Another linked article which I’d like to share out: What Now… Yahoo? over on Pando Daily written by Jason Calacanis.
Despite a decade of product decline, filled with horrific strategy decisions and massive executive turnover, Yahoo still has scale.
Randy Falco couldn’t kill AOL, despite the fact that he didn’t use email!
Carol Bartz couldn’t kill Yahoo despite the fact that she was so clueless about product she couldn’t answer the basic question of “What is Yahoo?” (let alone throttle herself in the press).
Here’s my five-point advice for Yahoo today.
Jason goes on to outline some ideas as to what Yahoo should do to improve its current lot, and a lot of that relates to accepting what it is. It’s an interesting strategy outline, well worth the read.
What brought this on?
I was reminded of this article after Yahoo announced a new browser/browser plugin called “Axis”. I installed it today, tested it for a couple of minutes, and then un-installed it. There was nothing that grabbed me about it, plus there was something slightly desperate feeling about the presenter of their launch promo videos. Ultimately it felt like a different way to push a browser toolbar on users.
Clearly Yahoo haven’t read the article above..
On mobile devices it has slightly more attraction, but doesn’t feel like it provides anything beyond Chrome or Firefox which allow you to pull up tabs from any other device (and have been doing so for a while now). In addition it ties you to Bing search, which may not be something you are looking for.
I anticipate that Yahoo will shutter this project in about 6 – 12 months.
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