In a stunning display of miscalculation and all things feminine, Yahoo’s latest embarrassment is “striping” the company of credibility.

Yahoo has really struggled over the past two years, with falling profits and a revolving door of Ex-Yahoo executives. However, I don’t think anyone expected Yahoo’s latest debacle would take place at a corporate event. After Yahoo hosted an event for engineers and developers called Open Hack Day in Taiwan last weekend, a number of photos from the event managed to find their way onto the internet causing uproar.

Yahoo hired scantily clad young women to liven up the event, and give lap dances to event guests. Yahoo described this event as a “brainstorming” session, and opportunity to learn about programming and technologies. But when video and pictures from the event found their way onto the internet, it became clear that hiring the ‘Hack Girls’ was a misguided decision on the part of Yahoo.

What makes Yahoo’s misguided decision so interesting is that it involved lap dances at a corporate sponsored event, attended by Yahoo corporate executives, two years in a row. The details of this event have lead many to believe that the top execs at Yahoo was fully aware of the ‘Hack Girls’ and turned a blind eye, until the bad press started.

Here is the apology posted on the Yahoo Development Network blog by Chris Yeh, entitled “Sorry.”

In the world of PPC advertising there has been a number of innovations along the way, and often times these innovations are developed out of the minds of the platform users. As advertisers we see the far reaching possibilities, and usually before the providers. And now, we are seeing another internet search evolution. One that search engine advertisers have been dreaming of, and one that could drastically change the current landscape of PPC and natural search results. In the world of PPC advertising there has been a number of innovations along the way, and often times these innovations are developed out of the minds of the platform users. As advertisers we see the far reaching possibilities, and usually before the providers. And now, we are seeing another internet search evolution. One that search engine advertisers have been dreaming of, and one that could drastically change the current landscape of PPC and natural search results.

Text ads on the search engines have remained the same for quite some time in regards to internet advertising. You have your basic ad title and two lines of copy along with a URL. Fairly basic, fairly uninteresting in a world full of video, images, flash banners etc. Internet users have evolved from scholars and tech people, to the average Joe. And the average Joe wants video and images, flash banners and any other kind of interactive, multimedia experience that can be imagined.

We have the text ads (which show up on in the main search engine results), and then video and image ads that you have to go searching for under a different category of search results (i.e. “Images”, “Video”). But now, in a mind blowing turn of the market, this combination ad is being offered.

For the moment it is only being offered to large brand-focused advertisers, who are not paying per click, but rather a flat fee per month. But as with everything else in the internet advertising industry, if the search engines deem it as a way of increasing their holdings, then the idea will be become mainstream.

Yahoo is currently running a test with the dog food company Pedigree, which if you search “pedigree” on Yahoo, will pull up an ad at the top of the search-results holding an image from the latest pedigree commercial, which starts running if clicked. A search for “Staples” will result in an ad at the top with the company’s logo, which is an example of image/text combination. Yahoo is also offering the option of a search box/text combination, where the user can enter in a zip code and find the nearest store location.

Advertisers participating in this pilot program are reporting as much as a 25 percent increase in click-through rates, according to Yahoo. In the world of internet search, this is a multi-million dollar idea for the search engines to pursue.

But the question is will they charge per click of the video, or the ad link? If they are smart they will allow unlimited clicks of the video, and only charge per click of the text links. This would entice advertisers who would otherwise be wary of people clicking on the video just for fun.

What are your thoughts?

Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Google and Yahoo Deal is No More

Internet pioneer or not, Yahoo is quickly losing gusto in its attempt to hold on to its prominent second place in internet search. Will this latest news truly be the final nail in a coffin crafted for them at the beginning of the year?

When Yahoo was born there was nothing to stop it from dominating internet search. But as most things do in this technological era, Yahoo aged quickly. When Google arrived on the scene with a bigger, better system, the search engine had little trouble in taking the lead in internet search and advertising. And despite its continuing efforts to update and expand, Yahoo has faced consistent obstacles that have kept it from making much progress.

At the beginning of the year Yahoo founder and chief executive Jerry Yang and his company’s board rejected a deal that would have merged Yahoo and Microsoft. Microsoft takes a distant third place in search traffic and there was speculation that if the two companies merged, that combined they might be able to overtake Google. The merger rejection came as a big blow to Yahoo shareholders, who were counting on Microsoft to pay the promised $33 a share.

Yahoo promised shareholders that an advertising alliance with Google would deliver bigger rewards. The deal would have allowed Yahoo to show Google ads, and reap some of the revenue brought in by those ads. Google and Yahoo could have dominated the markets in display and paid search advertising, and the US Department of Justice warned that it would block the alliance if pursued.

Google simply walked, leaving Yahoo to wonder about its fate. Yahoo insisted that it could alter the deal, but Google said in a statement that it did not want to pursue a lengthy legal battle and “damage [the] relationships with valued partners”.

For Yahoo, this failed deal could be the final nail in its coffin. With a serious lack of revenue and shaky shareholders, Yahoo is facing a dire situation. In order to survive Yahoo will have to find cash quickly in order to stay competitive, and it is unclear how long Yahoo’s shareholders will hold out.

But Yahoo is not buried yet. Resurrection or re-incarnation are still possibilities, but in either case Yahoo will probably never look the same.