Sunnyvale, California — In the beginning it all began with the inception of news delivered via the web, then appeared the blogging revolution — delivering the power of mass communication to many more hands. Now, Yahoo is the latest company to come out with plans to start using data garnered from the millions of search terms it processes every day in order to select news stories to cover.
According to the New York Times, the company’s editorial team will analyze Yahoo’s search data trends to figure out what topics potential readers are searching for and extend their findings along to the editors and bloggers on the news staff at any given point.
Yahoo officials stated that the aim of this project is to assist journalists provide a unique user experience by creating more personalized content for readers.
In an interview with the NYT, James Pitaro, vice president of Yahoo Media, stated that “We feel like the differentiator here; what disentangles us from a lot of our competitors is our ability to aggregate all this data. This idea of creating content in response to audience insight and audience needs is one component of the strategy, but it is a big component.”
As the search stalwart continuously tracks common words, phrases and topics that are popular among users across its vast online network, it added: “This idea of creating content in response to audience insight and audience needs is one component of the strategy, but it is a big component.”
The concept is that, with direct knowledge of what the readers want, the editors can provide much more relevant articles which, in turn, are more likely to be popular with the public. Finally, it comes down to money, better read stories generate more ad revenue which is what powers many of Yahoo’s online properties.
Presenting as an example of the advantages of search technology from an editors point of view, Pitaro often indicates to one of the most popular articles to appear on Yahoo’s sports news site during the 2008 Summer Olympics. Yahoo had been monitoring search traffic models and noticed that its users kept trying to find out why divers would shower after they got out of the water.
“So while our competition was covering a lot of the bigger, broader topics, we were covering topics that were a little bit more behind the scenes,” Pitaro said.
A “bit more behind the scenes,” yes, and by coincidence also about Olympic athletes showering. An editor would never have thought of this.
The perks for The Upstart will be for advertisers seeking to reach a specific audience, as targeting the users has already been accomplished — if all goes according to the plan — by the news provider.
“They have a remarkable potential power to wring higher value advertisers out of targeted content,” media analyst Ken Doctor told the newspaper.
Beyond the technical challenges, the The Yahoo model also flies in the face of a centuries-old approach to disseminating the news which is likely to be frowned upon by journalism purists. “There is obviously an embedded negative view toward using any type of outside information to influence coverage,” said Robertson Barrett, chief strategy officer of Perfect Market Inc., a company that helps news organizations make their content more detectable to search engine algorithms.
The Upshot’s new editor, Andrew Golis, states that his blog would “use the search data as a supplemental tool… It is an asset. It is a totally amazing and useful tool that we have at Yahoo. But it does not lead Yahoo editorial content”. The ability to combine traditional journalism with Yahoo’s proprietary feed of real-time search data may make The Upshot an very interesting blog to watch.