Among the questions we will raise with policymakers is what any alliance between Google and Yahoo! will also mean for their respective mobile search advertising businesses. Privacy is certainly a concern here, as companies such as Google migrate the user tracking and targeting model which fuels the traditional PC-focused online ad business.
Here’s what Yahoo! says in can do with its Mobile Ad Services: “Yahoo!’s Mobile Ad Services make it possible to reach your target customers wherever they are, seamlessly following them from the PC to the mobile Internet. A wide variety of ad formats, targeting options, and calls-to-action are available – as well as resources to help you put effective programs in place if you’re new to mobile advertising…
Eye-catching display ads can be targeted using the same wide array of options as traditional Web banners (e.g. context, demographics, behavioral) – and can incorporate location, which has greater importance when marketing to consumers who are ‘on the go’.”
Update [via 5/12/08 Advertising Age. sub required likely]: “Google has managed to command a lead in mobile search, though nothing like the massive share it has in the PC-based internet world. According to M:Metrics data, Google had a 38.3% share as of August 2007. (Yahoo is the next closest with 25.4%.)”
source: WiMax Could Bring Dramatic Changes, Wherever You Are. Abbey Klaassen. Ad Age. May 12, 2008
