Wired Looks At Yahoo Failures Over The Years

How Yahoo Blew It by Wired, tells the story of Yahoo’s failures over the past years. The article starts off explaining that Yahoo could of bought Google, but Google turned down the $3 billion offer made by Yahoo. The article then summarizes Google recent success after their IPO and says, “And what must infuriate Semel: This could have been Yahoo.”

Terry Semel, Yahoo’s CEO, decided they would not pay more than $3 billion and decided to go at the search game on their own. You are taken through Yahoo’s partnerships and acquisitions over the years, and you clearly see how Yahoo had to “put the pieces together.” Then came Panama, which was plagued with delay after delay.

The article seriously questions Terry Semel’s future at Yahoo now. His basic lack of technology know how, based on the article, describes Semel as not the right fit for Yahoo’s future. Wired writes, “Many who have met with him [Terry Semel] at Yahoo say he still doesn’t know the right questions to ask about technology.”

At Yahoo, the marketers rule, and at Google the engineers rule. And for that, Yahoo is finally paying the price.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.