Impact on Yahoo.co.jp

[Kiyoshi Terada]

What will be impacts on Yahoo Japan after the deal with MSN? (Especially from SEO/SEM perspective.) This article has great insights (Japanese). Thanks @Suganeseo -san for this great link! In any case, it will be interesting to find what statement Yahoo Japan (particularly Softbank ) will announce about this global agreement., particularly in terms of how Yahoo Japan will be involved with the agreement.

http://www.sem-r.com/09/20090729222027.html

What do you think?

[Andrew Shuttleworth]

Intersesting question indeed.

Before I go out on a limb and make a wild guess (hint: no impact) let me ask, what search engine does Yahoo! Japan use.

As an aside ...

In some ways the question is somewhat irrelevant, as wasn't Yahoo! mainly a directory rather than a search engine?

[Kiyoshi Terada]

Update here in Japanese. It is likely that Yahoo Japan will incorporate Bing's search engine. http://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/0907/30/news029.html (Japanese)

[Kiyoshi Terada]

more updates

"Yahoo Japan role in Microsoft search deal 'still unclear' "

http://www.brandrepublic.asia/DigitalMedia/newsarticle/2009_07/Yaho...

[Kiyoshi Terada]

"both Yahoo China and Yahoo Japan appear not to be part of the Microsoft deal anyway – at least it's not yet clear. Yahoo China is run by Alibaba, which is 40-percent owned by Yahoo – so this will probably not be part of the Microsoft project anyway. Yahoo Japan is 42-percent owned and majority-controlled by Softbank – and there is no clear statement yet as to whose results will start appearing in Bing or who will share the revenue."

http://searchenginewatch.com/3634574

[Kiyoshi Terada]

OK Softbank stated that Yahoo Japan "may" apply Bing's search engine functions to Yahoo Japan. Done Deal.

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/economy/business/090730/biz0907302259025-n... (Japanese)

[Jeff Lippold]

As curious I am about the search, the other thing I wonder is how/if Yahoo's new design will be incorporated into the Yahoo Japan portal. I'm going to go out on a limb on this one, but I have a feeling that the latest redesign might bring a more official split between the two. While some features (like the news aggregator from the "Zeitgeist") will likely find their way over, some of the social toolbar applications might not be as relevant to the way (the majority of) Japanese users surf the web.
While I'm at it, I have to say I think Yahoo did a bang-up job with their new redesign. I wasn't a huge fan of the last work-over but think they've struck a bit of paydirt in taking a lead in terms of how portals should present content.