Google nabs CNN ad deal from Yahoo

Google said Tuesday that it signed a multi-year advertising agreement with CNN.com, in a win over the news site's former partner, Yahoo.

As part of the agreement, Google will be the exclusive provider of contextually targeted text ads on CNN.com's pages (via Google's AdSense program). The deal does not include the placement of image or video ads, however.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The deal is a blow to Yahoo, whose search-advertising group (formerly known as Overture) has been an ad partner of CNN.com for more than three years. In 2004, Yahoo's Overture extended its long-running agreement with CNN.com to supply contextually targeted ads alongside content. The news also comes not too long after Yahoo has updated and improved its ad-delivery system.

Google said that through its partnership, it will connect CNN.com with hundreds of thousands of small and large advertisers. David Payne, senior vice president and general manager of CNN.com, apparently liked the sound of that.

"Our new relationship with Google will deliver relevant ads to our users, enhancing their overall experience on CNN.com. We look forward to a successful partnership," he said in a statement.

Update: CNN.com also recently replaced Yahoo as its supplier of Web search and advertising results, according to CNN spokeswoman Jennifer Martin. In July, CNN.com started serving Web search results, including sponsored ads, from Google. That means Yahoo has lost out with CNN twice this summer because of Google.

[gsmiller88]

Google just works

They've recently chosen Google over Yahoo as their search
provider as well. Why? Because simply put Google works. I
tried searching for a news article on CNN.com in the Yahoo days
and didn't even get any results. I then went to google.com and
typed in the same phrase and the very first result was a story
about the topic covered by CNN.

As for their contextual ads, I wouldn't know how well Yahoo's
are performing at the moment, and I do not know of any
websites using them, but last time I checked they weren't too
swift either.

[ckon3]

No surprise... the surprise comes later

For anyone who has done business with Google, this is not surprising, they will do anything to undercut Yahoo, way over-paying and as it turns out almost always over-promising. Many companies have actually returned to deals with Yahoo because after outbidding and outdealing Yahoo, Google will then reneg on the specifics, start sliding on the specific contractual terms, etc., until the day the deal is actually signed it's a shadow of the original grandiose promises and alot closer to where Yahoo's deal was. At which point some companies have burned so much time they're loathe to walk away. Still, it's a win for Google, and a rude awakening for those companies who learn what "do no evil" really permits.

[t8]

How do you know?

Do you work for Yahoo, or are you just taking a wild guess?

[mastishka]

Ad model Sucks

Google's Ad Model is sucking read blog http://adsense-crack.blogspot.com

[sudokuscore]

No surprise - Yahoo doesn't has the inventory of ads

Yahoo simply doesn't has the inventory of millions of ads from thousands of businesses ranging from one man basement business to fortune 500 companies. The strenght of Google is that they have a good repository of ads from any part of the globe to precisely match any subject/content on the page. What good if the ad is not relevant on the page. Yahoo to blame itself for it's plight. It created a very high entry barrier for small time business to put an ad through its system, while once could do that at a fraction of cost through Google. While 1 cents was the starting cost for Googles Adwords it was much higher for Yahoo ( I don't know now ). This made small and one man businesses to try their luck through Google. THey got a huge inventory of ads.
On top of that the obvious search quality of Google over Yahoo.
No surprise if other big names drop Yahoo in near future.