Media buyers applaud Yahoo’s open strategy
By Erina Lin, Monday 29 October 2007 at 21:28 :: World Digital Media Trends :: #769 :: rss
Media buyers are happy with Yahoo’s decision to open up its home page by adding outside links, but said the company should be moving faster to clear up barriers.
Yahoo last week started posting links to other news and content sites on the Featured section for the first time. The effort is aimed to open up the portal and make it the entry site for online users.
Most of the featured links still lead to other Yahoo sites, such as Yahoo's news or travel sections. However, after a series of testing, it has started linking to outside sources, including independent blogs, The Wall Street Journal, or popular sites like Vanityfair.com and Salon.com.
This move shows the broader strategy to transform Yahoo into a more open platform, in order to compete with Google and social networking rivals such as Facebook and MySpace. In addition, the movement includes inviting third-party developers to create new content and social applications for Yahoo.
Digital agency executives generally applauded Yahoo's new policy.
"The walled-garden approach doesn't work. So creating easier exit and entry points and getting people to come back to Yahoo and not hold them there is a smart strategy," said Scott Symonds, executive media director at AKQA, according to Media Post. "I think Yahoo is a great publisher and a great place to put quality brands, but I want to make sure it's keeping up with the marketplace."
David Cohen, excutive vice president and U.S. director of digital communications at Universal McCann, agreed.
"Yahoo's willingness to open its home page to outside links is a clear acknowledgment of the trends we're seeing today," he said. "The days of the uber-destination that attempts to be all things to all people are quickly fading."
Symonds, whose firm serves clients including Dell, Coca-Cola and Visa, said he believes Yahoo should work harder to adjust to the changing online media landscape, by offering more third-party applications on MyYahoo.
Ironically, Yahoo's new policy is a return to its roots as the Web directory, which Jerry Yang and David Filo started in 1994. Under former CEO Terry Semel, it gradually became more of an online destination.
Cohen said the third-party links could “help Yahoo as a defensive measure,” if nothing else, according to a Media Post article.
Like some other media agency executives, Mediasmith CEO David Smith views the outside links as a small change, "but one that may herald bigger things down the road."
Comments
No comment.
Post comment