And What about Yahoo?
June 30, 2011
Google has been rolling out products that redefine its business: Google+, Android’s staggering growth, and legal hassles that numb my mind. Facebook got ready for summer by announcing that it had upwards of 700 million “members.” Amazon’s interesting infrastructure worked well enough for the company to announce that it would move the Kindle to iPad territory.
And what about Yahoo?
Two things caught my attention. First, I noticed that finding the link to the personalized page I set up years ago required navigating to Yahoo.com and then back to the personalized page. That’s one way to get page views from a person who is already on record as disliking the number of clicks I have to do to get my Yahoo mail. I am a premium Yahoo mail user and I still have to jump through hoops. What’s this tell me? Trouble in click land. Yahoo is a high traffic site compared to BigO Tires. I think Yahoo and a couple of other big fellas are twiddling with pages to crank up the traffic numbers. For me, this is something I want to watch. I hope I am wrong. But if I am correct, the softening of Web traffic is going to be a major headache.
Second, I noticed some PR wing flapping. The spin out of a company focused on Hadoop is one example. If you want the “real” journalists take on this development, read “Yahoo, Benchmark Capital Launching Independent Company for Apache Hadoop.” My hunch is that the reason for the move is the RedHat rainbow and its pot of gold. Will Hadoop with Yahoo’s purple mantle become the next RedHat? Nope. The other thing that caught my attention was the rumor that Yahoo was ripe for more management upheaval. One of my goslings was excited to read “Yahoo Is Quietly Looking For Replacements for Carol Bartz, Says Report.” So far, no turmoil but the rumor, like the Hadoop play, lights up my radar.
What is clear is that Yahoo is dropping from the top tier of Web properties. Like the spectacular fall of MySpace.com, certain online services are tough to reinflate. I use a low power, low cost netbook from Toshiba for some work at night when I am flopped on the floor with my boxers, Max and Tess. Yahoo mail does not like my tiny screen and keeps insisting that I use the “new” Yahoo mail. If I click the button for the “new” Yahoo mail, Yahoo tells me that my netbook cannot run the new Yahoo mail. So I go back to the same clunky Yahoo interface I have been using for years. Yahoo is persistent. I keep getting asked to switch. I find the assumption that everyone must use the new mail fascinating. Nice job of personalization for a paying customer? Nope.
Net net. Yahoo seems to be struggling when I try to use the service to meet my needs. Here’s my checklist of issues:
- Clutter
- Redesign that gets in the way of doing a basic task like reading a message
- Search that returns results that are less useful than Bing.com’s results. (I find this amazing.)
I hope Yahoo can find a way to kindle excitement in its products and services. As a case study, Yahoo is an exemplary instance of 21st century business strategy.
Stephen E Arnold, June 30, 2011
From the leader in next-generation analysis of search and content processing, Beyond Search.
Yahoo and Its BOSS
April 21, 2011
There are some genuinely interesting search and content processing systems built with Yahoo BOSS. The acronym means Build Your Own Search Service. To see what clever engineers can do with BOSS, navigate to the Cluuz.com service. Run a query for a well known person. Here’s a snippet of Yahoo out via Cluuz for Jason Calacanis, the high profile Internet entrepreneur.
Source: www.cluuz.com
We were delighted to spot “Yahoo BOSS V2 Officially Released.” Despite a lack of attention to traditional search products, Yahoo! has put effort into developing this commodity.
BOSS makes it relatively easy for an organization to build custom search platforms, whether they want access to Web pages, images, and/ or other search divisions. You have to pay if you hit the big time and cross Yahoo’s usage threshold, then there is a cost based on number of queries and the features the new service taps.
BOSS also makes it possible to build a business on the technology. According to the article:
The most appealing element in Yahoo’s BOSS V2, though, is the search page advertisements provided by Yahoo – that allow you, as the search provider, to make some money. While this form of monetization may not be profitable for all developers, it will at least subsidize the price of BOSS itself.
After the tie up with Microsoft, we did not know if BOSS would survive the changes in Yahoo search and in staffing. For now, the BOSS still lives.
Cynthia Murrell April 21, 2011
Yahoo and Semantic Search
March 14, 2011
I thought Yahoo was into Bing.com search. Bing.com, of course, has semantic functions galore. But Yahoo?
You can learn about Yahoo and its view of semantic search at “Be a Part of the Next Wave of Web Search.”
Unlike companies rolling out a new product or service, Yahoo is running a competition. The requirements? Here’s a snippet:
… the competition calls for participants to answer queries varying
in complexity, based on a set of structured data collected from
the Web. The results will be presented at the 4th International
Workshop on Semantic Search, co-located with the World Wide Web
Conference 2011 in Hyderabad, India.
Sounds good. Will Microsoft engineers enter? Will there be some Googlers?
Yahoo seems to think that semantics are going to help users cope with Web content and improve relevance. Semantic methods will help filter, cull, and hone information. Yahoo’s goal is to make search more useful. via semantics.
But what about that Bing.com tie up? What about Microsoft’s semantics from Powerset to Cognition Technologies?
Micheal Cory, March 14, 2011
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Yahoo Chatters On
February 27, 2011
Computerworld has posted an interview with Yahoo’s newish CTO, Raymie Stata. In it, Stata discusses his role in Yahoo’s evolution.
For one thing, the previous CTO position is now occupied by two people: The CTO and a new CPO. CPO means chief product officer. Okay. Stata sets direction while the CPO manages the engineers. This shift frees him to focus on technology and market exploration. Okay.
The interviewer asked about criticisms that Yahoo has been behind the curve on innovation. Stata believes the charge ignores much that the company has been doing, like investments in demand- and supply-side platforms and early cloud-related innovations. However, he also admitted that:
“When it comes to new product categories and deeply innovative features in existing product categories, Yahoo hasn’t delivered and the first step in getting better is to acknowledge that. In strategy conversations late last year, we did acknowledge that, and we’ve put in place innovation programs inside the company to support the development of new product categories and of very innovative features.”
Hmm, we’ll see how these plans work out. For our money, doing is better than talking.
Cynthia Murrell, February 27, 2011
A Facebook Revolution?
February 15, 2011
On a flight across the US this afternoon, I thought about “First Facebook SIM Card Released.” Facebook in firmware: An even bigger deal that the smart money at Kleiner Perkins pumping cash into the Facebook corporate body. What kept nagging at me was the Google Egypt revolution person talking about Facebook. Why didn’t the revolutionaries use Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo? I think the reason is that those services are like the old marketing chestnut: buggy whip businesses. The idea is that Facebook is the motor car and the buggy whip crowd needs to make seat covers or 20” inch wheels with flashing lights.
The SIM card underscores the opportunities Facebook creates as Googlers use Facebook, Microsoft cuts deals with Nokia, and Yahoo tries to reinvent itself more quickly than AOL. What occupied me was the steady push of social interaction on Facebook. Sure, there are many other successful social sites, but none has the motion picture, the smart money, and the exposure on 60 Minutes. I keep thinking, “Facebook was the method for some of the Egypt turmoil.”
Search, although interesting to me, was not where the action was in Egypt. The innovators were not cooking up a gizmo for Android. The Kleiner JP Morgan-tinged folks were not yammering about Google. Nope, Facebook.
As the jet lumbered along below its cruising speed ostensibly to arrive when a gate would be available, I formulated three thoughts:
- Facebook is going to rise and then fall faster than any of the other Internet super kids. But that exposure on 60 Minutes and that money suggest a collapse may take some time.
- Facebook morphs into an application platform with SIM gizmos becoming just the first of a series of innovations to make social interaction the cat’s pajamas for lots of people under 30. In short, a different type of revolution is brewing.
- Facebook becomes the tool for altering governments. No wonder France wants to censor the Internet. Facebook might be the method that will reinvigorate some ageing UCal Berkeley types and some unemployed youth in countries scattered far and wide.
What’s this mean? I am not sure, but I am glad I am not competing with Facebook. I am glad I am not a wobbly government. I am glad I don’t have to explain to investors why it took six years to invest in what looks like a company on the upswing. And what about Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo? Time to retool the buggy whip factories perhaps?
Stephen E Arnold, February 15, 2011
Freebie, definitely a freebie
Bing-Yahoo: Seemed Like a Good Idea
January 31, 2011
Matt Rosoff at Business Insider looks at the results of the Bing- Yahoo union in “Bing Deal with Yahoo Isn’t Paying Off for Microsoft So Far.”
When Microsoft and Yahoo struck their ten- year deal in July ’09, expectations were high. Microsoft would control and process search information, and Yahoo would keep the lion’s share of the revenue. Also, Microsoft would collect user information which should have attracted enough advertisers to make the enterprise worthwhile.
However, the revenue has failed to meet those expectations. Data from the last quarter of 2010 show a 6 cent profit for every dollar Microsoft spent on customer acquisition. Ah, the best laid plans. . . .
Microsoft has not lost hope, however. As Rosoff explains:
“In the long run, Microsoft hopes that the combined market share of Bing and Yahoo will get more advertisers into the system, increasing cost-per-click. The extra data for all those new Yahoo users should also help Microsoft target its ads more effectively.”
We’ll see how that goes. When we run Web searches, we turn to such outfits as DuckDuckGo.com and Blekko.com. Daily we think, “Hey, Facebook. Roll out that search engine.”
Cynthia Murrell January 31, 2011
Yahoo: January 2011
January 19, 2011
Yahoo’s search share is flat. The signals about Flickr and Delicious are mixed. The company is chugging along a familiar path. One of our colleagues opined, “Poor, poor Yahoo.” The reason was that the speaker was old enough to remember the early days might wonder what in the world has happened.
“The Decline & Fall of the Yahoo Empire” lays the blame squarely at the feet of the sadly neglected engineer. The notable quote: “Managers and executives who don’t understand programming want to believe that it’s just plumbing, and that programmers are fungible. This is simply not the case. A good programmer isn’t a mere two- or three-times as productive as a bad one; the multiple is more like 20 or 50, if not higher. Hiring ‘a programmer’ is like signing ‘a football player’; there are millions who play, but only a minority are good enough for a professional team, and only a tiny few can play in the biggest league.” From my perspective, yes, this seems to be the case with Yahoo. Yahoo seems to buy and buy ideas (startups), but then the people who came up with these ideas leave and leave. It doesn’t seem like all that long ago that startups couldn’t wait to be bought out by Yahoo, and yet now they’d rather risk sinking than swim in Yahoo’s big toxic pond. Geocities, Zimbra, AltaVista — the list goes on and on.
Alice Wasielewski, January 19, 2011
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Yahoo Cranks Out a Beyond Search Quote to Note
January 4, 2011
Yikes, more Yahoo drama. You can read the scoop on the layoffs in some “real” publications like this one. Here’s the statement from the top Yahooligan, Carol Bartz that I have selected as a quote to note:
…it’s no secret that we’re cutting investment in underperforming and non-core products so we can focus on our strengths (like email, the homepage, search, mobile, advertising, content and more).
Okay, search. Yowza.
Stephen E Arnold, January 4, 2010
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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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What Yahoo Users Needed to Know in 2010
December 5, 2010
When a search giant such as Google hints that it knows what users want, I often bristle. Then after i read such articles as “Yahoo’s Top Mobile Searches of 2010 Reveal Mobile’s Real-Time Nature,” I think Google may be right. In my work, I am not . sure what I will be researching from one day to the next. I poked around for a Victor Bout sidekick. I probed the fat underbelly of health fraud. I followed links on RedTram that delivered me to surprising Web sites.
However, I have never run a query for the topics highlighted in this Yahoo centric write up about mobile search topics in 2010. I knew I was old and clueless, but my cluelessness cannot be remediated by these topics:
BP oil spill
World Cup
Miley Cyrus
Kim Kardashian
Lady Gaga
iPhone
Megan Fox
Justin Bieber
American Idol
Britney Spears.
Who is Justin Bieber? I don’t think he works at Google. And Kim Kardashian? Perhaps she is on the staff at Brookhaven National Lab.
Scary and enlightening simultaneously. And what does this list tell me about Yahoo’s users? Just that I don’t want to sit next to one on a long, international flight.
Stephen E Arnold, December 5, 2010
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