Yahoo! Gets “Catchy” With Advertising

Yahoo! has released a test version of a new search advertising monetization model. Forbes.com reports that the test model currently titled, “Project Panama” will be similar to Google’s system of ranking ads by ad cost and ad relevance. Yahoo!’s intentions are to increase click-through rates compared to the current model that ranks ads only by amount paid for keywords. Although no official announcement has been made, the search-engine ad model is expected to reach the U.K. in July and land in the U.S. by late 2006.