WebProNews

Nancy Evars, one of the creators of the Yahoo Search blog, says that their blog was not created for PR, but rather as a way to reach "influencers".

Tom Foremski and Candida Kutz of the SiliconValleyWatcher sat down for a lunch interview with Yahoo employees who helped create the Yahoo Search blog. In addition to Nancy Evars, they mentioned Jeremy Zawodny in their article. Jeremy also has his own personal blog and incidentally is one of several bloggers which have their blog posts published in WebProNews.

Jeremy previously wrote about lunch with Tom Forenski here.

From the SiliconValleyWatcher article:

"She stressed that it was not set up to be a PR tool, but as a resource that "influencers" (influential bloggers) would read and contribute to, thus providing valuable feedback to Yahoo from those who matter most. (Which brings up the point that metrics such as hits and unique visitors are not in themselves useful -- it's WHO is hitting on you.)

I asked her whether the blog could become a way of replacing traditional marketing and research. She replied that no, they would not take the place the place of focus groups and other traditional means of doing market research, but instead the blog is viewed as a tool for enhancing marketing efforts. Other Yahoo departments considering new product launches are now consulting with her on how to use blogs to beta test and launch upcoming products."

Thanks to Steve Rubel (whose blog posts also appear on WebProNews) for pointing to this story in his Micropersuasion blog.

Rich Ord is the CEO of iEntry, Inc. which publishes over 200 websites and email newsletters. Rich also publishes his blog WebProBlog which focuses on internet business and marketing trends.