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Yahoo! launches Panama as 'Search 3.0'

by Hayley Pinkerfield, Revolution UK 30-May-07, 11:20

LONDON - Yahoo!'s new sponsored search platform, Panama, launches across Europe today. The search firm claims that Panama marks Search 3.0, and will help marketers work smarter.

Yahoo! Europe has now started upgrading European advertisers to the new campaign management console. Beginning today, they will receive notifications to access the redesigned platform, continuing in stages over the coming weeks.

Panama has been in development for two years now, based on global, long-term testing with advertisers and agencies to establish what is needed from a search platform.

It has been designed to improve ad relevancy and make the search industry more comptetive. Features include faster ad activiation and ad testing to display highest performing ads more frequently. It also offers geographical targeting powered by Yahoo!’s WhereonEarth technology, to match ads to users’ search.

Richard Firminger, regional sales director, Northern Europe, Yahoo!, said: “Panama has been designed to help marketers work smarter and better. The future of search is providing tools and marketing consoles that speak marketers’ language.”

Firminger added that Panama is built to be ‘future-proof’, and adapt as the search market continues to grow with mobile and video, for example. Yahoo! aims to provide search marketers with a serious alternative to competitor Google.

GoTo launched in 1997, and then rebranded to Overture in 1998. The company was bought by Yahoo! in late 2003. Yahoo! now claims that Panama will help search marketers to work ‘more like traditional marketers’.

Comments

Matthew Finch - 03/06/2007

The ability to publish ads quicker is a welcomed arrival from Yahoo, and the ability to target users geographically is certainly an advantage. I am also looking forward to Yahoo's behavioural targeting tools within search, which they have hinted at on a number of occasions. However, the biggest challenge we still face with Yahoo (as a client running search advertising) is their volume of traffic. Google provide the majority of our search traffic (over 85%) with no signs of change in market share. Until the balance is addressed, it will be difficult for us to commit further budget to Yahoo. Matthew Finch