Monday, August 8, 2005

Yahoo Search Marketing Opens APIs

Pasadena-based Yahoo! Search Marketing said this morning that it has opened up its application programming interfaces to web analytics companies, allowing those firms to monitor click through rates and performance of ads. The pay per click advertising network said that Coremetrics, Omniture, WebTrends, and WebSiteStory will be able to log information from Yahoo into their analytics software, allowing customers to optimize advertiser campaigns. The company said that the aim of the integration was not only more integrated campaign reports, but protection from unwanted traffic. The APIs are part of Yahoo's Advertiser Web Services program. Web analytics providers typically analyze clickstream and web log data to optimize the design of web sites and advertising campaigns. In this case, Yahoo stressed that the API move is targeted at identifying unwanted clicks -- the issue in the industry known as click-fraud. Click fraud is a growing issue where automated programs, competitors, and others are fradulently clicking on pay per click ads in order to either earn money for a content site, or to cause financial damage to an advertiser.

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