January 24, 2007 | Wednesday

Yahoo! to launch Panama search a month early

By Jon Myers, Director Of Search in Search Engines |Yahoo |Search Technology

Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel has announced that its long-awaited Panama search marketing platform will launch on 5 February, a month early.

Semel was speaking on a conference call as the company said profits had fallen 61% in the fourth quarter, from $683.2m (£345m) to $268.7m (£136m). Revenues for the period were up by 15% from $1.5bn (£762m) a year earlier to $1.7bn (£864m).

Shares immediately rose by 5% as Semel finally announced the switchover date.

“I’m happy to report that we have successfully transitioned the large majority of our revenue to the new search system known as Project Panama,” he said during the call.

Yahoo! says that the new platform will link searches with more accurate ad results, thereby increasing click-throughs to advertisers and publishers.