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Yahoo Releases Test Version of New Search Engine

New report comes from Jordan Rohan, RBC analyst, saying that Yahoo issued a test version of its new search monetization. The project is titled "Project Panama" and the new Yahoo model will be similar to that of Google. The search engine ranks ads by two categories. Both the amount of advertisers pay for keywords and the relevance of the ad will be taken into account. The Google-like algorithm should result in higher click-through rates than its older model that ranked ads only by the amount paid for keywords.

Yahoo has notified certain high-volume search buyers of the upcoming changes to its sponsored search monetization algorithm and a widespread announcement should be made in the coming weeks, possibly at the AdTech expo.

Rohan maintains his ?outperform? rating and price target of $42 on Yahoo! stock, and says an announcement of the U.K. beta rollout could positively affect Yahoo shares. A full ?Project Panama? rollout in the United States and Japan will likely happen in late 2006 or early 2007.