By Douglas MacMillan and Daisuke Wakabayashi
Yahoo is hoping Yelp can help improve its search engine's local
results.
A partnership between the Internet portal and the online review
site--which Chief Executive Marissa Mayer unveiled at an employee
meeting Friday--will incorporate Yelp's listings and reviews of
local businesses into results on Yahoo's search engine, said a
person who attended the meeting. The new feature will be made
available in the coming weeks, the person said.
Ms. Mayer has led a revamp of search technology at Yahoo as she
tries to turn around the once-dominant Internet portal. Surfacing
more content from around the Web, like Yelp's local listings, could
help Yahoo differentiate from Microsoft Bing, its partner in
search, and compete with Google, the market leader.
Yelp has similar content partnerships with Microsoft and Apple,
which shows local business listings, reviews and photos on its
mobile mapping software.
The terms of the Yahoo-Yelp deal couldn't be determined. A Yahoo
spokeswoman declined to comment on a deal with Yelp.
Yahoo is stuck in a search pact with Microsoft, signed in 2010,
that executives close to Ms. Mayer have described as a
disappointment. Under the deal, Microsoft gets 12% of the revenue
Yahoo generates from search ads appearing next to search results.
Yahoo is unlikely to get out of its contract with Microsoft until
at least 2015, the midpoint of the 10-year agreement, when either
party is permitted to opt out.
Search ads, which make up a little more than one-third of
Yahoo's revenue, grew 8% to $461 million in the fourth quarter of
2013, after payouts to Microsoft. In December, Yahoo claimed 10.8%
of the search market, compared with Google's 67.3% and Microsoft's
18.2%, according to comScore.
Last year, Ms. Mayer promoted Yahoo veteran Laurie Mann to run a
group of hundreds of employees developing search technology at the
company.
Ms. Mayer, who once led search at Google, was involved in that
company's 2009 attempt to acquire Yelp for at least $500 million, a
person familiar with the negotiations said at the time.
Write to Douglas MacMillan at douglas.macmillan@wsj.com and
Daisuke Wakabayashi at Daisuke.Wakabayashi@wsj.com
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