Yahoo Inc. plans to unveil its first new media property in five years today: a personal-technology website to help consumers buy and set up TVs, digital cameras and other electronic gear.
Marketers and analysts said Yahoo Tech would pose a formidable challenge to the leading tech information site, CNet Networks Inc., and present an attractive option for advertisers.
The computing and telecommunications industries spent $2.4 billion, or about one-fifth, of the $12.5 billion generated by online ads in 2005, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
"The advertising opportunity is substantial," said Yahoo Tech General Manager Patrick Houston, who was hired from CNet a year ago to launch the service.
Yahoo Tech is the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company's first media property to be launched since its music service in 2001 and is the first to be completely designed by Yahoo Media Group, the Santa Monica-based team overseen by former ABC Entertainment Television Group Chairman Lloyd Braun.
Although the former TV executive got off to a rocky start at Yahoo, analysts said, Yahoo Tech highlights his group's strategy of blending original programming with content created by users and licensed from media partners.
"This is their vision of how things are going to be in the future," said Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li, adding that she expected Yahoo to revamp several other properties, such as Finance and Shopping, in similar fashion.
Yahoo Tech, at tech.yahoo.com, features product reviews from Consumer Reports and Yahoo users, how-to advice from Wiley Publishing Inc.'s "For Dummies" book series, original columnists and a TV-like tech makeover show. It also incorporates Yahoo's instant messenger, search and shopping services.
"There's slickly produced professional stuff in bite-sized pieces, mixed with consumer reviews and communication and Internet-utility tools -- the type of stuff that works online," said Jupiter Research analyst David Card. "It's the first thing to emerge from [Braun's] group from the ground up, and it's showing the roots of both Hollywood and Silicon Valley."
San Francisco-based CNet is the most visited online destination for techies, attracting 28.9 million U.S. visitors in March, but its traffic was 16% lower than in March 2005, according to ComScore Networks.
Yahoo executives say their tech coverage will target a broader audience, especially women and non-technophiles. Three of their four advice columnists are women, with the monikers Mom, Boomer and Techie Diva.
