Yahoo! this Week

It’s a busy week so far for Yahoo. First they lost the head of their labs, head of research and chief scientist Gary Flake, to MSN Search then appointed a new head without missing a beat. Yahoo’s chief data officer, Dr. Usama Fayyad, has been named to head up a major expansion of Yahoo Research Labs.

Tuesday, it was announced that Yahoo was acquiring the Latin American PPC Network TeRespondo. ClickZ covered the story and said the terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Wednesday, the big news was free hosting for small businesses. Brilliant. For a company with no worries about server space, offering small businesses a place to build up their online presence generates good will and name recognition and encourages use of Yahoo’s services.

Yesterday it was the revamping of their number one rated news service. Already the most popular online news site, Yahoo is looking to move into more customization. The new page is less cluttered with fewer ads that are better placed. I like the new look but I don’t like Yahoo’s persistence on making you sign in to customize.

Today the news is RSS in Yahoo! Shopping. Spotted on SEW, Danny links to the full list of available feeds and notes that you’re unable to specify by keyword what you’re looking for which is a shame really. Shopping works better when you can actually define what you’re looking for.

Susan Esparza is former managing editor at Bruce Clay Inc., and has written extensively for clients and internal publications. Along with Bruce Clay, she is co-author of the first edition of Search Engine Optimization All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies.

See Susan's author page for links to connect on social media.