Summary
Key Point 1: Yahoo has been losing publishers to Google prior to Panama Launch
Key Point 2: Usage and reach decrease could impact Panama's effectiveness from a monetization perspective
Analysis
Yahoo Panama's long awaited full release is supposed to occur end of quarter or early next quarter. However, Yahoo has not been able to keep up with Google in overall search queries or partnering with key sites for search product use.
Recently they have also lost long time partners Friendster and Miva (NEWS) to Google. This results in overall traffic and volume loss.
Panama is supposed to have a significant amount of technology advances on the consumer and business side, but does not address the fundamental issue of continued query growth by Google ahead of Yahoo and MSN.
At some point (the 16-18% range) the auction model for search becomes potentially inefficient due to lack of:
--Effective Bids (Bid Volume)
--Traffic data to provide effective geo/demo/behavioral targeting
--Segmentation or *Cherry-picking* most valuable products
The question becomes can Yahoo leverage momentum with Panama to offset the losses that have mounted up on the partner/syndication side of the search business. Panama from a technology perspective could exceed expectations, but the usage and partner loss could prove to much to overcome
