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Well, at the very minimum, Carol Bartz has framed the conversation around how Yahoo's doing and being measured differently. Earlier, it was Google's % share of

by raghus 17y ago

Well, at the very minimum, Carol Bartz has framed the conversation around how Yahoo's doing and being measured differently. Earlier, it was Google's % share of searches vs Yahoo's: a rather stark and quantitative loss every quarter and every year. Now, I'm not quite sure what it is but at the very least it is not that.

jeremymims 17y ago
I look at this statement as the moment when Steve Jobs brought Bill Gates on screen and announced that Microsoft was not the enemy anymore. It freed the company from the market share game where they were perpetually losers and allowed them to just create great products for their users. Changing the story changed their destiny. I knew of a profitable print publication that had a readership of about 90,000 people in the 1980's. But management saw other publications in similarly sized niches that had 100,000. They fought tooth and nail to get those extra 10,000 readers and spent incredible amounts of money to get them. But it actually pushed them into the red. There's something very powerful about focusing on your real market and doing what you're good at. Yahoo now has a clear goal of becoming and acting like the number 1 content company on the web. I think this clarity will bring positive results.
- benatkin 17y ago
  Apple's arrangement allowed them to eventually come back around and start competing with Microsoft. (If you don't think so, look at the popularity of Webkit on phones and within Google.) I don't think Yahoo!'s arrangement will help them do that. I've got to ask, who's Yahoo!'s enemy? SmugMug? I agree with 37signals and Jeff Atwood that it's a good idea to have one. If you're going to expand, who's market share are you going to take? http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php The nice thing about the Apple-Microsoft deal is that everyone still knew that Microsoft was Apple's enemy.

by raghus 17y ago

jeremymims 17y ago

I look at this statement as the moment when Steve Jobs brought Bill Gates on screen and announced that Microsoft was not the enemy anymore. It freed the company from the market share game where they were perpetually losers and allowed them to just create great products for their users. Changing the story changed their destiny. I knew of a profitable print publication that had a readership of about 90,000 people in the 1980's. But management saw other publications in similarly sized niches that had 100,000. They fought tooth and nail to get those extra 10,000 readers and spent incredible amounts of money to get them. But it actually pushed them into the red. There's something very powerful about focusing on your real market and doing what you're good at. Yahoo now has a clear goal of becoming and acting like the number 1 content company on the web. I think this clarity will bring positive results.

benatkin 17y ago
Apple's arrangement allowed them to eventually come back around and start competing with Microsoft. (If you don't think so, look at the popularity of Webkit on phones and within Google.) I don't think Yahoo!'s arrangement will help them do that. I've got to ask, who's Yahoo!'s enemy? SmugMug? I agree with 37signals and Jeff Atwood that it's a good idea to have one. If you're going to expand, who's market share are you going to take? http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php The nice thing about the Apple-Microsoft deal is that everyone still knew that Microsoft was Apple's enemy.