Yahoo! loves Tiger Woods. "God bless Tiger," says Yahoo! CEO
Tiger Woods mania. Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz said the interest in the Tiger Woods scandal has meant a big increase in traffic to Yahoo!
Although some sports fans may be disheartened by the Tiger Woods scandal, at least one company appreciates him. Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz said the interest in Tiger Woods has produced a surge in traffic to the site.
NEWSCOM
Hey, who says things are all going downhill for Tiger Woods?
There's at least one company out there that likes him.
While advertisements featuring the golfer have begun to disappear from television and at least one sponsor -- Gatorade -- has dropped him altogether (although reportedly before the scandal), one CEO is thanking God, literally, for his implosion.
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz told attendees of the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference yesterday that the Tiger Woods soap opera has meant great business for the search company.
"God bless Tiger," Bartz said while discussing the surge of Woods-related traffic to the site. "This week we got a huge uplift: Front Page, News, Sports, Gossip. He just filtered through the whole place."
More traffic means more display ads Yahoo can serve up on its pages and that means more money.
How much more? When asked if the scandal would "make" Yahoo's quarter, Bartz said,"Oh, absolutely. He already has."
So is Bartz saying that in the world of Internet traffic, any news is good news? Not exactly. Some scandals are better than others, she said -- although she may have wanted to remain silent on this topic.
"[This] is better than Michael Jackson dying; it is kind of hard to put an ad next to a funeral," Bartz joked, reportedly to little laughter.
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Hey, we'll never compare Tiger Woods with Michael Jackson's funeral, but if we do it'll only be on Twitter. So follow us.
See also:
Gatorade drops Tiger -- a hint of things to come?
Transgressions damage control - where does Tiger go from here?