Yahoo Inc. announced today that it will debut a service that will let direct marketers send targeted e-mails to consumers based on their search engine activity.

The service, Yahoo Impulse Mail, tracks Yahoo e-mail users' search engine activity on Yahoo.com. It categorizes a few thousand words and 200 search categories, and matches that search information with the e-mail user's opt-in data. A marketer selling something that relates to that search can then send a targeted e-mail to the user.

It will take about two days before the e-mail is sent out because it takes that long to look at search behavior and check who is opted-in to get offers, said Juan Vargas, data-mining producer at the Sunnyvale, CA office, who was at the Yahoo booth.

"We think by having a highly relevant delivery method, we can get high clickthroughs," Vargas said.

Only people with Yahoo e-mail accounts who have opted in to receive third-party offers will receive marketing e-mails based on their search activity.

12:20:21 AM