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Read a summary of the press release.

Q1 Which areas of the service are covered?
Search engine and PPC platform technologies for the following 4 areas: web, image, video, and mobile.

Q2 How will this partnership affect the competition between Yahoo! Japan and Google?

Google technology will be on the backend, so users will not notice the difference on the search results page.　　
(Please refer to the search results page images below. Note that only organic results (blue) and PPC ads (red) will be replaced by those using Google technology.)

Q3. How long is the contract for? Is it renewable?
The contract is for 2 years, renewable every 2 years thereafter based upon mutual consent. This applies to both search engine/PPC and data provision contracts.

Q4. What difference will it make when Yahoo! Japan provides content data to Google?
Google currently collects data only from crawlers. However, if Yahoo! Japan directly provides their data to Google, updated pages will be reflected in the search results more quickly, improving the freshness and increase the relevancy of the search results and enhancing the search experience for the user.

Q5. Will the agreement change Yahoo! Japan's relationship with Yahoo! Inc. (U.S.A.)?
This change is limited to the provision of search engine and PPC data. Yahoo! Inc. will remain Yahoo! Japan's strategic partner for search and other services. There will be no change in the capital structure or relationship.

Q6. Are there any implications for Yahoo's business in the future?
Not in the short-term. In the mid to long term, this is expected to Improve Yahoo! Japan's search and PPC services and maximize advertising revenue.

Q7. When will the transfer take place?
As soon as possible.

Q8. Once Yahoo! Inc. (U.S.A.) completes the switch for YST and YSM, will they discontinue support for Yahoo! Japan immediately?
No. The development and support for YST and YSM will be continued until Yahoo! Japan completes the transition of search engine and PPC platform to those of Google.

Q9. Will there be changes to the usability of the search services?
The current interface will be maintained, so there will be no changes to the usability for users.

Q10. Have you consulted with Japan Fair Trade Commission on this partnership?
Yes. We have confirmed with them that this partnership does not pose any legal issues.

Q11. How will this partnership effect the competition among search services in Japan?
Even when Yahoo! Japan and Google use the same technology to provide search results, Yahoo! Japan will be customize the technology to their services. Similarly, the user interface of Yahoo! Japan will remain unchanged. Therefore no changes in the competitive landscape are forseen, including the status of competition with Google (Japan).

Q12. Has Yahoo! Japan used other search engine technology before apart from that of Yahoo! Inc.?
Yes. From May 1998 to March 2001 the technology was provided by Goo, and between April 2001 and May 2004 it was provided by Google.

Q13. Yahoo! Japan currently provides Softbank Mobile (SBM) with their mobile search technology. Will this be affected?
No. Yahoo! Japan will continue to provide SBM with mobile search technology and the mobile ad platform.

Q14 Are there any financial implications?
There will be no major impact or changes to the profit structure.

Q15. Will there be any effect on ad sales?
During previous ad platform transitions the effect was small.

What does this refer to?
1. Yahoo! Japan will switch their search engine and PPC ad platform technologies from their own Yahoo Search Technology to that of Google.
2. Yahoo! Japan will begin to supply search content data (auction, shopping, chiebukuro (Yahoo! Answers) to Google's index on a daily basis.

What influence will Yahoo's decision have on the Japanese search market?
Google's technology will be serving over 96% of the search queries in Japan. The market is currently led by Yahoo! Japan with 58%, followed by Google Japan with 38%. Google will also become the top PPC ad serving technology provider.

When will it happen?
"The search engine technology switch is expected to take place by the end of this year 2010. It is expected to take longer for the PPC platform technology switch because of existing sales arrangements with ad agencies." (Masahiro Inoue, CEO, Yahoo! Japan. Translation.)
*Note: The official press release from Yahoo! Japan says the switch will take place "as soon as possible"

Why Google, not Microsoft(Bing/MSN)?
"Because many of the services that Microsoft claims to provide in Japanese are still in their development stage." (Inoue, Yahoo!Japan.Translation.)

Read the detailed Q&A

Web Marketing Guide published a market study report on Users Reactions toward the Internet Advertisements.

The study was conducted on Male and Female between the ages of 16 to 69 years old.

• younger age groups, especially 16~19 and 20~29 groups answered to have experienced more aversion toward internet ads.
• People tend to dislike seeing ads they are not interested in and ads with overly exaggerated expressions.
• Women are more sensitive to ads with overly exaggerated expressions.
• Women are less open to share their personal data for behavioral targeting.

Most emails I get from people back home in the U.K. contain references to the 'credit crunch' and many conference calls with U.S.-based clients and partners also touch on the financial crisis. Budgets are being cut, jobs are being lost and everyone seems to be in some way personally affected.

We're often asked how it's affecting business and Search in Japan. Although there is talk of the international crisis in the Japanese news and you do see the same "50% off" sales here and there on the streets of Tokyo and online, the ROI we're seeing from Japanese PPC campaigns is showing no sign of slow down. I'm also frequently told that it is the Japanese part of global accounts that currently stands out in terms of performance against other geos.

I wanted to confirm that I wasn't alone in my opinion, and found this New York Times article "In Japan, Financial Crisis Is Just a Ripple."

All of this got me to thinking that if you are seeing ROI trending down for your domestic campaigns, now might be a very good time to invest more intensively instead in your Japanese Search efforts. Especially with SEM being such a measurable, and controllable investment, it might be the least risky path to take whilst trying to sustain online profitability in uncertain times.

(Posted by Stacey Ward)

One of the biggest Japanese SEM agencies, AUN Consulting released its predictions on Japanese SEO market and P4P (PPC) market. 

According to the articles, both SEO and PPC market growths were great for 2008, but you cannot ignore the great impact Subprime Mortgage Crisis had on Japanese financial market. 

SEO was first adapted by small to medium sized companies and now becoming popular amongst the big corporations.  Companies are moving towards internalizing SEO processes thus reducing opportunities for SEO firms, but it still is a growing market and there is a demand for them.

PPC market is growing in spite of the general advertisement budget cuts, most likely because of the direct relationship between users' search behaviors and the placement of the advertisements.  Mobile market is growing fast, but issues such as incompatibilities and insufficient tracking methods are keeping companies from moving into Mobile PPC market.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Japanese market, please read the original articles through the links provided in this blog. 

I've posted a same article in Japanese, but I figured a good reminder for the negative keyword match types today on Adwords Help Tip #8 is useful for anyone managing Adwords accounts.  Negatives, as well as positive keywords, have different match types: broad, exact and phrase.  The thing I didn't know is that you are only allowed to have 10 words in the negative exact match phrase.  The help tip's example explains it all.  You should read it if you are interested in expanding your negative keyword list!