easier (or day dream at your desk some more).

What this little box is bringing to you is results from various Yahoo properties around the web Flickr images, Yahoo Travel community, Yahoo Farechase, and Yahoo Maps. I am all for anything that can make my online life more efficient and this is one of them. Rather than scouring all over the web for pictures of Phuket or things to do in Phuket, I have them all in one little place at the top of my page.

There is more to this search result enhancement than just making searching easier, Yahoo is changing your search marketing plan. We all know about the "traditional" search marketing tactics, SEO and PPC, well now there is even more reason to work on that social marketing you've been putting off. By now, everyone should have see the "Web 2.0 Machine is Us/ing Us" video, if not watch it here. As the video says, we are teaching the machine. Everyday we go online and tag our pictures, links, web pages, and videos and what we are doing is helping organize the world's data. I know these guys wanted that job, but everyone is helping. Yahoo is taking that data , combining it with the data from their properties and producing a very satisfying result.

This is how they are changing the online marketing game. If you are in the travel industry, you need to get yourself out there. Get your pictures on Flickr. Get your links on del.icio.us. Get involved in travel communities. Put your data out there, tag it, get involved and watch it grow.

We are people powered search, Now you just need people powered online marketing to go along with it.

Posted By Matt O'Hern at 11:30 PM
Permanent Link: Why Yahoo Search Is Changing Your Search Marketing Plan | Comments (0)

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