Yahoo has unveiled a new product, and although there are less interesting possibilities, this thing could either revolutionize our industry or end CEO Jerry Yang’s career.  Yang, you see, is putting Yahoo APT up there with radio, television, and the Internet.

APT is an advertising platform, and its main selling points are said to be speed, simplicity, and control.  Tests involving Media News Group went well, and the members of Yahoo’s Newspaper Consortium will next get their hands on it before any wide release takes place.

Now, for the ramifications.  If APT ends up flopping, Yang’s probably a goner.  Too much has gone wrong at Yahoo for shareholders to ignore another major mishap.

If, on the other hand, APT lives up to its billing, Yahoo might well replace Google as the search and advertising leader.  The comparison between APT and radio, TV, and the Internet is pretty hard to ignore, after all.  Most search engine optimization efforts would need some retooling as a result.

Still, we’ve got a while yet before either outcome looms too large.  APT should make it into the wild sometime next year, and with any luck, a few more concrete details about its performance will escape ahead of schedule.

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