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I am a very mediocre programmer and certainly not qualified to run a public company, but I think Yahoo could've been saved. Simply because it had a lot of capit

by wand3r 10y ago

I am a very mediocre programmer and certainly not qualified to run a public company, but I think Yahoo could've been saved. Simply because it had a lot of capital (relative to startups) and with her there, the ability to attract and retain talent for a while. She had a couple years of runway. I would've tried: - making a personalized/customizable search engine. - making a browser, in hindsight maybe they could've worked with Brendan Eich on brave. - structure like Google with subsidiaries (even if not formally) and have technology and entertainment as 2 businesses. - really tighten up security on the tech side; damn. Then see what works and iterate. Selling Alibaba and Yahoo Japan at the end of this; Yahoo basically had negative value. IDK, selling to Verizon and then having your value slashd-- Twice, when multi hundred million accounts are breached and getting raked over the coals on valuation was a sad finish. To her credit; I like to believe the sale was poor because she wanted to keep going and didnt expect to have to firesale the firm, but I don't know. Obv. Yahoo wasn't "just her" but they were in a poor state so she probably had a lot of operational latitude. It's super rare; if it even ever has happened; that a company is so desperate but still so powerful-- that they give up that much control. Being a total outsider and having those resources and a canvas not blank, but so f*Ed that you can really try anything; that's once a decade maybe.

BlackjackCF 10y ago
I honestly think that Yahoo! could have left the search engine alone. That market's moved on. Bing users only use Bing for some kickback rewards/when they're forced to. Everybody else migrates to Google. Maaayyybe if they offered something drastically different (kind of the way that Duck Duck Go did with privacy) to make themselves stand out, but I feel like the search engine ship had already sailed at Yahoo! Honestly, I would have simplified and slimmed down the homepage. The Yahoo! homepage was a fucking design disaster. Just have it focus on the things that really mattered - some news elements, fantasy sports, and maybe email. Everything else can go. A browser like Brave would have been a good move, particularly in junction with tightening up security on the tech side. It would be like doing community service to try and right the wrongs of the past, or something, ha! The problem I saw with Yahoo! was that it was a business with no focus. They acquired Tumblr... and then did nothing with it, which was perplexing. Tumblr has a youth market, and if Yahoo! had actually done stuff to improve the Tumblr experience, they really could have put that $1 billion they wasted in acquisition to use via marketing/ads. Hell, maybe they could have somehow capitalized on Vine folding and turning Tumblr into a bigger video platform (the layout loans itself well to it.)
- wand3r 10y ago
  Interesting. I agree with almost everything. Still think search is huge. A highly customizable, secure private search engine. Your own pagerank. I also think we agree that there was a lot of verticals to explore and strategies to employ but hers turned out to not be a good one. I think it was possible

by wand3r 10y ago

BlackjackCF 10y ago

I honestly think that Yahoo! could have left the search engine alone. That market's moved on. Bing users only use Bing for some kickback rewards/when they're forced to. Everybody else migrates to Google. Maaayyybe if they offered something drastically different (kind of the way that Duck Duck Go did with privacy) to make themselves stand out, but I feel like the search engine ship had already sailed at Yahoo! Honestly, I would have simplified and slimmed down the homepage. The Yahoo! homepage was a fucking design disaster. Just have it focus on the things that really mattered - some news elements, fantasy sports, and maybe email. Everything else can go. A browser like Brave would have been a good move, particularly in junction with tightening up security on the tech side. It would be like doing community service to try and right the wrongs of the past, or something, ha! The problem I saw with Yahoo! was that it was a business with no focus. They acquired Tumblr... and then did nothing with it, which was perplexing. Tumblr has a youth market, and if Yahoo! had actually done stuff to improve the Tumblr experience, they really could have put that $1 billion they wasted in acquisition to use via marketing/ads. Hell, maybe they could have somehow capitalized on Vine folding and turning Tumblr into a bigger video platform (the layout loans itself well to it.)

wand3r 10y ago
Interesting. I agree with almost everything. Still think search is huge. A highly customizable, secure private search engine. Your own pagerank. I also think we agree that there was a lot of verticals to explore and strategies to employ but hers turned out to not be a good one. I think it was possible