Yahoo and Yext

A client had wanted to update his Yahoo Maps listing and said they couldn’t find a claim this business link.
I decided to take a look and see what happened as Yahoo did have it not that long ago.
When I checked the maps listings sure enough there was no way to claim or edit a business.
Then I thought maybe they only allow you to see the claim link if you are a Yahoo member.
So I went to login and as I suspected there was the hidden link.
So I clicked on it and to my surprise we wind up with a Yext scan !!

It looks like Yahoo has partnered with Yext to manage local listings.
Yext which started out as a service which charged $300 to list people in all local directories has now grown into a monster.
Yext has raised its rates to a fee of over $500 for the same service that was once $300 and based on what I am seeing this company is forcing small businesses to pay them a monthly fee.
They have transformed from a listing service into a landlord.
So now we see the Yext monthly Fee in Yahoo !
Yes with Yahoo you now need to pay Yext to rank in their local results.
I suspect Yext is managing Yahoo local results as their results does not match results found in either Bing or Google.

With so many small businesses in the USA I can't imagine a worse idea for a search engine to do.
I am glad that Bing didn't follow Yahoo in this direction.
At a time when business is not all that great here comes Yahoo to gouge the Local Business Communities.
If the Yahoo CEO took a pay cut it would bring in more money than they can hope to raise from this incredibly dumb idea.
Maybe the share holders should think about a new CEO.

The internet once gave everyone a shot at being able to reach a large audience.

It’s a shame that it is becoming a den of thieves.

Vincent G.