Even though Yahoo is still in the “Big 2″ for search, not being #1 has got to be disturbing. It’s like looking for your desired keyword term in the SERPs and finding that someone else is in the #1 position with you not far behind — but you’ve apparently done everything you could possibly think of to make it to the top. What can you do next? Well, in Yahoo’s case, they are looking to be better in another area. (Likewise, you can focus your SEO tactics on other keywords or go long-tail.) If you can’t beat them somewhere, beat them somewhere else. Find an area where you can excel in and go with it.

Over the weekend, Yahoo announced that it is focusing its advertising efforts in the mobile world. Yes, that’s right, cellular telephones in 19 countries will begin featuring Yahoo brand advertising for a number of major service providers and products, including Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, Intel, Nissan, and Hilton’s Embassy Suites.

This is a very interesting step to expand advertising beyond the Internet and into the hands of people who may not necessarily be sitting in front of a PC. And it’s entirely possible. In the past few days, gadget blogs have been showcasing a tremendous amount of newly announced cell phone models, and Yahoo is acknowledging the financial opportunity for them — and for their advertisers — on these cutting-edge mobile phones. According to Steve Boom, Yahoo’s senior VP for mobile and broadband, high-resolution color screens and Web browsers makes this decision particularly desirable, and the “mobile advertising market is [consequently] poised to explode.”

Yahoo’s initiative combines the Yahoo! Go 2.0 software platform that they plan to roll out to major mobile phone manufacturers in addition to forging the required relationships with advertisers to display the ads. The audience — end users like you and me — are in the estimated three billion users throughout the world expected to own a cell phone by the end of 2007.

So far, this looks to be incredibly promising for Yahoo. With what appears to be a well-thought-out mobile strategy, the company is poised to move ahead of Google in the mobile world, and for Yahoo’s sake, I truly look forward to this being a very big success for the company.

Bookmark this post: