Subscribe to FeedTerry Semel Gets Yahoo’ed
19th June 2007
For those of you not in the know, Terry Semel is the CEO of Yahoo - or was until Monday 18, when he got the boot. Ok, so it might not have been as flashy as Carly Fiorina’s exit from HP, but it does show just how long executives from traditional businesses tend to last in the Silicon Valley.
The short answer is: 6 years.
And, by Gods, the guy deserved it. Look, I don’t mean to be hard on him, but let’s face the truth - Yahoo has been underperforming Google ever since the latter’s inception. I remember sticking with Altavista just because I could search for exact phrases by using quotation marks - but as soon as I saw that Google had that functionality, I never looked back.
Come on - does anyone here even seriously consider Yahoo in their Internet marketing business (especially now that the Overture tool is become increasingly useless with everything passing day?) Seems like everywhere you go, it’s Google, Google, Google - Google Mail, Google Video, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Earth.
And then there’s Yahoo, stumbling blindly in Google’s footsteps, trying to haphazardly match its moves and acquisitions without really understanding the reasons for them in the first place.
I don’t mean to be hard on Terry Semel, I really don’t - I’m sure the guy did his best. But I, for one, welcome the fact that he’s out and Yahoo’s co-founder is in as the new CEO. If there was ever an example of an innovative company that blew it, it’s Yahoo - so hopefully it’s co-founder can return it to its roots (and maybe give ol’ Google some competition, thus making things better for us Internet marketers?)
Hey, maybe we’ll even get lucky as the new CEO will bring the Overture tool back?
You can read more about this story at TechCrunch.
June 20th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
I can’t help it, but I just really like altavista better than google. When I need soemthing specific, like “how to display external IP in visual studio 2005″, google is worthless to me. Whereas, altavista usually returns crappy result when I’m looking for “mudkips”.
Perhaps I’m biased because of my lifelong loyalty to Altavista.
Also, I can’t help but notice how yahoo messenger and services like Yahoo answers are growing more rapidly by the day. Sure, Google still has the upperhand here.
Anyway, just my 2 cents, I enjoy reading your blog and came tumbling in here straight from Steve Celeste’s MyBlogLog.
I assume you’re another fan, heh?
Ken
http://blog.imgeekonline.info
June 20th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Ken,
Thanks for stopping by - yep, I’m quite impressed by how much Steve has accomplished in such a limited amount of time. In many ways, his experience is pretty inspiring, as well as rather educational.
I won’t deny that Yahoo still has a few tricks up its sleeve, but I think it’s problem is that it just can’t seem to figure out how to monetize its traffic. I’m hoping the new CEO can help turn the company around - it’s got a huge portfolio, but doesn’t seem to know what to do with it.
Regards,
George