Yahoo! and Microsoft provide update on their Search Alliance

Yahoo! and Microsoft have sent out emails updating users on the progress of their search engine alliance which uses Microsoft’s back-end technology to power both the paid and organic results on Yahoo!. They say that the continued point in their alliance is to “provide consumers with a competitive choice in search, while offering search advertisers a cost-effective way to connect with a high-quality audience.”

Providing an update on the progress of their alliance, they say that Yahoo! Search users in every country around the world apart from Korea are now seeing the results of their organic searches on Yahoo! being powered by Microsoft’s Bing. They say that this gives searchers “a better experience and greater relevancy”.

They also note that Yahoo! Search Marketing advertisers in North America and India are now using the Microsoft Advertising adCenter platform to manage their search marketing campaigns, advertising on both Yahoo! and Microsoft through the one account. They anticipate that this will roll out to the UK and France in the second quarter of 2012, with other European countries making the transition later in 2012.

To put it succinctly, for users of Bing and Yahoo! in the UK, the organic listings on both search engines are now tied together, and from mid-2012 the online paid advertising campaigns should be linked too, if all goes to plan.