What's A Yahoo?

How much time do you spend thinking about Yahoo?

I spend a lot of time thinking about Yahoo. Not the Yahoo you used to use as a gateway to the Internet (or for common searches), but the Yahoo of today. “Yahoo is dead.” This is the typical sentiment/eye rolls I get when I mention Yahoo (much like talking about MySpace) to anyone, but I am left wondering if Yahoo’s biggest challenge is how they communicate and market their own brand? That web portal/search platform called Yahoo has changed – dramatically – since it was no longer cool to use them for search.

Does Yahoo have a future?

Yahoo definitely has a very interesting portfolio diversification strategy in play. They are being challenged (as most public companies are), but there is a lot of money and attention at stake here. In all of the current commotion surrounding Yahoo, I found the conversation between Yahoo’s current CEO (and former Googler), Marissa Mayer, with Charlie Rose very captivating. Rose doesn’t pull any punches, and Mayer is quite clear in describing both what Yahoo is today, where the attention is currently being spent and a lot of vision around the opportunity to make something happen with this iconic brand. It’s complicated. Mayer states that… and she’s right. Still, all businesses are trying to figure out their way, in this very different economy. This is a profoundly interesting conversation.

Do you really believe that Yahoo has no future? You may want to watch this: Charlie Rose - An hour with Marissa Mayer, CEO and President of Yahoo.