According to Reuters, both Google and Yahoo! are courting Trader Classified Media for an acquisition play.

Trader publishes 578 print guides and runs 56 Web sites with classified ads in 22 countries. Such reach and content would make either a serious player for all kinds of classified content - including jobs - on a global scale pretty quickly.

It’s no secret that both Google and Yahoo! will need a secure flow of classified ad content in order to be successful, especially if they’re going to make strong plays in the vertical search arenas.

Acquisition certainly becomes one way to hedge their bets. In case Monster, Cars.com and Rent.com turn off the faucet, for example, Google or Yahoo! could retain enough content to not be negatively affected too badly.  Nice move.

Additionally, it’s the first time I can think of that an online property has looked to a print component to grow instead of the other way around. Intriguing change of pace.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 22nd, 2005 at 1:53 pm and is filed under search marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.