Yahoo delivers big profits, but does it even matter?
When earnings season comes around, everyone sort of expects Google to deliver. But Yahoo? It has been a while but Yahoo managed to follow Google and delivered investors a solid third quarter yesterday. Profits surged by 244% and the company's stock rose by 5% in after-hours trading as a result.
According to Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, "we had a solid third quarter that signals our major businesses have stabilized". She pointed to the new Yahoo homepage, the company's big ad campaign and global expansion as signs that the company is on the right path.
Has Yahoo peed the carpet with its new ad campaign?
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is tired of the press trying to dictate what Yahoo should and shouldn't do with its business. But the company's new $100 million ad campaign, which was met with much derision from the press when it launched last month, does not appear to be doing well with consumers.
In an interview with The New York Times this week, Bartz explained her views on feedback:
"I have the puppy theory. When the puppy pees on the carpet, you say something right then because you don’t say six months later, 'Remember that day, January 12th, when you peed on the carpet?' That doesn’t make any sense. 'This is what’s on my mind. This is quick feedback.' And then I’m on to the next thing."
Is it time to admit that Yahoo peed the carpet?
Yahoo: when all else fails, advertise
When Carol Bartz took over as CEO of Yahoo in January of this year, she was handed a huge task: recapture some of Yahoo's past glory. Most agreed that doing that meant figuring out what to do with Yahoo search.
Plan A: hand off the search business to Microsoft. But signs are mounting that regulators may not let the deal proceed smoothly, if at all. This led Search Engine Watch's Danny Sullivan to ask a simple question: "what's Yahoo's Plan B for search?"
Search experts react to the Yahoo / Microsoft deal
So after one of the worst wrong turns in corporate history, Yahoo has finally acceded to Microsoft by crawling into bed with the Bingmaker. In a nut, Microsoft will power Yahoo’s search engine and Yahoo will sell the ads globally.
Microsoft’s search market share will rise to around 21.5%, according to figures released by Hitwise last month, or roughly one quarter of Google’s share.
The deal lasts for 10 years, proving a little about my previous assertion that Microsoft is only five or so years into a 25-year search strategy. It is playing the long game, and this deal has solidified its position.
From where I’m sitting this signals three things:
- Yahoo has totally given up on proprietary search. It might become a media company after all.
- Microsoft has strengthened its hand and the deal should help prise further market share from Google.
- Advertisers may benefit in the long run.
But what do the search marketing professionals make of the deal? I’ve been asking a few questions, so let’s hear what they have to say…
Bing is off to a good start: comScore
In the first week following the launch of its new 'decision engine', Bing, Microsoft's search property saw its average daily penetration amongst searchers grow by 1.7% and its share of search results pages grow by 2%.
That's according to comScore, which, like so many others, has been monitoring Bing's debut.
Carol Bartz has the style, does she have the substance?
There's a lot to like about Yahoo's new CEO, Carol Bartz.
Unlike Jerry Yang, she's got personality. She doesn't mince words and has been known to drop an expletive or two. More importantly, she seems to have a pretty good idea of what's wrong at Yahoo and some decent ideas for fixing it.
Yahoo prepares to apply the social glue to its network
Yahoo has a lot of work to do as it looks to rebuild under new CEO Carol Bartz. Bartz has assets to work with, namely Yahoo's diverse portfolio of highly-trafficked properties.
One of the biggest challenges: figuring out a way to pull them all together, both from an operational standpoint and a functional standpoint.
Yahoo loves multivariate testing
It's one of the most powerful tools in an online publisher's arsenal but it's one that few make effective use of. I'm talking about multivariate testing.
As part of its effort to turn its business around, Yahoo is using multivariate testing extensively on its homepage to figure out which combinations of content and features produce the best results.
Yahoo is Yahoo Mail
As a network, Yahoo websites are the second-most trafficked behind Google according to comScore's numbers. Yahoo's properties are diverse and Yahoo is far closer to being a 'media' network than Google.
Yahoo's impressive audience of over 145 million visitors in January is one of the reasons that many have high hopes for a turnaround. But what assets should the company focus most on leveraging?
Five things Carol Bartz should do at Yahoo!
New Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz had her first public appearance at the Morgan St
anley conference yesterday. She took the opportunity to continue her message to Wall Street that the sliding search company is considering a whole menu of options for the future. The operative quote: "Everything is up for evaluation."
The problems with Yahoo begin and end with that attitude. Here are five things Bartz could put in motion tomorrow that will get the company back on track:
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
