Golden balls
Yahoo's move to focus primarily on online content, and let partnership deals like the ones with Microsoft, Nokia and Facebook take care of everything else, is progressing fast these days. Today it announced a relatively small, but symbolically significant development: the appointment of David Beckham as Global Football Ambassador for the company.
Becks is initially being used to promote Yahoo's World Cup coverage. Yahoo UK and Ireland Sport is published in partnership with TV channel Eurosport. Not only will there be a dedicated Beckham channel on the site, but visitors will be able to ask him questions directly and he's going to be the face of Yahoo's marketing through the summer.
"Yahoo has a true relationship with fans and is an online leader in sports content across the globe," said Beckham. "Yahoo will allow me to interact one on one with as many football fans as possible talking about the game I love."
Originally known as a web directory, Yahoo has made the strategic decision that its strength lies in positioning itself a web portal and first port of call for services and information. While its email and instant messaging services are reasonably popular, it continues to be eclipsed in this area by Google, as it does in search.
The thinking seems to be that by providing desirable content, people will gravitate towards Yahoo and decide to use it as their homepage for mail, etc while they're there. This is why, as well as all the partnerships, Yahoo has snapped up Associated Content and is rumoured to be doing a deal with leading blog The Huffington Post.
"Yahoo! is all about providing users with content that engages and excites them around their passions, and who other than a global personality like David Beckham to deliver just that for football fans," said Elisa Steele, Yahoo's chief marketing officer.
"David's experience in three consecutive World Cup championships combined with his club experience in both Europe and the US gives him a unique perspective on football and the World Cup and we are happy to broadcast his message to our nearly 600 million users."
Here are a couple of the ads Becks features in.
