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Decker's 'Sensible And Straightforward' Yahoogle Defense

Yahoo, thus far, has been curiously quiet about the search partnership with Google that has drawn so much attention from Washington, the media, and various ad industry groups. Indeed, Google has been all but alone in defending the deal--until now. Maybe Yahoo just does everything slowly, but President Sue Decker finally emerged from her shell over the weekend to make the "sensible and straightforward" and "sorely needed" argument for the Yahoogle deal, as Kara Swisher calls it.

Said Decker: "Here's the bottom line: Yahoo will use this agreement to help us become a stronger competitor in all aspects of online advertising; and Yahoo is not exiting the sponsored search business. We plan to remain a strong player in sponsored search." She adds, however, that, "using Google ads is beneficial for users and advertisers. Queries for which we have no coverage, low depth, and/or low relative monetization are all circumstances in which backfilling probably makes sense-they indicate that Yahoo is not currently delivering enough value for that inventory. If Google can deliver that value where we currently don't, then everyone wins-including the advertiser and the consumer."

Swisher counters that "most people's problem, actually, is that the #1 and #2 players in any market should be allowed to partner at all." What happens, for example, if Yahoo fails to gain ground on Google and instead becomes more dependent on its search advertising system? How is that not fostering a monopoly?

Read the whole story at D: All Things Digital »

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