Showing posts with label Mayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mayer. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Marissa Mayer Doing Search Could Get Interesting

Marissa Mayer
Marissa Mayer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Search is, after all, the fundamental operation on the web. Steve Jobs left the PC to Bill Gates when he returned. But there is no post-Search like there was a post-PC. Search is here to stay. She does not have to become number one. All she has to do is become a strong number two and shine elsewhere. Mayer seems to be saying the Yahoo search results are already pretty good, but search results presentations could be vastly improved.

Marissa Mayer Aims Yahoo’s Guns at Google Search
Yahoo search was one of three parts of the company Mayer called out as in most urgent need of an overhaul, along with Yahoo Mail and the Yahoo.com homepage ..... by far the most lucrative business at Google, where Mayer once headed its search product ..... All of the innovations in search are going to happen at the user interface level moving forward and we need to invest in those features both on the desktop and on mobile .... Yahoo, presumably, can improve its search engine by simply wrapping Microsoft’s search infrastructure in an improved user interface. ..... Yahoo helps power searches on the Siri digital assistant included with Apple iPhones and iPads.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Sunday, October 21, 2012

But Of Course

Analysis: Yahoo CEO's comeback plan homes in on technology, not media
Her hires, acquisition musings, and other early moves hint at an ambitious, technology-driven comeback plan designed to revitalize aging but well-trafficked properties such as Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports..... Mayer, 37, wants to make Yahoo's properties much more interactive, on PCs and on mobile devices, using social media tools to personalize the user experience and new technology to boost advertising sales. Her well-known focus on user design is expected to result in a simpler, less-cluttered email and home page .... positions Yahoo squarely against Facebook Inc and Google .... Two types of deals are under consideration: companies that will increase user engagement, including on mobile, and those that will boost advertising returns ..... She's spending almost all her time with the product folks ..... Yahoo's advertising technology products, headed for the auction block before Mayer's arrival, are back in favor. De Castro, her highest-profile hire, is known for a deep-understanding of the complex advertising landscape, where dozens of businesses and technology providers are interlinked. ..... Right Media, an automated exchange that allows marketers to blast ads across a network of websites. ..... Roughly 700 million users visit a Yahoo website every month - putting it in the top ranks globally. But the amount of activity people engage in on many sites is steadily declining, and its smartphone offerings are deemed lackluster. .... "The largest change is to be deadly serious about mobile" ..... Facebook and Google, two companies that have taken consumers' time, engineering talent and market value from Yahoo. They are also trying to make the transition to mobile, but it has been difficult
Her mere appointment told me Yahoo now means to do technology, it will no longer aspire to be some kind of a media property. This writer has taken a few months to come to the same conclusion.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Marissa Mayer's Gameplan


Marissa Mayer is not Steve Jobs, but I think she is very promising.

The words mobile and personalization capture it for me. Mobile is obvious. Personalization means Big Data.

Vague is good at this point. Gives her more wiggle room.

Executive Change at Yahoo Suggests Thirst for Acquisitions
With 700 million users each month, Yahoo remains one of the most visited sites on the Web, but it has been ceding its share of the online display ad market to rivals like Facebook and Google. ..... Yahoo made its name in search but lost that market to Google and then proceeded to miss the boat on every big Internet trend since. It was too focused on reinventing itself as a multimedia company to notice people were migrating to social networks and mobile devices as gateways for information and entertainment. Yahoo’s home page remains cluttered and sorely lacking a brand of its own.
Mayer to Yahoos at Not-So-Radical Confab: Personalization, Mobile, Rule of 100 Million and — Most of All — the Four C’s!
Very broad, as it turned out, and full of corporate bromides ...... Her goals: To grow users and usage, as well as advertisers and talent, using personalization. ..... Mayer needs to probably paint a much more specific plan for investors to get excited about.
Here Is The Plan Marissa Mayer Just Announced To Yahoo Employees
Yahoo will work very hard on personalization and mobile. .... Yahoo will be strong in mobile by 2015.
Marissa Mayer Allegedly Has 10 or 12 Different Priorities for Yahoo
Yahoo — rotten to core? I think so
vague plans at best .... “At Facebook and Google, they know your underwear size before you walk in the door. At Yahoo, it was clear they hadn’t even Googled me,” an entrepreneur who was in acquisition talks with Yahoo
A Sneak Peek At The New Yahoo Home Page Redesign?
Enhanced by Zemanta

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Engineering, Sales: Equally Important


Marissa Mayer's Blind Spot

Call it high tech and high touch. Engineering and sales are both equally important. And as CEO, even if you have primarily an engineering background, you can not ignore sales. Sales is what is making LinkedIn do well on Wall Street while Facebook is licking it.

Sales does seem to be Mayer's blind spot. Although she has had a great stage appearance since when she was at Google. That is sales.

But product is what has been Yahoo's weakness. And Mayer's focused on product. She will come around to it, I am sure.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Mayer Should Give Search To Google, If Possible


Mayer Should Look Beyond Search

I am not privy to the contractual details between Microsoft and Yahoo, but I am sure there is wiggle room. And Mayer should exploit that and give Yahoo's search to Google. If my search experience is going to be as great at Yahoo.com as at Google.com, I am going to be more likely to end up at Yahoo.com. I mean, Google.com has nothing else going on, the Yahoo homepage is melodrama.

Google would love to bounce Bing from Yahoo
Microsoft and Yahoo’s Bing relationship has been rocky
Enhanced by Zemanta