As media shifts, smart publishers are mining their data assets Content-based media buys have traditionally been the primary source of revenue for many online publishers. That said, the future clearly appears to be data-driven. Content may still be king, but publishers have an ace up their sleeve if they play their Audience card wisely. Since publishers already have audiences, this shift in media buying presents a unique opportunity"and it's one they shouldn't overlook.

Yahoo! Search product encourages site visitors to explore new paths The Internet can be a bit of a Wonderland for wide-eyed viewers, who are distracted by so much eye candy that they only skim the surface of a website that isn't sticky. To address this issue, Yahoo! Search has been testing Trending Now, and it's now available to partners.

Into the brand breach armed with Young's new book Brand Media Strategy Books on business strategy are a dime a dozen when they are theoretical. They need insights from someone who is in the trenches and willing to do battle. Antony Young, CEO of full-service media agency Optimedia International U.S., is giving media planners a manual for the post-Web 2.0 world in his new book Brand Media Strategy: Integrated Communications Planning in the Digital Era )Palgrave MacMillan(,

Learn how to easily make edits and discover new keywords to improve your search ad performance Want to save time and improve the performance of your online marketing campaigns"whether you're online or offline"using an intuitive and simple desktop application? Then join us at a free webinar this coming Tuesday, March 29, as we turn our focus on Microsoft's adCenter Desktop tool. This intuitive application can help you manage and optimize your Yahoo!

My product rocks. Why should I do competitive research? Knowing who your competitors are, what they're up to, and what makes them successful is a major piece of search acquisition and social marketing strategy. Consider this real-life scenario: One of the biggest sites on the Web set out to redesign itself in 2007. During that redesign, they regularly employed an SEO to help, and implemented almost everything that the SEO recommended.

Innovative campaign lets mobile users experience vehicle features in a print ad In an era in which online advertising providers can make their clients' content scurry across users' screens, dodge paintballs and sing in the shower , are old-fashioned print ads still relevant and effective? That's a discussion for another time,

Yahoo! study shows how "social shopping" is changing the way people shop for clothes Editor's Note: This post is the fifth in an ongoing series exploring findings from a recent, comprehensive study undertaken by Yahoo! and Nielsen to discover how people interact with their mobile devices, and the opportunities that those findings present to advertisers . When Yahoo!'s Ashmeed Ali,

Yahoo!'s Paul Cushman identifies key opportunities in mobile Paul Cushman, Yahoo!'s senior director of mobile sales strategy, )and his dapper accent( kicked off the last day of SES NY 2011. His session, "Smart Mobile Marketing," pinpointed exactly how mobile has changed the marketing landscape in just 18 months. Here are some critical stats that Cushman shared from Yahoo!

Yahoo! Labs test the effectiveness of online advertising "Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half," department store magnate John Wanamaker supposedly once said, but the joke today is not that it's still funny but that so many people still believe it's true. Yahoo! researchers set out to test whether or not online ads can drive spending, and found out that they did, both online and off.

Over the past few weeks we've been working closely with Microsoft to customize the new Internet Explorer 9 browser specifically for Yahoo! users - consider it your own personal purple pack for IE9. With this Yahoo!-enhanced experience, even when you're not on the Yahoo! homepage it's even easier to find what matters most to you - simply type your query into the URL field and instantly be taken to the most relevant Yahoo! search results.

We have always believed that search should be simple and fun, make you smile every once in a while and be that one place you know you can depend on. We went back to the drawing boards to rethink the search experience, how we can take it to the next step, and really make search awesome. Today we announced Search Direct, or as I like to call it, the Search Box of Awesome. Search Direct is the first fundamental shift in search in more than a decade. For the first time,

Yahoo!'s Duncan Watts brings science to social media at SES The careful student of the Yahoo! Advertising Blog knows that Duncan Watts of Yahoo! Labs has brought actual science to social media. Most importantly, he proved what you always knew: that most of your tweets go exactly nowhere . Yesterday in his keynote at the Seach Engine Strategies conference in New York , Duncan revisited that theme,

The latest innovation in Yahoo! search technology Thinking beyond the link, Yahoo! today unveils Search Direct, which helps people find what they want, immediately, as they type their searches. Search Direct is a new feature that anticipates people's needs, offering a rich media experience before they even finish typing, let alone hit the "search" button or land on a search results page. It's a faster, more efficient way for people to search.

New Yahoo! study pinpoints creative that grabs attention and drives persuasion Digital creative needs to break through the clutter. Ads need to get noticed. They need to trigger desire and persuade a person to act. As if that wasn't a tall enough order, online ads need to do all these things almost instantly. After all, on the Internet, a competitor's message is just a click away. No pressure. Yahoo!

Yahoo! and Microsoft share advice at joint customer forum Yahoo! and Microsoft invited advertisers and agencies to a Yahoo! Search and Bing Customer Forum in New York yesterday to talk about what the alliance has accomplished so far"and more importantly, what is still to come. "We're now at base camp," said Steven Sirich, Microsoft general manager of the Yahoo! and Microsoft partnership. "Now we really have to summit to reach the potential of this transition.

Yahoo!'s Edwin Wong reveals how the consumer mindset influences ad receptivity Edwin Wong is Yahoo!'s Director of B2B Strategic Insights. He is also a new father and a snazzy dresser. However, at The Advertising Research Foundation's re:think 2011 event in New York City, Edwin was known as one thing: the morning's most dynamic presenter. His insightful presentation, "How Effective is My Digital Ad?", focused on the practical and actionable findings of Yahoo!

On March 11, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck northeast Japan and lasted for about five minutes. The temblor, registered as the largest to hit Japan and the world's fourth largest since 1900, unleashed ocean waves that reached all the way to the United States. The 2011 TMhoku earthquake and tsunami may well register a death toll exceeding 10,000. The unfolding news has kept the Japan crisis top of mind. Besides direct danger to coastal regions,

Yahoo! study reveals that mindset affects a consumer's receptivity to advertising This week's visual data gems come to you straight from The Advertising Research's event, re:think 2011, in New York City. On Monday morning, Edwin Wong, Yahoo!'s Director of B2B Insights, shared valuable insights from The Yahoo! "Advertising by Mindset" study. After the jump, find out how advertisers can map the tone,

The "checking-in" trend gets more popular and sophisticated as marketers reward consumers for every little step they take If you go to Starbucks a few times a week and never check in on Foursquare or Facebook Places, were you ever really there? Maybe not, according to a growing number of Millennials who not only want to broadcast their every step via mobile device, but expect a reward for their stops along their journey. Brands, meanwhile,

Original show debuting today brings investors quality financial content "Follow the money," the expression goes. "Follow the smart money" would be a better way to put it. Yahoo! Finance has been helping people follow the smart money for years. With 45 million users each month, capturing 50% of the online market, Yahoo! Finance is the #1 place on the Web for savvy investors. )In fact, in the online space, Yahoo! Finance alone trumps the Wall Street Journal ,