by Search Copywriter
Y. Sulaiman
Y. Sulaiman
Since her appointment in mid-January, Yahoo!'s new CEO Carol Bartz has remained fairly quiet about her specific intentions for the ailing search engine - until now. Hot on the heels of last week's blog post on the company's management reshuffle, Bartz spoke at her first investor conference in San Francisco yesterday and she's certainly got a few people's hopes up at the advent of her new reign.Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, Yahoo!'s new queen certainly had a few things to say about search and how Yahoo! was going to get its act together in this Google-dominated age. One significant announcement was Bartz's position that Yahoo! needs to retain access to its search data in order to understand the intent of users. With players like Microsoft-owned natural language search engine Powerset gaining greater currency in the online field, this emphasis on the intention of the searcher is becoming more important than ever. As a result, Bartz's resolution to keep hold of this data could put Yahoo! in a strong position to compete with emerging rivals, if it is used effectively.
Bartz also set chins wagging when asked about potential talks with Microsoft. Since Microsoft's $33 a share bid for Yahoo! was unsuccessful last year, the two companies have been subject to constant rumours of new negotiations. In November, after Yahoo! and Google's paid search deal fell through, former Sunnyvale CEO Jerry Yang even said that buying Yahoo! would be "the best thing" for Microsoft, despite shareholders rejecting the deal months earlier.
Though declining to comment on negotiations with Microsoft at the Morgan Stanley conference, Bartz didn't rule it out completely - in fact, far from it. She told investors: "I said this to [Steve Ballmer], I will not negotiate with you and 30,000 of my closest friends. I will negotiate privately. If something happens, you will now about it then."
Bartz also put paid to speculation that Yahoo! may be developing its own social network, stating decisively: "I do not believe we can invent the next Facebook." However, she did say that it is "very clear" that Yahoo! would have to consider developing an application that could compete with and share in the tremendous growth experienced by sites like Facebook and Twitter. Hopefully, any future offerings will fare better than Yahoo! Mash, a beta social network service that opened in September 2007 but closed just a year later.
Moreover, Bartz claimed that she was particularly excited about Yahoo!'s future plans for mail and was eagerly anticipating the release of its new email service. However, it seems this excitement doesn't extend to all of Yahoo!'s products. When asked what she thought of Yahoo! Maps - a service that is far outshone by Google's vast arsenal of online mapping tools - her response was simple: "I don't use Yahoo! Maps. I use Google Maps." It's not a statement that's likely to win over Yahoo! Maps developers but it could be this brutal honesty and outside perspective that really gives Yahoo! the vigorous shake-up it so desperately needs.
