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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

Yahoo! Japan changed its algorithm in September 14th, 2009.  The last updated was about 4 months ago.
MarketZine, a net market web zine published a SEO study report on the changes made using data from May (before the changes were made), and from September (after the change).

Using 10 keywords and some known SEO tactics as measuring tools, they compared ranking changes of the sites placed 1~100 in May.

Excerpts:
Having more informative contents on a page is a good practice.
Domain age is back on the evaluation metrics.
Links from influential sites are valued highly.
Earning more links is a good practice.
Evaluation from the registered Yahoo! category is influential.
Relevance of the linked sites is valued highly.
Get links from different IP addresses.
On the other hand, titles, meta tags and Yahoo Category Registration have less effect on the rankings now.

They have a good charts on the original report.

By now everyone will have heard about Google Japan's recent slap on the wrist from Google, as reported by Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land in the post Google Penalizes Google Japan for Buying Links.
 
Unlike most site owners who pay for links, Google Japan was clearly not seeking to improve rankings. Google Japan was using a viral marketing service to get bloggers to write about their new products in order to create a buzz, and the links were in effect a byproduct. Regardless of motives and opinions about the separate ethics issue of representing paid content as being consumer generated, Google Japan was deemed to have violated Google's Webmaster guidelines regarding links and had to be penalized in same way as any other site, by having their PageRank lowered.
 
It got me thinking about the gap between some Japanese and U.S. search engine marketing activities, and the difference in perception about what is ethical SEM.
 
For example, it is still fairly common practice for some SEM companies in Japan to set up their own network of sites, known as "dummy sites", for the purposes of providing their clients with huge numbers of links. These sites are often well made, in that they have sensible structure, navigation and content - they don't look like traditional link farms, but that is their purpose. Look closely at these sites and you will see that the "about us" and "contact" sections are often missing. 
 
If you have the budget some agencies will sell you up to 10,000 of these external links, and with the top web property Yahoo Japan appearing to be less strict regarding paid links than Google, the threat of this activity being discovered and penalized for currently seems quite low. This presents quite a challenge for the white hat search engine marketers amongst us!
 
Although paying for links may still get results in the short term for some SEM agencies in Japan, forward thinking marketers will take a more sustainable approach and do the hard graft and creative thinking necessary to build an ethical backlinks campaign. Another downside to buying into these link networks is that it can be difficult to get out again - when you stop paying for the service, the SEM agency is likely to remove the links, making you somewhat dependant on the agency for your continued good rankings.
 
My advice is that if you are looking to work on your backlink strength in Japan, make sure your SEM agency's methods match your own requirements for ethics and sustainability! 

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. 

For my new SEO blog, I've decided to compile all the SEO blogs and news links as a start. 
Site links from an informative eVisibility Insider:

For the latest new in Search Engine Marketing:

• Search Engine Land
• Search Engine Watch
• Search Engine Round Table
• SEO Moz
• Sphinn
• Search Engine Journal

For some great tips on Social Media:

• Pro Net Advertising
• Quick Sprout

If you refuse to read or can multi-task, then try some Podcasts and Videos:

• Webmaster Radio
• Daily Search Cast
• Web Pro New Video

Chat it up. No question is stupid. It is very important to get active in Forums:

• Search Engine Watch Forums
• Cre8asite Forums
• Digital Point Forum

Sites not mentioned in the eVisibility Insider blog but notable:

• BruceClay
• Clix Marketing
• Multilingual Search

Japanese sites:

• semilog
• SEM reserach
• αSEO
• SEO/SEM Magazine

It is impossible to read all the sites everyday.  I decided to go with an RSS feeder for my everyday use.  This list should help me keep up with the news when I am  feeling a little more adventurous.   I intend to keep adding more links as I find.