Yahoo has partnered with online review site Yelp in an attempt to provide better search results for users. The collaboration was announced by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer at a staff meeting last Friday. Yahoo lost it place to Google as the most popular search engine some time back. This comes as one of Mayer's attempts to revive the company's glorious past.
Mayer plans to incorporate Yelp's local business listings, user-generated reviews and photos into Yahoo's search engine results. The new feature will be made available in the coming weeks, according to a Wall Street Journal report, citing a source who attended the meeting.
Details of the deal have not been revealed. Bloomberg, MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal tried getting in touch with both the companies but Sara Gorman, a spokeswoman for Yahoo, and Yelp spokesman Vince Sollitto refused to comment or reveal anything about the deal.
In December, Yahoo's share in the search market was 10.8 percent, compared to Microsoft's 18.2 percent and Google's 67.3 percent, according to ComScore. This year too, the company has already witnessed a 7.9 percent drop in shares whereas Yelp shares have risen by 30 percent.
This is not the first time Yelp has been involved in a major partnership. It shares similar partnerships with Microsoft and Apple. Apple shows local business listings, reviews, and photos on its mobile mapping software, information for which comes from the review site.
Currently, Yahoo gets most of its search technology through a multi-year pact with Microsoft. Under this deal, Microsoft is entitled to 12 percent of all revenue Yahoo generates from its search advertisements. The pact cannot be broken even if Yahoo wants to until 2015.
According to reports, the Mayer tried acquire Yelp for $500 million in 2009 when she was employed with Google, according to TechCrunch. Now with more power in her hands, Mayer knows how to play her cards.
