There I was in a post-Chrome haze thinking warm thoughts about Google, when the FT spoils my mood by reporting on the first major attack on the advertising alliance between Google and Yahoo.
The Association of National Advertisers in the US, which represents major advertisers like Wal-Mart, General Motors and Anheuser-Busch is objecting to the tie-up between the two internet giants. The ANA notes that:
"a Google-Yahoo partnership will control 90% of search advertising inventory and states ANA's concerns that the partnership will likely diminish competition, increase concentration of market power, limit choices currently available and potentially raise prices to advertisers for high quality, affordable search advertising."
The alliance will also impact on UK advertisers. My view is that the alliance will particularly drive up the price of niche terms on Yahoo!, which are something of a bargain at the moment compared with the same traffic on Google.
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