search advertising

On Wednesday, Yahoo named Scott Thompson as CEO. He's a former PayPal president and veteran technologist -- and that's the trouble: Yahoo is following the same strategy that led it to hire Carol Bartz, who was ousted for failing to turn the company around.

Everyone seems anxious to hook up Yahoo! these days. The dot-com pioneer has become that single aunt in every family whom everyone thinks sorely needs a soul mate. But what if Yahoo! is happy to be single? After all, it just spent $270 million on a acquisition of its own to beef up its online advertising.

Google recently acquired Admeld in order to provide better display online advertisement management services. Admeld's technology is expected to be incorporated into Google's DoubleClick Ad Exchange, and could help Google to fend off Yahoo and AOL.

Watching which way the talent is flowing in Silicon Valley can tell investors a lot. Even if a big brain drain isn't a sure death knell for a major player, it can't be ignored. And during the last couple of years, a lot of talent has been draining out of Silicon Valley icon Google.

Baidu's third-quarter profit more than doubled, year over year, as online advertising surged. The company also benefited from increased market share after Google closed its China-based search engine in March.

Yahoo beat analysts' third-quarter earnings estimates Tuesday, but missed revenue expectations for the third consecutive quarter. It also forecast lower-than-expected revenues in the fourth quarter.

The search engine's strong results were an "October Surprise" of sorts for investors who have wondered whether Google's prodigious profit-making ability was beginning to wane.

Just a few months after Google exited the Chinese search market, Microsoft and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group have partnered to launch their own Chinese search site, Etao.

Yahoo's top ad executive in the Americas is resigning, as the Internet pioneer struggles to raise its flagging revenues. The move represents yet another high-profile departure from Yahoo, but that may not necessarily be a bad thing.

A name from the Internet's past emerged as online marketer Ybrant announced its $36 million purchase of Lycos, an early search pioneer whose market position -- and valuation -- shrank as rivals quickly overtook it.