Yahoo Concentrates On Local Search

September 10, 2014

One search trend that is proving profitable is local search. Users want search results that correspond to their immediate areas, rather than generic, global results. To cash in this market, “Yahoo Acquires Startup Zofari To Bolster Local Search” says CNet. Zofari is a local search startup that recommends places to visit. Zofari pulls its data from Foursquare and user provider data about what they like, similar to Pandora and Netflix. Zofari even acknowledges these services inspired it.

“The purchase is just one of more than 40 that CEO Marissa Mayer has made since she took the reins at Yahoo more than two years ago, but it’s aligned specifically with the company’s desire to build out its mobile search offerings. The buy comes at a time when Yahoo’s display ad sales — an important financial metric, though becoming less en vogue as users move to mobile devices — fell 7 percent last quarter.”

Mayer has been testing new ways to save Yahoo. She has saved the company from drowning, but it is still flipping about to compete with Google. Yahoo’s problems go deeper than anyone suspected, but acquisitions like Zofari could possibly strengthen it.

Whitney Grace, September 10, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Yahoo

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.