Yahoo’s Goals Beyond Search
There’s is a lot of negative press going on about Yahoo CFO Susan Decker’s statement to Jonathan Thaw of Bloomberg News saying that “It’s not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share.”
Decker added that “We have held our own, and we should gain revenue share in the industry as we roll out these new initiatives.” Must the world be reminded that Yahoo is a content, shopping & entertainment machine which offers search and that Google is a search engine which is starting to offer content?
Big question is if Yahoo’s goal is not to be #1 in the search engine market, then what is its goal? The monetization of its new and existing offerings via Yahoo Search Marketing and the Yahoo Publisher Network according to CEO Terry Semel (from Q4 Earnings Transcript):
I would like to briefly give you an overview of our key priorities for 2006. Our #1 priority is building and expanding the suite of tools services and solutions for Internet marketers and publishers.
In search marketing, our monetization efforts can be grouped into 3 categories.
First, we are expanding our content match services through the Yahoo Publishers Network to take advantage of the growing number of small publishers on the web. We plan to add new features to beta over the coming quarters including search and enhanced ad targeting. We believe the service will ultimately position Yahoo as one of the preferred advertising partners for small and medium-sized publishers.
Second, we are focused on improving RPS to better matching in relevance algorithms. While our matching initiatives will largely benefit coverage, we’re also focused on improving tools to drive higher relevance and click through.
And third, we are increasing the number of easy-to-use tools for advertisers and publishers, so they can buy more keywords, touch more creative and add more listings faster.
