Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information.

By on December 10, 2009

Yahoo Moving in on Twitter

7



Twitter Bird GoofyYahoo (moves toward the little blue bird, the center of attention at the party): Well, hello there, baby. You sure are popular here.

Twitter (BIG SMILE): Yep! And I have #friends @overthere and @overthere and—

Yahoo (slips an arm around the bird): How would you like to come back to my place for a little . . . integration?

Twitter: Whoa, buddy—this is why I carry an API at all times!

Back in July, Twitter was popping up everywhere: first a deal with Bing, then a deal with Google. Not to be left out, Yahoo made a real-time foray with OneRiot, but apparently they still had their eyes on the life of the party: Twitter.

Last month, Yahoo News integrated Twitter into its results for breaking news via a tabbed shortcut:
yahoo twitter

Apparently this went well, because now more of these Tweet results will be directly integrated into the SERPs—and they just might be doing this right:
yahoo twitter 2

However, Yahoo won’t be adding Twitter to all its results. According to the Yahoo Search blog,

So how does this work? We continuously keep track of queries searched on Yahoo!, and when there is a spike in interest in a topic, our search algorithm selects relevant tweets to show on the search results page, either as a part of the Yahoo! News shortcut or in a Twitter section, like in the examples above. The age of the tweets will vary – some will be a minute old, while others may be hours old. Our goal is to feature interesting Twitter content that is relevant to your query and complements the other results you find on the search page.

And if they do that, that might be just the way to integrate Twitter into SERPs: filtered for relevance, used only for topics generating a lot of discussion, and sequestered in a section of the SERP.

What do you think? Is this too little, too late for Yahoo? Or is this more than you want to see of Twitter in your SERPs?


Similar Stories in: Search News, Social | Forward: Email This Post

Similar posts you may like...

7 comments on “Yahoo Moving in on Twitter”

  1. Andy Beal Says:

    December 10th, 2009 at 7:31 pm

    Sounds like the plot for a daytime soap….oh wait, we did that already! ;-)

  2. Anand Srinivasan Says:

    December 10th, 2009 at 10:56 pm

    Is Yahoo male or female?…You just made it sound like a female in the Yahoo-AOL story ;)
    .-= Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..Mobile Coupon Growth in North America =-.

  3. Luci Says:

    December 11th, 2009 at 4:21 am

    I like the notion behind it – it makes sense. It just feels like Yahoo are thinking about every step just a little too long before they take it, so they fall behind others who.. think quicker? If that makes sense. And as i’m only interested in Tweets on popular topics anyway, I like that that’s the only time they’ll appear in the SERPs
    .-= Luci´s last blog ..Could Adding A Media Section Benefit Your SEO? =-.

  4. Damian Doman Says:

    December 11th, 2009 at 6:57 am

    Great story! reveals how yahoo really is:-)

  5. Small Business Mavericks » Blog Archive » Twitter Still The Hot Date At The Party Says:

    December 11th, 2009 at 7:36 am

    [...] seems that Yahoo! has decided to integrate Twitter into its search results, following Bing and Google. That pretty much makes the microblogging service the most popular date [...]

  6. Will Search Engine Marketing Move Into Real-Time? Says:

    December 11th, 2009 at 8:19 am

    [...] however, Yahoo! announced that they’ve incorporated Twitter into their search results, providing Yahoo! searchers with real-time results. There’s nothing innovative about that. [...]

  7. This Weeks Must Reads in Internet Marketing | Weight Watch Says:

    December 11th, 2009 at 3:42 pm

    [...] Yahoo Moving in on Twitter – Marketing Pilgrim [...]