Yahoo Aims to More Deftly Blend Ads With Content

The goal of Marissa Mayer, the chief executive of Yahoo, is to start making the ads on Yahoo just as compelling and just as integrated with the news and information people seek on her company’s websites and mobile applications.

Mayer, who oversaw Google’s signature search products for several years, also hopes to develop new search tools and ads geared to mobile users -- the company’s first steps to innovate in its original business since 2010, when it began a 10-year deal to outsource search to Microsoft. “We’re not sure that a list of links that people have to pick through is the right experience on the phone, and we’re going to start to play with context, applications, other ways to address those search needs,” she said. Better, more useful ads would certainly make Yahoo’s 800 million monthly users and its legions of advertisers happier all around. But for Yahoo, much more is at stake. New ad formats that go beyond the company’s traditional banner and search ads are its best hope of finding fresh sources of revenue, which it badly needs after years of decline.