Yahoo Moves to Dampen Publisher Furor

Yahoo is addressing a Web traffic issue thats been creating problems for Internet publishers using Yahoos do-it-yourself online ad generator.

Web site operators must ensure that only Internet traffic from the United States sees the Yahoo-placed ads, according to the rules for participating in the 8-month-old Yahoo Publisher Network.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company drew the boundary line in order to limit the feature to Web interests with mainly a U.S. audience, according to Yahoo spokesperson Kristen Wareham.

Eight months after the self-serve ad program launched, Yahoo says it now intends to build or offer via a third-party provider the means to redirect international traffic away from the ads, thus avoiding any trouble.

/zimages/2/28571.gifThe publishing network is just part of Yahoos push into the Web 2.0 world. Read morehere.

“We heard that one of the items publishers would like is a solution for redirecting international traffic from our ads,” Wareham wrote in an e-mail to eWEEK. “Weve been working on it and well be sure to let our participants know when its ready.”

In the last few weeks, theres been a spike in the amount of complaints about the U.S.-only traffic rule. The new round of complainants harps on how Yahoo created a rule thats hard to comply with.

“This seemed insanely limiting,” Cory Doctorow, a Web publisher, wrote after receiving recent word from Yahoo about international traffic to his site. “So … Yahoo tells me to deliberately keep a large number of users from seeing my pages, but wont even suggest a way to do this. Clever, huh?”

While still considered a beta, or test, version, at 4,000 participants the Yahoo Publisher Network is second only to Internet search provider Googles dominant AdSense feature. Google did not release any details about AdSense participants.

/zimages/2/28571.gifRead morehereabout Googles latest ad moves.

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