While I don't have much to say about your product questions (I'm an engineer an open-source platform team at Yahoo, other end of the spectrum), one that I can a

While I don't have much to say about your product questions (I'm an engineer an open-source platform team at Yahoo, other end of the spectrum), one that I can answer though is... > "Why would someone want to go into that environment?" Good question. Like all companies, you should choose the one that most fits your ideals and career objectives, so I can only answer your question from my perspective. For me, that is working for a large Web company, who values open-source and front-end engineering, and provides unique challenges and problems to solve at a massive scale. All other issues or perks are secondary to me as long as I get to spend my workday doing what I'm passionate about, and my company supports my interests. There are few, if any other companies I can work with that match what Yahoo can in that regard. In fact, in 2008 there were only two companies on my list when I was looking to make the move from the startup-world, I interviewed at both, one was warm and welcoming (Y!), the other not as much. Really happy with the way things worked out. It's tough (impossible?) to get everything you want in a work environment. Remember, happiness is entirely relative [1]. You can find dozens of blog posts about people being unhappy at Google, Facebook, Yahoo, startups, etc. just as you can find people who are extremely happy. Everyone values different things, but I think the interest most people share is that their company values them. Oddly enough, last year I referenced a Marissa Mayer quote in a short blog post [2] about finding happiness in your career, and why I like Yahoo. Glad to see she also realized Yahoo is an awesome place to be. You just have to prioritize which aspects are important to you, and ensure those are important to your employer as well. If someone is choosing their employer based off reasons other than how they spend 95% of their workday, they should reevaluate their situation. That's at least my philosophy. Sorry that probably doesn't answer your product questions, but I felt your underlying question was "Why Yahoo?", so I tried to best answer that. [1] Interesting study which you can find references to it all over the Web. "Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative?" http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1980-01001-001 http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1... Related TED talk, http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.h... [2] "The Best Career Advice You’ll Ever Get" http://derek.io/blog/2011/the-best-career-advice-youll-ever-get/ http://derek.io/blog/2011/the-best-career-advice-youll-ever-...