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YAHOO! SEARCH MARKETING LAUNCHES "LIFE SERIES" TO EXPLORE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MAJOR LIFE EVENTS AND INTERNET SEARCH HABITS

New Research Finds That Search Plays a Significant Role with College Students and New Parents

Pasadena, CA -- Today, Yahoo! Search Marketing, the paid search unit of Yahoo! Inc., announced the first results of a research endeavor that explores the relationship between life-evolving experiences and online search behavior. The research series, entitled ³The Life Series," aims to identify ways in which advertisers and consumers can benefit from one another throughout the dynamics of life events, utilizing search as the critical point of engagement.

The Life Series research was developed based on the belief that adults go through various life events -- experiences that fundamentally change the way a person lives their life -- throughout the course of their lifetime. These events could include going to college, having a baby, moving to a new city and retiring. Yahoo! Search Marketing has identified 10-15 such life events to explore in this research study. The first two life events explored in the series were going to college and having a baby.

The initial key findings in this research revealed that people experiencing such events share certain common characteristics including a desire for trusted information sources, heavy reliance on research prior to making decisions and increased time spent on research during their life event.

Additional key findings from the research include:

• 86% of new parents-to-be said they use the Internet to search about information on pregnancy, as compared to books (68%), friends/family (53%), and magazines (37%).
• 54% of new parents said search simplified their lives more so than magazines (17%) or TV (10%)
• 81% of college students rate search as their best source of information, followed by friends and family (64%), newspaper (36%) and TV (24%)

The research findings also showed that life events link online and offline worlds. For parents-to-be, search is an essential and complementary tool when learning about their potential purchases, but many purchases for their new babies will be ultimately be made offline. College students are much more likely to make purchases online, except for larger investments, where they still trust offline channels more.

"People are more likely to consider new products and brands as they move through different life stages. Our research tells us that web search represents a trusted and highly used source for information," said David Karnstedt, senior vice president and general manager for direct business at Yahoo! Search Marketing. "To own a consumerıs point of entry into a product category and develop long-lasting relationships is every marketerıs goal. What we are doing now is gaining more insight into how our customers can accomplish this via search."

To obtain information for The Life Series, Yahoo! Search Marketing used a comprehensive three-phase research approach focusing on qualitative ethnography, qualitative surveys and click stream analysis. Yahoo! Search Marketing teamed up with Compete, Greenberg Brand Strategy, and Hall & Partners to conduct the Life Series research.