Yahoo! Maktoob Research to Cease External Work

In Dubai, Yahoo! has confirmed that from 1 April, its online research business Yahoo! Maktoob Research will no longer offer external support to clients, but instead focus on providing research services to the group's own advertising clients.

Maktoob Research was originally set up in 2006 by Arab Internet portal Maktoob.com as a dedicated commercial research unit to both exploit its online consumer database and offer international online research services to the region's marketers. Three years later, the business was sold to Yahoo! and re-branded as Yahoo! Maktoob Research.

In a statement, Yahoo! said that from April, Yahoo! Maktoob Research will become fully integrated within Yahoo! Maktoob's advertising organization, 'to enable us to better serve our clients and advertising partners and align within our structure across Yahoo! globally'.

Web site: en-maktoob.yahoo.com .