Business Know How has a good article explaining Yahoo’s controversial (and confusing) SiteMatch program. I haven’t spent a lot of time reviewing this program, but my sense is that this smacks of misplaced arrogance. Yahoo generates a fair amount of traffic, but not anywhere near what Google does, and therefore not enough to charge a premium. This is kind of like Apple charging for their browser even though Microsoft’s is free. Apple would never do that because it’s a short trip to oblivion.
Yahoo may get away with this for a little while, but marketers measure their ROI better than ever. If the amortized cost per click for a Yahoo campaign does not measure up to Google, guess who’s going to get more money in the long run?