Category Archives: search

Taking Stock of Yahoo

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What do you get when you mashup Yahoo’s uber blogmeister with EX uber stockmeister Henry Blodget? A very interesting dialog about what’s up — or what’s NOT up — at Yahoo. The only thing for sure is that in stock terms YHOO is no GOOG, and this is THE key issue for many.

This follow up summarizes that mini-debate. I’m more interested in whether I should be buying YHOO or buying more puts on Google.

Jeremy’s bold stab was probably taken too far out of the intended context, though I think it will generate a good debate about a broader topic — that Yahoo and Google are similar in many broad respects but not even in the same ballpark in total company valuation. 109 billion vs 45 billion. Why is this?

* Search quality roughly equivalent according to objective measures.

* Traffic similar (though not search traffic in which Y lags significantly). I think search will begin to move vertically soon and people will use a different engine for different tasks. A9 recognizes this already. This could shake out in many destabilizing ways.

* Yahoo considered clear leader in Web 2.0 awareness

* MOST IMPORTANTLY, YPN is still in beta and will likely soon take a chunk of Google’s online publisher revenue stream (about 40% of G total revenues) as will MSN’s new publisher programs.

* I do think corporate leadership is VERY different at Google, and probably helps facilitate and motivate people in ways that are well tuned to the fast and flexible needs of the online biz world. I’ve heard that Googlers will be working in the wee hours on a project only to have Sergey Brin walk up behind them to ask them to explain the code they are working on. This level of interaction has got to be a VERY powerful incentive and motivating force.

At MIX06 I spoked with two ex-Microsoft people who noted slow change there frustrated them and inhibited the flexibility needed to compete in the new web environments.

But Yahoo is no Microsoft, and to my knowledge Yahoo was the company that brought the new informal but intense corporate culture to Silicon Valley in the first place. If this style has caused problems for Yahoo it’ll likely cause similar problems for Google in a few years. If not, then why is Yahoo stock languishing despite good fundamentals and huge revenue potential from online ads?

Wait … No free lunches at Yahoo Cafeteria? THAT must be the problem!

The DeviceOsphere – coming soon to a world near you.

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At the MIX06 conference the most provocative and exciting idea I heard was from Tim O’Reilly who also posted about this today on his blog. Tim suggests that we are on the verge of the evolution of a sort of *deviceOsphere* (I think this is my term not Tim’s), where the staggering amount of device data gets collectively shared in new mashup style applications.

Think of a traffic map where thousands of drivers are sharing in real time their personal observations and auto measurements (e.g. ONSTAR and GIS system data) about weather, road conditions, CRIME events, alternate routes, pictures, suggestions for restaurants. A moveable data feast where the conversation never stops and includes thousands of observers/reviewers.
Flickr has shown that people really want to share photos with the world. This notion gets really exciting when you broaden the idea of “content available to mashup” to include ALL the digital content that often simply swirls around in it’s own little world. Transportation road cams, navigation data from individual cars, camcorder and cell phone feeds and crime reports are only a few things that generally just swirl around in a limited space and are discarded or relegated to obscurity.

O’Reilly’s suggesting that this data store, combined with the collective intelligence of the burdgeoning online community, could generate masterpiece applications. And the best thing is that it’s not going to require a Leonardo Da Vinci to do it.

MIX06: Timing is everything?

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Today Microsoft announced more delays in VISTA. This jived in an interesting way with several conversations I had with former MS employees and some high level geeks with big companies attending MIX06. Most expressed frustration at how s-l-o-w things tend to move at Microsoft, and all seemed very enthusiastic about the explosive potential of Web 2.0 *approaches* which encourage experimentation, speed, and flexibility, and platform *independence*.

I’d suggest that the LIVE initiative at MS is very exciting and has great potential in every way …. except …. protecting Microsoft’s core cash cows of Office and XP (make that Longhorn…Avalon….no VISTA!)

So, who ya gonna call to fix this MS?  Google? No way – not enough chairs to throw over there, and most are beanbags anyway. Yahoo? Hey…now there’s a Web 2.0 play….if I were Ballmer I’d look very hard at ways to buy or partner up in a long term big way with Yahoo hoping their culture would help invigorate some of the bright but sometimes seemingly… demoralized or disinterested…. MS teams. The problem? I think Jeremy posted that he’d leave Yahoo if that happened and that would NOT be good for Yahoo or Web 2.0 in general.

McCarran ROCKS with free WIFI

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It’s SO frustrating to pay 9.95 for an hour or two of access when you are travelling through an airport that I think most don’t do it.  Here in McCarran Las Vegas it’s free and I love them for it.

Airports like Salt Lake, that CHARGE for internet, should reconsider their strategy and either offer this as a great perk or use some ad supported model.   I’m happy to say I helped establigh free WIFI at my local airport Medford Oregon (MFR).   Portland’s PDX also’s got it and my email complimenting them was well recieved.   Tech people should try to send positive notes to airport administration about free WIFI – this helps them keep it going.

MIX06: Leaving Las Vegas

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Everybody understands that the web is redefining computing and communication.   Some companies are ACTING like the web is profoundly important more than others.   Yahoo is and Google is and certainly the exploding number of Web 2.0 startups “get Web 2.0”.

MIX06 was Microsoft’s first major attempt to reach out and interract with a broad section of online community with this in mind.
So for me the question was “Does Microsoft get Web 2.0?”.    The answer was not so clear to me.  The LIVE team certainly does, and they’ve got something like a billion behind them and a lot of moral support from the key people like Bill Gates.   They’ve got good applications and ideas and a lot more coming over the next few months.
But the core competencies and resources and focus (though NOT the key energy) still make me feel like Microsoft as a community has not fundamentally adapted to the new web, and maybe cannot adapt.   Google’s success is about the web’s success.  Microsoft’s success has NOT been web centric and changing the company to a web centric model is risky at best and could be disastrous.

Ironically I’m not sure they have to become web centric even though they seem to say they do, because with upcoming changes to IE and VISTA they have a lot of control over the environment in which Web 2.0 will unfold.

So, I’m leaving Las Vegas a bit more enlightened but with no great insight into the emerging world of the web.

MIX06: Amazon as Web 2.0 butt kicker

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Jeff Barr, Amazon’s Evangelist, is about to show how to use Alexa’s API and search services to build your own search engine.   I’ve written about this before and like John Battelle I think the implications of Amazon’s many clever, cheap, and hugely customizable routines has yet to sink in even among many in the development community.    In one sense Amazon is bringing the price point on advanced development way, way down.

Jeff just noted how his kids didn’t recognize a dial up modem sound and I’m thinking some of the people here at the conference probably don’t even remember such things now that all but the most backward university would have broadband almost everywhere.

MIX06: Day 3. Where IS everybody?

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Hey, if I can get up early anybody can.   The RSS session just ended and I’m encouraged by what look like excellent RSS aggregation features coming.    But as with many things here it’s not clear exactly when and where.    I’ve had a chance to play on some machines with the OS Longhorn
wait…I mean Avalon  No – VISTA!     Even the MS people here are sometimes using the wrong name for it.   Note to those who hire marketeers to rework the obvious into the obscure – SAVE YOUR MONEY!

I like the look and feel but on the 3 or 4 machines I’ve used there’s a sort of small performance lag that makes VISTA with IE7 feel clunky.   Connectivity here is just fair but I don’t think that was the problem.  I’m hoping this will be corrected with coming performance tweaks and that it’s not due to what I understand is VISTA’s massive use of  system resources.

I’m seeing a difference again in that MS is planning for the media rich / entertainment centric world where a lot of web development, especially at Google, seems focused more on speed and simplicity.  I *definitely* think much of Microsoft is underestimating the importance of delivering online information and experiences with utmost speed and simplicity, though I think the LIVE team is really “getting it” about this and other aspects of the evolving internet ecosystem.  But I think the LIVE folks are the new kids on the Redmond block, so I wonder if they’ll be cut loose to do what needs to be done?
MIX06 poster, Las Vegas

New Live Customizable search. WOW

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I’ve been WowED here at MIX06 in a presentation that …. nobody seems to be attending.  Some of the bar buzz is how hard the LIVE.com team has been working , and it shows.

Obviously there are going to be challenges for the Live custom search.  MSN Search still lags in relevance enough that this may compromise it as a tool that will be widely used.  They’ll also need integration with adcenter as Google does so effectively with Adsense Search utility.

HOWEVER, this is great UI, navigation, and customization thinking.  It’s clean with infinite scroll (brilliant!) and photos that can be adjusted in size as you view them.   Also, users can adjust relevancy considerations by a slider – a tool that was buried deep in MSN Search until … now.   If this is available as a search customization feature it will make this even a better gadget – not sure if it is.

Is it just me or is this team out to really bring their best stuff?    LIVE search and gadgets concepts are are really good.   Good enough that if they bring up the relevancy to Google/Yahoo levels on basic search I can see a LOT of developers starting to use LIVE Search in a LOT of applications.