Overture, Yahoo’s business arm, has announced that it will be rebranded as Yahoo Search Marketing Solutions in the US early next quarter and internationally – including the UK – later this year.

Angela Bloor, PR manager for Overture, comments, “Yahoo is much bigger than Overture so this will allow us use its global strength as much as we can to our advantage. Ultimately it’s about leveraging what is a huge global brand.”

Overture, which is a marketing tool for any business looking to drive traffic to its website, was bought by Yahoo in 2003. Bloor states that Overture (originally known as GoTo) was the pioneer of sponsored search in 1998. She adds, “Overture’s got a good name but it’s not as widely known as the consumer brand Yahoo.”

Yahoo Search Marketing Services will combine Overture and Yahoo search offerings under one banner. Users, advertisers and partners will be directed to The Yahoo Advertising Centre on yahoo.co.uk where, according to Bloor, “everything will be brought together.” She continues: “Combining the two [Overture and Yahoo] is forming a much larger and more effective company. This will create the largest online advertising company with the broadest range of services”

Some of its search products will be renamed in the rebrand including ‘Precision Match’ which will become ‘Sponsored Search Listing’ though ‘Local Match’ and ‘Content Match’ will remain the same.

As yet, there is no date on when the rebrand will commence in the UK but Bloor states that when the time comes it will be accompanied by a communications campaign to existing users. She adds that the Overture site will be phased out gradually to avoid any confusion.

 

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