Yahoo Sued For Buying Keywords On Google - 06/16/2006

MediaPost Publications - Yahoo Sued For Buying Keywords On Google - 06/16/2006: "Yahoo Sued For Buying Keywords On Google
by Wendy Davis, Friday, Jun 16, 2006 6:00 AM ET
YAHOO AND THREE OTHER COMPANIES have been sued for trademark infringement, based on allegedly purchasing search ads on Google.
The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Colorado by JP Enterprises--which runs the online dating service lovecity.com--accuses Yahoo and the other companies of bidding to appear on Google's results pages when users query on 'lovecity' and the related terms 'lovecity.com' and 'www.lovecity.'
Yahoo runs its own online personals service, as do at least two of the other companies named in the lawsuit--HDVE, which operates True.com, and Spark Networks, which runs a host of Internet dating services including AmericanSingles.com and JDate.com. Little information was immediately available about the role of the third company sued, Insight Direct USA.
Spokespeople from Yahoo and Spark Networks declined to comment, while Insight Direct and True.com didn't return telephone calls. News of the lawsuit was first reported Thursday in the Denver Post.
JP Enterprises maintains that Yahoo and the other companies are violating the JP Enterprises trademark by using it to trigger ads for their own, competing dating sites.
In its complaint, JP Enterprises says that the ads cause consumer confusion, hurt the 'lovecity' brand, and drive down sales. JP Enterprises 'spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and expended years of effort in advertising, promoting and developing the trademark lovecity.com,' the lawsuit states. The complaint goes on to accuse Yahoo and the other companies of 'tarnishing the goodwill and reputation' of lovecity, and 'causing lost sales.'

SuperPages.com Ads Appear on MSN

www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3577661
Back to Article


SuperPages.com Ads Appear on MSN

Verizon's SuperPages.com wants to send more traffic to its local advertisers. MSN has the traffic, but it wants more local ad content.
In the ongoing drive for local advertising dollars, a $100 billion market by some estimates, this is how deals are born.
Verizon SuperPages.com ads began appearing this week on MSN's local search engine pages, the result of a partnership signed with Microsoft (Quote, Chart) in November, according to Dana Benton Russell, a Verizon (Quote, Chart) SuperPages.com spokesperson.
"MSN is a huge player as far as search is concerned, and that gives our advertisers greater value," said Russell. "Our salespeople have relationships with local businesses, and that interests MSN."
Under the deal, three ads sold by Verizon's local sales teams appear across the top of a search page after every search query on MSN local search. They are a mix of paid-per-click, paid-for-call and fixed-rate pricing ads that are geographically targeted.
Ads are pulled directly from the Verizon SuperPages.com site, prioritized so that the more lucrative paid-per-click and paid-for-call show up first. Otherwise, fixed-rate ads will appear in their place.
The deal is an extension of the existing relationship between MSN and SuperPages, which is the provider behind MSN's yellow pages. The terms of the arrangement, a revenue share between Verizon and MSN, were not disclosed.
"This benefits SuperPages because it gives their PPC and pay-per-phone-call advertisers more distribution and it gives MSN more local content and the ability to better monetize its local traffic," said Greg Sterling, an analyst for The Kelsey Group.
In the past year, Verizon SuperPages.com has been working aggressively to expand its network, as have other online Yellow Pages publishers. Recently SuperPages competitor YellowPages.com announced an expanded distribution relationship with Yahoo!.
Besides MSN, Verizon SuperPages.com has partnerships with Google (Quote, Chart) and several smaller sites.
One reason for the company's push in this area is that local PPC advertisers have increased their budgets to levels beyond what can be spent in its own network. Rather than turn them away, the company places their campaigns on rival PPC networks.
"We have had situations where we couldn't drive as many clicks to advertisers as they are willing to pay us for," said Russell. "That's why we need additional exposure."

Google Lands Deal With Verizon SuperPages.com

Google Lands Deal With Verizon SuperPages.com
ClickZ reports that Google has landed a dead with Verizon SuperPages.com to provide some backfill sponsored results for SuperPages.com. Google will be using its AdWords PPC engine to help Verizon better monetize their online Yellow Pages engines, SuperPages.com. The deal will allow Verizon to increase their inventory of ads. SuperPages will be managing the accounts and they will buy the Google advertising on their behalf.

Superpages.com Tries on Agency Hat

www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3522481
Superpages.com Tries on Agency HatBy Zachary RodgersJuly 25, 2005
Verizon SuperPages.com's local PPC advertisers have increased their local budgets to levels beyond what can be spent in its own network. Rather than turn them away, the company places their campaigns on rival PPC networks.
SuperPages.com hopes by placing search campaigns on Yahoo! and Google on behalf of its local advertisers, it will simultaneously open a new revenue stream and encourage even larger budget allocations. The company's VP of E-Commerce Marketing, Eric Chandler, said it would start testing the "pay-per-click plus" initiative in August, and will roll it out to its local sales force after Labor Day.
"Our biggest challenge is these people are giving us more money than we can spend in our network," he said. "We've secured $65 million in budgets, but we're not able to spend that in our own network. There's a lot more money in that existing pool of advertisers. If we could spend all of what they gave us, they would increase their budgets even more."
Search marketing experts have long predicted the rise of local SEM, and the operators of PPC networks are working to provide the infrastructure to support small- to mid-sized companies who wish to dive in. So far, it's been unclear how the market will scale up. Many regional business owners lacking the time and expertise to manage a self-service search marketing campaign.
SuperPages.com, with its national yellow pages business and a regionally integrated sales network, appears ready to help the business grow. By revising its operation to function as a search agency, the company stands to grow its own network while becoming the gateway through which many small businesses try search marketing for the first time.
The campaigns will initially be sold on a flat fee basis, but that's likely to change.
"We'll be adjusting our... fee structures, " said Chandler. "We're going to be moving more to a percentage of spend going forward. That lines up more with how existing SEMs charge."
Earlier this month, Verizon SuperPages.com revamped its Web site, and the company recently partnered with Martindale Hubble and Psychology Today to offer users searchable listings on lawyers and psychologists by region.
Back to Article