The Yahoo Search Marketing Desktop: Thanks for Discriminating Against Mac Users!

I’m not gonna lie - I used to dread the days I dedicated to managing my PPC campaigns in Yahoo Search Marketing. When you’re used to editing campaigns in Adwords Editor, switching to the slow, cumbersome Yahoo Search Marketing interface (whether you use bulk editing or not) is a nightmare.

So needless to say I was pretty excited to get an email a while ago about the new Yahoo Search Marketing Desktop tool.

I just downloaded it today and have only played with it a bit, but so far I’m pretty happy with it. I think what I like most about it is that its layout and interface is pretty similar to AdWords Editor in a lot of ways - unlike MS’s AdCenter Desktop tool, which confused the crap out me at first (and to be honest, still does sometimes).

Editing keyword bids and ad text will certainly be much easier now, allowing me to get more work done for a client per month than I used to be able to. And, I was happy to note, they seem to have features similar to AdWords Editor’s “advanced keyword bid and ad changes,” which I find INCREDIBLY useful and time saving.

BUT - I will reserve further praise until I use it more in depth.

Are Yahoo & Microsoft Teaming Up Against Mac?

Now that Yahoo and Microsoft have formed their “search alliance” I can’t help but wonder what that means for us Mac users. I already know I can’t use AdCenter Desktop on the Mac without setting up parallels or special programs, which I leave up to my tech guys.

And now on the FAQs page about Yahoo’s Desktop Editor, I read “The tool has been officially certified by Yahoo! to work on the Windows platform only. Using the tool on another platform, such as Mac, that is capable of running Adobe AIR applications will work, but issues found will not be supported by Yahoo!.”

So basically you can use it on a Mac (as I have) but there’s no guarantee that something won’t go wrong…and you can’t rely on Yahoo to help you if it does.

Now obviously Microsoft’s not trying to produce Mac compatible downloads…but now Yahoo too? Look’s like their search alliance is against more than just Google….

I will of course, qualify that by saying that I’m not sure if any of Yahoo’s other tools or downloads were built to be Mac compatible - I’m not typically a big fan of Yahoo tools.

Bottom line: Support Macs Yahoo! I don’t care if you’re in bed with Microsoft, Macs need love too!