A while back, I wrote that Yahoo needs to change their ad model to work like Google's. They need to change because Google's model works better, and makes a lot more profit. At least, Yahoo needs to have:

• a black-box auction that obscures how bidding affects ad placement
• incentives for more relevent ads, including tying click-thru-rates to ad placement

Of course, Yahoo realized this before I wrote about it and is working on it. But they are taking forever to get it working, I think. My prediction is now May '06 for Yahoo to have AdWords-like system rolled out.

Get Ready.

¶ 12/06/2005