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Will Copper has posted a blog entry over at NMA and there was an article in the print edition (or for subscribers here). As noted by Will, I feel that both Yahoo and MSN's PPC systems are a generation behind Google AdWords. The consensus of the agencies quoted in the article was that simply hitting the delete key on Panama would be a mistake  - and aid nobody but Google.

Here are a few comments from our PPC team (one of the largest in the UK) when asked if they preferred Panama or AdCenter:

"I guess I'm not allowed to say AdWords?
 
Seriously though, this could be the perfect time for the industry to grow up and standardise interfaces, terminology, upload sheet formats etc, and currently AdWords is by far the best. Ideally we should have a one-fits-all application which is essentially AdWords editor with check boxes for each of the main engines."

"I would use MSN.

More intuitive, easiness of their reporting tab for multiple accounts, negative keyword at a keyword level and user friendly."
  
"Yahoo by far. MSN is slow and clunky and with limited functionality on their own interface.

Their upload process goes some way to catching up with Google where as MSN has nothing like this. We still have to ask for account downloads.

Other than that, Yahoo is 'prettier'."
 
"I'd rather use Panama purely as it's the less rubbish of the two." (Ouch!)

Thanks to the staff that contributed to this.

Many of our PPC team also felt Microsoft failed to learn from the clunky elements of both Yahoo and Google's systems in terms of usability and overall workflow. Google, for example, accept budget bookings via AdWords. MSN launched AdCenter with IOs agencies have to print, sign, fax and file. Hardly a productive use of their staff's time or ours -  it's the 21^st century after all and they are Microsoft; I expected them to get the software and processes a lot better.

This doesn't reflect on the hard work of the UK AdCenter team and I suspect many of their staff privately hold the same concerns. Hopefully the developers in Redmond will take the best of Panama and AdCentre, learn from Google - and then make an easy to use, fast, reliable system that challenges AdWords.

This is crucial in markets where MSN have a lower market share than Google (i.e. everywhere I can think of). If a system is hard to use, and MSN search traffic is not seen as vital to the success of a campaign, it is often more cost effective for the agency/advertiser to spend a little more money and time on Google than spending time and money struggling with a system they regard as difficult to use. After all, nobody likes to make their own job harder on purpose.

That's the underlying message I have for Microsoft - you have to be better than anybody else at search because you are the underdog. It gets worse - unlike most underdogs you won't be championed - in fact many people like to kick you when you are down.

So you have to, you absolutely must, out-think, out-engineer and over-deliver compared to the market leader.

If you can't, you've only got one choice - forget Yahoo, buy Google. And when the regulators prevent that, quit search for good.

(PS - I really hope Microsoft do build a challenger to Google's dominance of search - the journey to that day will keep the industry innovative and exciting for us all).