As of March 1st, Yahoo Search Marketing will change its policy
regarding bids for trademarks by competitive advertisers.
After watching Mazda hijack the "Google Pontiac" campaign by purchasing Pontiac
as a keyword in Google AdWords, Yahoo has taken steps to end the practice of bidding
on trademarks by the competition. An email sent to such advertisers with Yahoo
Search Marketing emerged
at Search Engine Watch.
The email read as follows:
On March 1, 2006, Yahoo!
Search Marketing will modify its editorial guidelines regarding the use of keywords
containing trademarks. Previously, we allowed competitive advertising by allowing
advertisers to bid on third-party trademarks if those advertisers offered detailed
comparative information about the trademark owner's products or services in comparison
to the competitive products and services that were offered or promoted on the
advertiser's site.
In order to more easily deliver quality user experiences when users search on
terms that are trademarks, Yahoo! Search Marketing has determined that we will
no longer allow bidding on keywords containing competitor trademarks.
By
David A. Utter 
