Comments on: What Should Yahoo Do?

By: atomic1fire

atomic1fire — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 00:26:02 +0000

buy zoho and make some money out of office 2.0
like allready said there no work involved with trying to make a yahoo spreadsheets or yahoo writer
make zoho yahoo productivity suit

By: Igor

Igor — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:46:39 +0000

The peanut butter memo by Brad Garlinghouse is a classic. Its like when a murderer calls the cops just so he feels he wont be on the suspect list! Some of Yahoo’s biggest missteps have happened in Brad’s camp. By speaking such Harvard-ish crap aloud, he thinks he will be safe. Like any good cop, Yahoo should smell the murder and let him go!

By: Gerald Joseph

Gerald Joseph — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 22:22:11 +0000

What Should Yahoo Do?

Initial steps must be centered on improving their corporate culture:
A. pick a strategy (Are we a Content or Search Tech company?),
B. choose a direction (more acquisitions or internal r&d),
C. monetize acquisitions (later when market conditions improve spinoff all hastily made Startup acquisitions),
D. downsize (cut non-engineer staff by one half),
E. establish realistic milestones, and
F. make managers and employees directly accountable for poor performance

By: John

John — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 07:38:37 +0000

Fix monetization of search (as everyone else has commented). Yahoo! needs to stay competitive and increase revenue.
Fix what Yahoo! already has! Brad is so hypocritical - looks at Yahoo! Mail beta - so slow and cluttered with ads everywhere. Same could be said with the latest version of Photos. Calendar is so outdated. Groups is getting an injection of resources finally.
Internally, Yahoo! needs real program management and understand that you either are feature driven or schedule driven - not both at alternating times. Quality Assurance matters. Performance matters. Get everyone at Yahoo! standardized on Outlook or an improved Yahoo! Calendar. Have an automated way of scheduling a conference room (have they fixed that yet - or do you still need to call the lobby of the building to see when a conference room is free?) . Hire, train and develop real managers. Not MBA hotshots who have no idea what they are doing.

By: David

David — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 22:31:12 +0000

Thank you. For identifying a possible peacock, rather than a catalyst.

Perhaps, we shouldn't forget that these are ultimately advertising businesses. The seach factor is almost a commodity. Serving relevant ads, with high click-rates, is how Google suceeds. Yahoo! tends to follow the Overture acquisition by serving the highest priced ad first.

Maybe everyone already knew that. If so, my apologies.

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 15:19:56 +0000

I see people mentioning Google Groups and that it’s better than yahoo’s. More Community sites exist and have even more features. ZedZone.com comes to mind. Same basic features as Google Groups with better options and functionality.

I especially recommend that Peter check it out, as he seems to have use for that type of site.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:45:27 +0000

Garlinghouse should be canned!

It’s easy to point fingers and say things aren’t working well, but he has no track record of innovation or leadership either. It’s a sign of insubordination, and Semel should make Brad one of the first 15-20% of people to be let go…

By: Pranav

Pranav — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:32:21 +0000

"Google injects every initiative it can with its core search DNA"

So right on the spot with the above post. Yahoo needs to recognize and come to terms with the fact that when it comes to search, it would be hard to bring down Google.

With that said, Yahoo should focus more on its advantages -- the strong and enviable community it has.

Also, who ever makes decisions related to acquisitions should be replaced. It seems that Yahoo wants a piece of every thing that's hot -- be it Flickr, jumpcut, delicous etc. Well, it seems all these decisions are made 1) without keeping in mind the assets that Yahoo already owns 2) So that Yahoo is not 'left behind'.

Well, what was the point of buying Flickr if you havent yet been able to bring out the synergy between Y! photos and Flickr. Jumpcut anyone ??

Yahoo still has a leading edge over G and Msn when it comes to user community and I think that the sooner they realize this tremendous potential and leverage it, the sooner they'll be in good shape again..

By: John Koetsier

John Koetsier — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 07:31:17 +0000

Monetization is the problem. All that traffic and a fraction of Google’s revenues to show for it?

That shows two things to me:

1) Yahoo’s PPC ad technology is not as strong as Google’s
2) People click on ads more when they’re searching than when they’re blogging/participating in a community/adding photos/etc. etc.

1 is obvious, and #2 ought to be.

The implications are that Yahoo! needs to find better ways to monetize communities on the one hand … and yes, on the other hand, continue to improve their search and ad technologies.

By: shadilac

shadilac — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 05:35:42 +0000

Here’s a radical idea, drop Microsoft as a strategic partner and merge with Google. Imagine that. Google’s engineers with Yahoo’s content and traffic. If you can’t beat them…

By: rick

rick — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:54:05 +0000

I think Yahoo is doing a great job of collecting the community’s feedback… starting with this memo “leak.” Sure… they are going to have to wade through a bunch of useless posts and comments but there is definitely a lot of good input out there.

By: Dave McClure

Dave McClure — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 23:56:23 +0000

here are my (3 suggestions for what yahoo should do:
1) fix monetization (better CPC)
2) fix monetization (implement CPA)
3) buy more stuff, & faster

longer explanation on my blog:
link) justneed.html

but seriously, the problem isn’t focus… it’s just monetization. if they fix that, they’ll be fine. if they don’t, they’ll be taken private and/or acquired by someone else (MSFT would be my guess).

By: broadstuff

broadstuff — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 23:32:45 +0000

Yahoo - disorganisation by acquisition?…

The problems with Web 1.0 companies acquiring lots of small Web 2.0 assets are outlined in a Yahoo internal memo - but the solution proposed here seems to be more dangerous than the problem!

Allegedly by Brad Garlinghouse - a Yahoo senior V.P - and …

By: shadilac

shadilac — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 23:23:44 +0000

I think it’s important to highlight the fact that he probably didn’t want this memo to be leaked, so maybe he is trying to change the strategic direction of the company… I’ve posted this elsewhere: Google buys technology to complement an existing and supported project or concept… Yahoo buys traffic when some random website becomes popular. And perhaps that goes back to the Gates theory, that Yahoo is at its core a content company, not a technology company. Maybe it should just license the Google adwords algorithm and concentrate on it’s only competitive advantage, the #1 internet property.

By: Deepak

Deepak — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 23:13:10 +0000

One of the better thought out pieces on this issue. Whatever the motives for the memo, it is clear that while Yahoo is strong, and might have tricks up its sleeve, to users such as myself it appears jaded and listless. The company has some wonderful assets (del.icio.us is always the first one that comes to my mind), so it shouldn’t be too hard to re-focus and emerge as the king of community (not something Google is even trying to do).

By: Thyaga

Thyaga — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 22:55:20 +0000

Buy Zoho and make money out of Office 2.0