Yahoo will spend $100 million to wow, woo 'Y!ou'

It's tough being the old guy in the Internet business. In its early years, Yahoo! (YHOO) battled and outlasted a slew of competitors, like Lycos and Excite. Then, a little upstart called Google (GOOG) leached away its buzz and many of its users. And after Microsoft (MSFT) launched a $100 million campaign for its Bing search engine this year, Yahoo joined Microsoft in a 10-year search partnership.

Well, Yahoo! isn't going to take it anymore. The company today unveiled its own $100 million campaign -- hard-to-read tagline: "It's Y!ou" -- at a press conference during Advertising Week in New York. The message of the global campaign is to remind consumers (and advertisers) that Yahoo is committed to deliver "personally relevant" experiences, according to chief marketing officer Elisa Steele.