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Yahoo to extend brand environments
Yahoo is looking to include video game The Sims, hit TV show Lost and toy franchise Transformers in innovative "Brand Universes" programme, ClickZ reports.Late last year the search engine began to develop online environments that would bring together disparate strands of a particular brand together in one place.
The first was centred on the Wii Nintendo video game console and allowed users to browse Wii information from around the web – pictures on Flickr, reviews of games and so on.
Now the range of Brand Universes will be widened to include The Sims, Halo, Lost, The Office, Harry Potter and Transformers, which are all brands with cult followings.
As yet, however, marketers do not have a voice in deciding what becomes a Brand Universe and Yahoo is not seeking licensing for the content.
"You can't buy your way onto our list," said Yahoo Media Group's Vince Broady. "We're doing what makes sense for the users. Yahoo has loved to work with brand owners, but we've shown we don't need them to promote the content."
The Wii portal enjoyed traffic of more than one million users in November last year.
Yahoo! News posted on 31 January 2007
