Yahoo struggles to gain search respect by Tom Krazit, Cnet (Feb 10)
Conflicting messages come from Yahoo. Shashi Seth, Yahoo's new search chief, says "Yahoo has been in search, is in search, and will be in search in the future,"
CEO Carol Bartz has said Yahoo is not a search company - "“We have never been a search company,” she said. “It is: ‘I am on Yahoo. I am going to do a search.’ ” [said in August 2009]
Now we read,
"This is perhaps the key problem for Yahoo search in 2010. The general public has long stopped thinking of Yahoo as a search vehicle. "
Of interest: "Around 80 percent of all searches on Yahoo are conducted by people who are on one of Yahoo's other Web pages, such as the home page or e-mail inbox, according to the company."
Which was Carol Bartz's point - they are already at Yahoo - but for Yahoo to give up the index and claim to concentrate on the "experience" which can be so easily copied - well - it's probably trouble. But don't let that stop you from using Yahoo for search.
Postscript Feb 15: Yahoo Search: This Is The “Dark Time” But We’ll Be Back by Greg Sterling, Search Engine Land (Feb 11)
Shashi Seth, the new Search Products SVP at Yahoo, assured people at a press event that Yahoo was still serious about search.
Greg Sterling, in the audience said, "I came away from the Q&A and these more informal discussions much more “convinced” than during the formal presentations that Yahoo would in fact continue to innovate and would retain and perhaps gain new search talent. "
Posted by Gwen at February 11, 2010 02:17 PM