Yahoo Creates Secret Advisory Board to Oversee Google Partnership

Yahoo has announced the creation of a Digital Advisory Council. It seems to have something to do with their impending tie-up with Google on advertising, and involves feedback of some sort. But you'd be hard pressed to actually know what it's all about by listening to Yahoo.

The company has given no information on who will participate in the council. From the press release:

Active discussion with key customers is an important pillar in making
Yahoo! a partner of choice, particularly during a time when competition for ad dollars is as robust as ever. Yahoo!'s Digital Advisory Council will first meet in the fourth quarter of this year.

And When Silicon Alley Insider pressed for more information, they got this:

Thus far Yahoo! has already begun the process of reaching out to its partners and is very happy with the response to date. It does have partners that have agreed to join the Council, but it is not announcing the names of those companies today.

The announcement, which comes as regulators and competitors critique Yahoo's search partnership with Google, is part of an effort by both companies to quell fears that the deal will increase prices for search advertising.

Needless to say, getting feedback from advertisers who will be affected by the Google partnership would probably be more useful if Yahoo told us who those advertisers were.