Comments on: Yahoo Shares Some Link Love From Its Homepage

By: Two Search Engine Improvements Worth Noting

Two Search Engine Improvements Worth Noting — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:07:50 +0000

[...] to TechCrunch, Starting today, visitors to Yahoo’s homepage will start to see links going to blogs and media [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:13:32 +0000

How is Yahoo, going to find the content? Are they going to have a tip line?

By: Ed

Ed — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 09:21:02 +0000

John, read the article before you post: “Yahoo! will select outside content from a wide variety of sites across the Internet (large and small, with sufficient traffic management capabilities)”

By: Mohan

Mohan — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:03:58 +0000

Lol… Nice… So will Yahoo! lose PR?

By: freeadlists

freeadlists — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 02:07:09 +0000

Assuming the links are provided without financial obligation, I’m wondering why Yahoo has decided to link to other websites/blogs on their homepage.

Maybe other large portals such as AOL and MSN will decide to follow suit.

By: Tan The Man

Tan The Man — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:42:55 +0000

Let’s see if the editors do a good job displaying diverse links…

By: David

David — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:31:02 +0000

Interesting.

I wonder how that will work in actuality.

By: TG

TG — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:33:27 +0000

Oh — and our warning was essentially us getting knocked offline. Unless they contacted someone who didn’t tell me, which seems possible but unlikely (I can’t see Yahoo actually contacting all the sites).

By: TG

TG — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:31:51 +0000

@John: I’m wondering if some smallers sites at Yahoo’s homepage it might crash their servers…does Yahoo inform sites they are going to feature?

Yup! A server I maintain that rarely gets much traffic at all got its knees broken today. The link was actually one click off the frontpage — that top box had a story, one of the links led to a list of articles on the topic, our site was the first one. Boom. I suspect others will receive similar “gifts”… hopefully better prepared than us!

By: Voices

Voices — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:01:37 +0000

Sounds like a great way to bring the mainstream into niche sites. Can’t wait to see some daily traffic numbers for sites that get featured.

By: Steve Ballmer

Steve Ballmer — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:46:34 +0000

Yahoo shall soon know the joy of being an MS partner too!
muahahahahaha

http://fakestev...er.blogspot.com

By: john

john — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:38:37 +0000

How much traffic could a site receive, how many clicks for a homepage link on Yahoo? I’m guessing a ton. I’m wondering if some smallers sites at Yahoo’s homepage it might crash their servers…does Yahoo inform sites they are going to feature?

By: anuj

anuj — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:03:15 +0000

How would they sort out exclisive content websites from the pool of millions!

By: Uhhh..

Uhhh.. — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:19:39 +0000

@9: Yahoo! is a marginal competitor of Google, in the same way that a WalMart competes with the world’s most profitable hardware store. Last time I checked Yahoo! has market position in every single category except one.

By: Marc Fiszman

Marc Fiszman — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:01:22 +0000

Eh? How does Yahoo picking some large, mainstream sites to put on its home page make it a “trusted filter”? (And for the entire web, no less!)

By: Shafqat

Shafqat — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:49:22 +0000

Agree with #6. I’ll assume there is no financial incentive for Yahoo, but regardless, I don’t think it makes Yahoo a more ‘trusted’ filter. Since these are chosen my a few human editors, its more a filter for content that those editors think is interesting or relevant. Doesn’t really say anything about trust or credibility. Either way, I’m glad to see it Yahoo go in this direction.

By: Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:40:41 +0000

This is smart especially as a competitor of google.

By: Shawn

Shawn — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:34:09 +0000

@Jessica (3): yes, amazon did get a boost in ‘95 from the Yahoo “What’s Cool” feature. Details here:

http://www.comm...zos-speech.html

Jeff Bezos: “A big piece of this came from being listed on Yahoo’s What’s Cool site, which in 1995 was very important. Yahoo, of course, is still an extremely important site, but in particular, the Yahoo What’s Cool page was a big deal back then. We got an e-mail message from Jerry Yang, who is one of the chief Yahoos – but at that time that title hadn’t even been created and it was still mostly a hobby – and Jerry said, “We think your site is pretty cool; would you like us to put it on the What’s Cool page?” We thought about it some, and we realized it might be like taking a sip from a fire hose, but we decided to go ahead and go for it.”

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:21:32 +0000

Didn’t Yahoo! used to have a content-sharing agreement with Gawker Media, that they didn’t renew? I wonder if one/both of the parties killed that deal because this one was coming. Knowing that something like this was in the works, I could see it effecting negotiations.

Also, good on you for the disclosure. Not because it’s actually a conflict of interest that I’d be worried about, but it’s good to see that transparencyis alive and well. It shows respect for the readers, and it’s a good part of how I discern good journalism from bad.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:21:04 +0000

> should help Yahoo in its mission to be a trusted filter for the entire Web

I doubt that adding a couple of (paid? partner?) links to something that is essentially a Web 1-style portal will help in that endeavour

–
http://viibee.com, online dating is fun again

By: SEO Mash

SEO Mash — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:14:48 +0000

Let’s see how long it takes for Google to drop Yahoo’s PageRank now

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:56:50 +0000

Yahoo Australia’s home page has been linking out to magazines since the yahoo seven merger / acquisition took place. Though those links were to other sites owned by Yahoo…

Given their “lack of cool factor” (eg, myspace, facebook, google, and amazon are all cooler these days) I think they can & will be more flexible in what they do to try to recapture that.

By: Jessica Mah

Jessica Mah — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:38:21 +0000

I think it’s important to bring in other exciting websites!

The old days… didn’t Amazon get their first boost of traffic from Yahoo after being listed on the homepage?

By: Bruce Judson

Bruce Judson — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:35:00 +0000

This is exciting news: both because it adds value to the Yahoo! start-page and because it brings us back to Yahoo’s roots–when it helped people discover new and exciting sites on the Web.

Is there a place where sites, that believe they are particularly innovative or useful for Yahoo! readers, can apply for placement to the human editors who make the link decisions?

Bruce Judson
Founder, Search Free Apps
http://www.SearchFreeApps.com

By: reyonthehill

reyonthehill — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:11:43 +0000

Yahoo! and SFGate.com have an advertising deal in-place, as well as a job search deal through HotJobs.