FAQs

Top-line Questions
Q: Why have Yahoo! and Microsoft formed the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance?
Q: What does Microsoft provide to this Search Alliance?
Q: What does Yahoo! provide to this Search Alliance?
Q: What things will the alliance NOT change?
Q: Who benefits from this Search Alliance and why?
Q: When will this affect advertiser accounts?
Q: What milestones have been reached to date as part of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance?
Q: When will the transition take place in Europe?

Organic Search Transition
Q: What does the transition of organic search on Yahoo! mean?
Q: Will my site ranking change when Bing supplies organic search results for Yahoo!?
Q: How can I get help with organic search optimisation efforts?


Q: Why have Yahoo! and Microsoft formed the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance?
A: Yahoo! and Microsoft have formed a Search Alliance to combine their complementary strengths to create a competitive choice in search with the scale to fuel sustained development. Both companies aim to ultimately enable searchers to find relevant results faster, and provide more value for advertisers and better results for web publishers.

Q: What does Microsoft provide to this Search Alliance?
A: Microsoft will be responsible for the algorithmic search serving platform used by both companies, including web, image and video results. Microsoft will also be responsible for the search advertising platform that will be used by both companies (adCenter), and will manage the search advertising marketplace, including the API platform for tool providers and SEMs. Microsoft will be responsible for marketing to and support of self-serve search advertisers who are not managed by an account team.

Q: What does Yahoo! provide to this Search Alliance?
A: Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide sales force for all high volume search advertisers, SEM and SEO agencies, and resellers and their clients. Yahoo! will provide Microsoft with an exclusive 10-year license to certain Yahoo! search technologies. Yahoo! will also deliver a differentiated search experience for its users by innovating around the listings it receives from Microsoft by integrating Yahoo! content, shortcuts and tools.

Q: What things will the alliance NOT change?
A: The agreement does not cover each company's web properties and products, email, instant messaging, display advertising, or any other aspect of the companies' businesses. Each company will innovate their own consumer search experiences to compete for search users and search queries. Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force, and will service their respective publishers, or affiliate search partners.

Q: Who benefits from this Search Alliance and why?
A: We believe that combining the strengths of Yahoo! and Microsoft to create a competitive choice in search with the scale to fuel sustained development is good for both companies, good for advertisers, good for consumers and good for our partners.

Q: What does the transition of organic search on Yahoo! mean?
A: It means all organic search listings on Yahoo! Search are powered by Bing, the search engine from Microsoft. Microsoft is providing results for all web, image and video searches, while Yahoo! continue to innovate and personalise the search experience for users on Yahoo! Search. This transition is completed in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Republic of Ireland, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Russia, India, Australia, New Zealand, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, Western Sahara, Yemen, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Q: Will my site ranking change when Bing supplies organic search results for Yahoo!?
A: Now that Yahoo! Search results are powered by Bing, the ranking of your web properties is now 100% based on how the Bing algorithm indexes and ranks the relevance of your site for a particular search query, as Yahoo! cannot change the order of the results it receives. To ensure that their sites are properly referenced and indexed by the Bing algorithm, webmasters should register their websites and sitemaps in the Bing Webmaster tool: http://www.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx

Q: How can I get help with organic search optimisation efforts?
A: Bing’s website provides a robust set of materials on search engine optimisation (SEO). An SEO webmaster’s toolbox can be found at http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmasters/. It provides webmasters with valuable information on organising web site content and using non-paying methods, to help improve your site’s ranking in Yahoo! Search and Bing results.

Q: What milestones have been reached to date as part of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance?
A: Most notably, we completed the transition of organic results globally (except Korea) and paid search in the US, Canada and India. Yahoo! Search is now powered by Bing around the world. The completion of ad serving transition for the US, Canada and India means that the US, Canadian and Indian traffic from both the Yahoo! network and Bing is now coming through adCenter for accounts operating in these countries.

Q: When will the transition take place in Europe?
A: Following the completion of the Indian transition and the learning gathered in North America, Yahoo! and Microsoft are now ready to resume transitioning European markets, beginning with the UK, Ireland and France as part of the global rollout of our search alliance. We are working toward completing the paid search transition by the end of April. However, we are keen to bring you the benefits of our combined audiences sooner and may accelerate the transition in these markets if we can do so while still maintaining a quality experience. Approximately three months in advance of the paid search transition in a given country, Yahoo! and Microsoft will jointly begin working with their customers and partners to prepare them for the upcoming changes. Customers and partners will also be notified in advance of the further organic and paid search transitions.