Like many on this forum, I've been working with Yahoo since the Overture days and M$N since the adCenter beta.
I have to say that, although I shouldn't be, I'm amazed how little improvement there has been in the quality of Yahoo's service offering over the years. From their secretive Domain Match program, to the complete cluster-youknowwhat that was the "Panama" upgrade, to their low quality (yet mandatory) search partners, to the absolute ineptitude of their support staff, and now this MS Mess... How the hell have they managed to make advertising such a nightmare when their competitors have been doing it successfully for years?
And now with this M$N/Yahoo partnership, I can hardly get an ad online without it getting pulled for some nonsense. Told that my ads are pulled for "trademark infringement" when it's my own trademark I'm bidding on. Told that my ads are pulled for popups when there has never been a popup in the history of my site. Told that my ads are pulled because the word "voodoo" is "hate speech". Told that my ads are pulled because a capital letter "A" is "offensive". I'm not making a word of this up. Without exaggeration, 75% of the time spent on these accounts is spent troubleshooting their crap platforms, faulty algorithms and clueless staff.
This is Micro$oft trying to buy their way into a market they slept on for too long, and Yahoo grasping for a lifeboat as they loot their own ship on the way down. And as usual, the advertisers are left to drown.
Yahoo needs to be put down... IMHO they are and (seemingly) will always be the worst search marketing provider on the internet regardless of who they climb into bed with or which back end they hook up to. Lipstick on a pig my friends.
