(Direct Newsline)—Search engine and Internet portal Yahoo will swap java for eyeballs this Friday.

As part of its largest promotional campaign in two years, Yahoo will offer a coupon for free coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts to any Web users who set Yahoo.com as their home page this Friday.

In addition to the coffee promotion, Yahoo will attempt to lure users with a series of television and radio ads beginning Thursday. Ads will also appear in movie theaters, according to an Associated Press report.

“We live in a multimedia world and we want to be wherever our customers are,” Allen Olivo, Yahoo VP-global brand marketing, told AP.

The Sunnyvale CA-based Internet company has recently introduced a number of upgrades and enhancements to features on its search engine and portal sites, including a home page makeover, an upgraded e-mail service, and integration of its Yahoo Answers social media product into general search results.

“This is a great time for us to talk to our customers and encourage them to visit the new Yahoo.com,” Olivo was quoted as saying. “It’s an invitation to come back to those who haven’t been using us in a while as well as to those who haven’t been using us as frequently as they once did.”

The media blitz comes at a time when Google appears to have widened its lead over Yahoo in terms of search engine market share. Through last July, Google had 44% of the U.S. search market, compared to Yahoo’s 29%, according to figures from comScore Media Metrix. For the same month in 2005, Google’s share was only 6 percentage points larger than Yahoo’s.

Figures released by Hitwise last Friday show a larger disparity, with Google getting 60.3% of U.S. searches for the four weeks ending Sept. 9, and Yahoo Search getting 22.6% of the traffic.

Meanwhile, Yahoo may be feeling the pressure from other Web sites that have seen rapid user growth in the last few months, including social network site MySpace.com and video-sharing site YouTube.com. According to Hitwise statistics for the week of July 8, MySpace outpaced long-time titleholder Yahoo Mail as the single most popular Web site in the U.S.

At the time, Yahoo was quick to point out that the total network of Yahoo sites drew 129 million unique visitors a month, representing 74% of the online population, and accounted for 13% of users’ time online. MySpace accounted for only 3.2% of users’ time online.

And Yahoo Mail produced more than 40% of the online display ad impression rung up in August, according to data from Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance—nearly three times more than the 16.1% of impressions served by the second most viewed site, MySpace.com.

Search engine and Internet portal Yahoo! will swap java for eyeballs this Friday.

As part of its largest promotional campaign in two years, Yahoo! will offer a coupon for free coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts to any Web users who set Yahoo.com as their home page this Friday.

In addition to the coffee promotion, Yahoo! will attempt to lure users with a series of television and radio ads beginning this Thursday. Ads will also appear in movie theaters, according to an Associated Press report.

“We live in a multimedia world and we want to be wherever our customers are,” Allen Olivo, Yahoo! vice president of global brand marketing, told AP.

The Sunnyvale CA-based Internet company has recently introduced a number of upgrades and enhancements to features on its search engine and portal sites, including a home page makeover, an upgraded e-mail service, and integration of its Yahoo! Answers social media product into general search results.

“This is a great time for us to talk to our customers and encourage them to visit the new Yahoo.com,” Olivo was quoted as saying. “It’s an invitation to come back to those who haven’t been using us in a while as well as to those who haven’t been using us as frequently as they once did.”

The media blitz comes at a time when Google appears to have widened its lead over Yahoo! in terms of search engine market share. Through last July, Google had 44% of the U.S. search market, compared to Yahoo!’s 29%, according to figures from comScore Media Metrix. For the same month in 2005, Google’s share was only 6 percentage points larger than Yahoo!’s.

Figures released by Hitwise last Friday show a larger disparity, with Google getting 60.3% of U.S. searches for the four weeks ending Sept. 9, and Yahoo! Search getting 22.6% of the traffic.

Meanwhile, Yahoo! may be feeling the pressure from other Web sites that have seen rapid user growth in the last few months, including social network site MySpace.com and video sharing site YouTube.com. According to Hitwise statistics for the week of July 8, MySpace outpaced long-time titleholder Yahoo! Mail as the single most popular Web site in the U.S.

At the time, Yahoo! was quick to point out that the total network of Yahoo! sites drew 129 million unique visitors a month, representing 74% of the online population, and accounted for 13% of users’ time online. MySpace accounted for only 3.2% of users’ time online.

And Yahoo! Mail produced more than 40% of the online display ad impression rung up in August, according to data from Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance — nearly three times more than the 16.1% of impressions served by the second most viewed site, MySpace.com.