Yahoo and a Not So Merry Holiday
December 15, 2010
I am burned out on Yahoo. I did my first Yahoo analysis in 2002, and the company bored me then. I found the Semel and Yang escapades amusing. I even perked up when the Yahooligans made a commitment to search and then generated results for my test queries that left me baffled. Even the new US Department of Treasury search system looks good when compared to Yahoo’s results. For a test, open a new browser window, click on the shopping tab, and do a search for “Angel perfume.” You don’t need the quotes. Here are the first two results. Remember. I want to buy a bottle of perfume.
The hit under the pictures has this headline: “Angel Perfume Is Dangerous.” Click on the link. I get a weird animated page with the title “Clarins and Thierry Mugler Acknowledges that Angel Perfume Is Dangerous.” Great information if I were doing this search on a general Web index: “’Angel perfume danger.” I am not. I want to buy perfume.
This is an example of Yahoo’s search. I hope the Yahoo ad sales people don’t pitch the Angel perfume account. This query is not what I expected. I want to buy the perfume, not learn that it, like any similar substance, will burn or kill me if I drink it. Buy is the operative concept. Run the query on Google Shopping and you get links to buy perfume. The Math Club gets it right. The Yahooligans do not.
“Yahoo Still Silent On Today’s Layoffs, But Employees Vent” did not amuse me. In fact, it forced me think about the trajectory of online services companies. When money is flowing, there is no investment in managing the business. When times get tough, management becomes a tough problem. In fact, some online companies may be unmanageable. Google’s solution is to manage by controlled chaos. After more than a decade of “controlled chaos,” Google is starting to show some signs of strain. I mean two operating systems plus the Google infrastructure, the Buzz thing, the Wave thing, the hassle with every offended Street View weak sister, et al.
Here’s the killer quote from the TechCrunch article cited above:
The atmosphere here has never been worse.
That will keep the blue chip folks busy. Will Yahoo survive? Will a white knight ride to rescue the Yahooligans? Will AOL cut a deal that makes 1 + 1 = 3?
Not sure. What is clear to me is that first AOL lost its way, now Yahoo. The question is, “Which big online outfit is next?”
Stephen E Arnold, December 15, 2010
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