Some small business owners who buy online advertising through Yahoo are irked by an upgrade to the internet giant’s ad system that is ostensibly designed to make it more stable and sophisticated, the WSJ reports.  One company, Imagers, a family-owned Atlanta digital-printing business that spent about $10,000 a month on search-related advertising through Yahoo, said after its account was converted to the new system, Yahoo declined to let the company continue running some ads linked to specific keywords.
The system, known as Panama, allows search advertisers to bid to have their ads displayed when a user types in certain terms. In Imagers’ case, Yahoo wouldn’t let it to link ads to some of the keywords – such as “color printing” and “digital printing”—that were most often typed in by users and still linked to ads by Imagers’ rivals. Imagers says Yahoo wasn’t able to rectify the problem immediately, so it slashed spending on Yahoo to about a $700 monthly rate and increased its budget for ads on rival Google.
Still, as the article notes, other advertisers weren’t particularly happy with Yahoo’s previous system: Pest-control company Orkin said Yahoo shut off Orkin’s search advertising for 36 hours starting on Jan. 8 seemingly without reason. Yahoo said the problem with the old system has since been fixed.
We’re likely to get an update on Panama when Yahoo releases earnings later today.
Related:
—Yahoo Roundup: Opens “Panama” To New Users; Yahoo Answers White Label; ABCNews-Yahoo

—Earnings: YHOO: Semel Promises; Panama Launches; Social Media Delivers