Skip to main content

Yahoo and eBay Ink Multi-Year Pact

Two giants of the Internet world are getting increasingly snuggly in their bids to compete with the likes of Google and Microsoft: today Yahoo and eBay announced a multi-year partnership to combine aspects of both companies offerings to expand their U.S. business operations. The companies plan to begin rolling out initiatives this year, with full implementation to come in 2007.

Sound vague enough? Well, there’s actually meat on these bones. The agreement specifically covers four areas: search and graphical advertising (where Yahoo holds the upper hand), online payments (where eBay subsidiary PayPal holds the upper hand), a co-branded toolbar, and the opportunity to explore “click-to-call” functionality via eBay’s shiny new VoIP unit Skype.

On the advertising front, Yahoo will exclusively provide third-party ads on the heavily trafficked eBay site, along with sponsored search links on some eBay results pages. The two companies also plan to work on “increasing the quality and comprehensiveness” of Yahoo’s Web search results for eBay; we’re not sure what that means, but we suspect we’ll be seeing most eBay listings and links appearing next to Yahoo search results (and they’ll probably be even less tangentially related to the original search than ever before). A natural place for Yahoo to more tightly integrate eBay offerings would be in Yahoo Shopping.

On the online payments front, Yahoo will adopt PayPal as the exclusive third-party provider of its online wallet, enabling customers to pay for Yahoo services using PayPal (and, thereby, their bank accounts, credit cards, etc.). Yahoo also plans to deeply integrate PayPal into its sites and give PayPal prominent positioning when users purchase or renew Yahoo services. PayPal will also be promoted as Yahoo’s preferred payment solution for merchants and publishers working with Yahoo, via programs like the Yahoo Publisher Network, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Yahoo Merchant Solutions.

The companies plan to run with a co-branded eBay Toolbar, integrating Yahoo searching, home page, Yahoo Mail, and the My Yahoo custom page service into eBay’s existing auction-centric toolbar.

Perhaps more interesting is the company’s agreement to “explore” click-to-call advertising ideas on their U.S. Web sites, rolling in Yahoo Messenger and Skype: the idea is that users could click an advertisement for a product or service and be connected directly to that advertiser to “pursue a transaction.”

(Or, you know, ask for “Huggme

Editors' Recommendations

Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
eBay Home Learning Sale: Save on AirPods, iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, and more
Learning from home

More people have, through necessity or choice, found themselves doing more work away from the office. However, many parents and students have also been discovering the joys and difficulties of teaching and learning from home, which is something that brings its own unique set of challenges.

There's no denying that the internet has made remote work and learning much more accessible for millions of people, and no matter what age group you're teaching (or what age group you belong to if you're a student), the right equipment can make things even easier. Right now, eBay is having a sale on all sorts of home learning hardware to help teachers and students alike. Below, we've rounded up our favorite picks of the lot, but be sure to head over to the sale page to check out everything that's on offer.
Shop The Sale

Read more
Wi-Fi 6E is the biggest change to happen to Wi-Fi in 25 years
amazon slashes black friday prices for eero mesh wi fi systems pro wifi router extender  1

Thanks to a unanimous Federal Communications Commission (FCC) vote today, your Wi-Fi network could become faster and more reliable. The FCC's vote opens up 1,200 MHz of the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use, which means that this spectrum will join the existing 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands found on most home Wi-Fi routers today. The standard, called Wi-Fi 6E, will free up unlicensed 6 GHz spectrum for use on Wi-Fi later this year, so your network will become less congested and you'll enjoy faster speeds.

In order to take advantage of the new spectrum and faster speeds, you'll definitely need a new Wi-Fi 6E-compatible device and router. These devices are expected to hit shelves toward the end of this year, and you can expect to see a lot more devices taking advantage of the 6GHz spectrum in 2021. Once Wi-Fi 6E devices hit the market, you'll have to look out for the label, as current devices marked as Wi-Fi 6 compatible won't be able to take advantage of the newly available spectrum. Also, your speeds will be as good as what's available to you from your internet speed provider, so you may want to upgrade to a faster home broadband plan.

Read more
E3 is canceled this year, but there are already plans for E3 2021
https://digitaltrends-uploads-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/2017/06/e3-2017-awards-feature.jpg

The world's biggest gaming conference, E3, has been canceled this year due to the global outbreak of coronavirus, officially called COVID-19. But plans are already underway for next year's event, E3 2021, according to the event's organizers.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the body which runs the E3 events, has announced that it is planning a "reimagined" E3 for 2021, as reported by gamesindustry.biz. The ESA also confirmed that the event would be scheduled for June 15 to June 17, 2021.

Read more