According to Wall Street investors and analysts, the slowdown in search advertising that prompted a collapse in Yahoo's share price on Wednesday is not likely to have had any impact on search leader Google when it reports its latest earnings on Thursday.
Instead, Yahoo's latest problems were seen as a result of its own struggles to boost the advertising income it generates from internet searches at a time when the overall search market remains strong.
Most analysts estimated that while Yahoo's branded advertising grew strongly in the latest quarter, its revenues from search engine advertising slipped compared with the first three months of the year.
The delays in expected improvements to Yahoo's search advertising business were frustrating, said Safa Rashtchy, internet analyst at Piper Jaffray, though he added that there is little fundamental change in Yahoo's business and the model is not starting to deteriorate.
Google's share price largely escaped the downdraught in Yahoo's stock on Wednesday as investors anticipated that its own latest earnings would continue to reflect the more effective monetisation of search engine queries that it has shown in the past.
Mabelle Sese
www.jump2top.com