Yahoo quits? |
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Ok, Yahoo, you win. Be quitters, if you want.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that Terry Semel conceded Google had done a better job, now Yahoo Chief Financial Officer, Susan Decker is going a step further, saying: “It’s not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share.”
Not their goal to be #1? WTF? Last time I checked Yahoo was a search company, yes? No? Sure, they used Google search for awhile and then switched back to their own search a couple years ago, but shouldn’t it be their mission statement, their undying, flaming desire to be #1? What is with this #2 roll-over-scratch-our-belly garbage? So what that they dropped from 27% to 19% market share, they did a lot of other things that Google hasn’t done, particularly with the APIs. If only they had made those APIs more liberal (non-commercial and commercial) they could have put an even greater dent in the developer community.
Congratulations Yahoo, I’ve now put a stop on buying any more of your stock. I won’t invest in a company that grows complacent and publically admits being satisfied as an underachiever. Just rolling over and playing dead? Screw that. I’d rather put that money with somebody who doesn’t concede anything to their competition except: “yes, we’re coming after you.” What Semel and Decker both should be saying is look what we did in specialized search and developer interaction and acquiring up and coming companies and launching Yahoo Publishing Network (beta) in 2005, we’re on the move!
Nope, instead we get limp-fisted concessions.
Yes, it might be true that Google is #1 in search, but having multiple upper management people from a competing company saying that publically is a major letdown for everybody except Google.
For all their faults, at least Microsoft hasn’t quit trying to be the best. Ok, maybe they quit with IE when they got on top, but Firefox seems to have awoken them again. They haven’t given up with Xbox, despite it being a billion dollar loser. Love ‘em, hate ‘em, but Microsoft actually strives to be #1.
Quitting is a tragic sign of weakness for any business. Come on, Yahoo, pull your head out of your ass and stop conceding anything to Google. Rip, claw, scratch, fight! Instead of saying you’ll be happy holding your market share (words of doom, I tell you), say that you will never stop trying to be #1, never stop trying to improve. The web will be a better place if Google is thoroughly challenged in its dominance, not if their competitors lay down like these quotes suggest.
Were both Semel and Decker misquoted? Please somebody, anybody, provide transcripts telling me that they were. I was hoping stories would emerge after Semel comments that he didn’t really mean to give Google props, but that hasn’t happened yet. In fact, Decker’s comments make this situation more bleak.
I can’t imagine other Yahoo shareholders are jumping in joy over these fatalist omissions. Meanwhile, Jeremy Zawodny has a depressed blog entry about the recent blogger/media outbreak over the DOJ request. I bet these company omissions are perking him right up.
Much to my chagrin, Microsoft invited me to their Search Champs later today and I’m really looking forward to this opportunity to help a company that actually wants to take a bite out of Google. I’ve criticized Microsoft many times before, and likely will not stop criticizing where I feel warranted in the future, and yet despite that they still are interested in hearing my feedback. Maybe I should start putting my money there instead?
Please pick up the towel, Yahoo, there are still many rounds to go. If you don’t get off the canvas, you’re done.
Update 1/25/2006 5:59am PST: On the Yahoo Search Blog, a response (”Are you kidding?!”) from Qi Lu, VP of Engineering . Qi doesn’t explain what Susan Decker or Terry Semel really meant by what they said, instead explaining what they have done and still intend to do, ending with: “As all of us at Yahoo! agree, we’re in it for the long haul, and we’re in it to win.”
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What do Yahoo, Apple and Ferrari have in common?
The blogosphere is abuzz about the quote from Yahoo’s CFO Susan Decker to Bloomberg News (as run in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer) about Yahoo! search and Google. First, here’s her exact quote: “We don’t think it’s reasonable to assume we’re goi…
Trackback by The Intuitive Life Business Blog — January 24, 2006 @ 12:41 pm PST
I hope that you don’t think that I am picking a fight but….
At what point do you think it is fair to quit wasting your shareholders money on something that you have no hope in winning? Yes Yahoo! is in search but they are in a lot of other businesses also. Not all of them under the Yahoo! name. There is a limited amount of money in any business and there comes a time to pick your battles.
Yahoo! put up a good fight, they lost. They know it. It isn’t fair to their shareholders to waste money in this battle. The new Yahoo! mail has gotten great reviews from most who have seen it (I haven’t). They are actually starting to pay reporters to create original content for their news site. They are doing interesting things, some in direct competition with Google. They haven’t given up they have just stopped wasting money on what they are not as good at as Google.
Don’t sell all your Yahoo! shares. I have a feeling that they will be around a long time. Too bad I don’t have any Yahoo! stock, investing my time and money elsewhere.
Comment by Paul Benjamin — January 24, 2006 @ 1:51 pm PST
Hi Paul - I am not selling the Yahoo shares, I am just not planning on buying any more at least for a little while. I was going to let Semel’s comments pass by, but add Decker to the mix and that’s enough for me to say no mas.
Comment by TDavid — January 24, 2006 @ 3:24 pm PST
The Social Customer Manifesto Podcast 3FEB2006
click here to subscribe Summary: Leif Chastaine and Christopher Carfi discuss Yahoo’s strategy, Google’s censorship, the remix culture and customer “co-creation” of products, the American Marketing Association’s “Ahead of the Curve” session in S…
Trackback by The Social Customer Manifesto — February 6, 2006 @ 6:50 pm PST
[…] On the heels of saying they were not going to focus on being #1 search and then taking that back, Yahoo is now flirting around with an incentive plan for users who switch to their search. What a cliche this “incentives to do XYZ thing” is and for them it’s a sign of desperation to me. It’s one thing to start a new program and have incentives, but trying to incent people to switch to an existing product is problematic on a number of levels. […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Incentives won’t make Yahoo or MSN #1 search — February 9, 2006 @ 2:48 pm PST
[…] He is correct that I’m cynical of the situation and it wasn’t accidental that I used the word “incentive plan” and not “customer loyalty” when describing the situation. Also, the chronology of events leading up to their incentives plan announcement was completely ignored in Jeremy’s rebuttal. I don’t fault him for not touching that stick of dynamite, but Jeremy is a smart guy — one I genuinely enjoy reading — and by switching the wording and deflecting the conversation from the timing of the preceding events is something even Houdini would have been proud of. […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » MSN Search and Win incentives already gamed — February 15, 2006 @ 10:42 am PST
[…] Yahoo management also has admitted — and then later retracted — that they were satisfied not being #1 in search. Add to that trying to incentify people to use their search and Yahoo search tastes like a rainbow soda. Ever had one of those? It’s where you mix a little bit of each soda into a single drink. […]
Pingback by 10 reasons Microsoft will *not* acquire Yahoo in 2007, one reason they might » Make You Go Hmm — December 18, 2006 @ 11:39 am PST
I fixed that spammer who was using an extra http:// in their URl to sneak through the trackback filters. Sorry about that Paul if that slipped through to you. That won’t happen again.
BTW, I still have my Yahoo stock over a year later
Must admit I’ve thought about selling it a few more times in the last year but have held tight.
The coolest thing they’ve done in the last year? Yahoo Pipes.
Comment by TDavid — February 26, 2007 @ 9:46 am PST
[…] might be a good time for another “Are You kidding” post that Yahoo! isn’t quitting search. Yahoo’s biggest problem isn’t the search engine past, present or future, it remains […]
Pingback by Yahoo management talking like search quitters again, please no more » Make You Go Hmm — June 7, 2007 @ 9:03 am PST