The Big Wave Blog

The Wall Street Journal came out with a very interesting article on January 19, predicting an imminent shakeup in Yahoo’s near future. Here are some recent hard-hitting facts about Yahoo:

• Even after the return of Mr. Jerry Yang (Yahoo’s co-founder), stock is down 23%.
• The value of company has been reduced by 50% just in the past 2 years!
• Search share for the engine is down by 3% over last year.

Why is this happening to Yahoo? What is turning Yahoo from a romantic favorite into a Shakespearian tragedy?

Answer: Maybe Yahoo is masquerading as a search engine.

When Jerry Yang took over from Mr. Hollywood (Terry Semel), he set out with a 100-day turnaround strategy. Several hundred days later, he announces his latest and most ambitious goal: to make Yahoo the start page of every internet user around the world. Bravo!

So, Jerry, could you please stop pretending that Yahoo is a search engine? Outsource your search to Google or Microsoft. You could earn some serious revenue without the hassle of running a proper search engine. Google and MSN are forever striving to be better search engines. Irrespective of their media projects on the side, being a search engine is a top priority for them. If Yahoo is planning to be a media company, then it needs to stop dragging the search engine anchor.

Losing the Search Anchor = Buoyant Stock Price

Put a cap on being a search engine tragedy.

1. Your reporting interface is painful; Panama should have been left as an independent nation and a canal for trade.
2. Stop calling my PPC team trying to sell them Yahoo Search Marketing services (which they already use)! Get a CRM system and know who your customers are.
3. Oh, and know your own products and departments as well. Please don’t forward our calls to 6 different support groups who have never heard of each other when we call in for help navigating your system.
4. Show up when you’re invited to speak at an industry event. You should know by now that the guy who is not in the room takes all the abuse!

Yahoo has been my home page from the very beginning. Yahoo has a very loyal following that wants to be retained. But we need some reassurance that you know what you’re doing. Get some Apple-style evangelists and go after your new goal of being a media company!

“Good luck.

We’re all counting on you.”

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