Bartz About Yahoo: "We Were Never A Search Company"

Once again, we have a story, popping up on Tom’s Hardware, that shows how out of touch (or out to lunch, if you prefer) the new lackey of Microsoft CEO of Yahoo is.

She states that the company’s fortunes are tied up in its pages (of advertising). Well. they certainly are now!

It never was a search company! WTF?  Tell that to Mr. Yang.

Yahoo! has seen some big changes in recent months. In fact, since the company appointed Carol Bartz there’s been more “shake-ups” than you can well, shake a stick at. Most recently, the company rolled out some homepage changes allowing users to update their Facebook, and share links all without leaving the Yahoo! homepage. In other words, it added extra features aside from search. The company has been touting itself as a web portal for some time now and according to Carol Bartz, Yahoo! was never a search company at all.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Bartz says that she’s more than happy with Yahoo!’s 20 percent share of the search market because according to Carol, “her fortunes are tied to her pages.”

The Yahoo! CEO went on to say that the company will be investing more money in its pages to bring everything in line with what the company’s sports page is like at the moment (i.e. original content as opposed to relying on content from third party sources). How is Yahoo! going to go about it? In her interview with the Times, Bartz pointed out that there are plenty of unemployed journalists at the moment.

new slogan: Everything but search!

It’s usually not a good idea to be snippy with those who will be affecting your perceived fortunes, but then again, no one I can think of is giving this woman any points on her conducting of the affairs of Yahoo. To use a sports metaphor, she seems like that unproven short reliever bought in at the top of the eighth inning, when the team is down by four runs, and the manager knows that the worst part of the batting order is coming up, with no one having an average above .230 to pinch hit. Not much is expected, and a win is going to be a cause for amazement all around.

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