Yahoo aims to increase its social appeal to consumers and marketers with Y Connect, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Ever since Bing started powering Yahoo's search experience, many internet marketers and online Americans have been left to wonder what exactly Yahoo.com will offer. Brafton reported that the company is looking to create a more entertaining experience for users – and now it seems its sites will also aim to increase their social appeal to consumers and marketers.

Though Yahoo hasn't made an official comment about Yahoo Y Connect, the Wall Street Journal reports that the company will enable users to share their activities with Yahoo connections, and this data may help marketers better position their ads. Through Y Connect, users can log in to media sites so they can spread the content they're reading. Content on non-Yahoo sites can be shared, too, via Yahoo Pulse, says the newspaper.

For marketers, this could mean that content published on their sites could be shared among Yahoo's network users. Moreover, businesses that add Y Connect to their sites will have access to information about visitors, which may help them tailor content.

Still, the company is positioning Y Connect's real value in terms of paid advertisements. The WSJ reports that "people familiar with the matter" say Y Connect information will better help them target ads on Yahoo sites.

The development, which the source says may be introduced this fall, competes with a feature from Facebook called Facebook Connect. Through Facebook Connect, users can sign in to partnering sites with their Facebook credentials and interact with Facebook friends beyond the social network. The tool similarly gives web developers information about visitors.

The Wall Street Journal says that Facebook officials declined to comment on the upcoming Y Connect feature, and some speculate that it will give Yahoo an edge in foreign markets, where Facebook is still developing an audience.

Nonetheless, Y Connect will have to offer some impressive perks for it to help the search portal gain ground among American internet users and marketers. According to the latest comScore search rankings report, Yahoo sites declined by nearly 2 percent in terms of total core searches last month. Meanwhile, Bing is showing gains, and it recently partnered with Facebook to create social search options. With this in mind, marketers may want to plan ad campaigns and optimize their sites for Microsoft. 

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.