Microsoft has begun testing delivery of search results to Yahoo's search sites through its Bing technology, according to a blog post Tuesday. If the tests don't cause any serious hiccups for the two systems, then the search partners may begin transitioning U.S. and Canadian advertisers to Microsoft's (NADSAQ: MSFT) adCenter later this summer.
"As we continue to make progress implementing various aspects of the Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft Search Alliance, our two companies continue to work together towards the goal of providing a quality transition experience for advertisers in the U.S. and Canada in 2010, while being mindful of the holiday season," Microsoft spokesperson Carolyn Miller said in a post to the adCenter Blog.
Miller's point is meant to assuage any fears that advertisers have regarding the transition, which the two companies said in May is tentatively scheduled to take place prior to the beginning of the holidays.
That's underlined by statements on the two companies' Search Alliance site. "Our aim is a high quality transition of advertisers and partners in at least the U.S. prior to the 2010 holiday season. However, we may wait until 2011 if we determine this will be more effective," the Search Alliance site said.
The test is just the latest in the companies' efforts to implement the ten-year ad revenue for search infrastructure deal that Microsoft and Yahoo inked in December.
The pact, which was announced last July, was the result of months of off and on and sometimes unfriendly negotiations, including an attempted hostile takeover of Yahoo by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Ballmer has said he is willing to spend billions of dollars to make the alliance a success, as the two stand toe-to-toe against search giant Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).
Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft will manage the technology platforms that deliver the algorithmic (powered by Bing) and paid (powered by adCenter) search results, the Search Alliance site said.
"Yahoo and Microsoft will each provide customer support to different advertiser segments: Yahoo's sales team will exclusively support high volume advertisers, SEO and SEM agencies, and resellers and their clients [while] Microsoft will support self-service advertisers," the site's statement continued.
Meanwhile, the testing goes on.
"In mid-July, we began testing the delivery of organic results from Bing to Yahoo Search, which may gradually increase to up to 25 percent of Yahoo Search traffic," Miller said in her blog post.
"We also began testing the delivery of paid search results from Microsoft Advertising adCenter to Yahoo Search, which began with a small percentage of traffic and may increase to include up to 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent of live Yahoo Search traffic in the U.S," Miller added.
For adCenter advertisers, she cautioned, the current tests may cause some fluctuations in traffic but they are expected to be small. "Since this test is limited to just a small percentage of live Yahoo Search traffic, we are not anticipating any significant changes to your expected performance, however you may see some fluctuations in volume as adCenter experiences Yahoo traffic for the first time," Miller said.
Stuart J. Johnston is a contributing writer at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @stuartj1000.
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