Yahoo mum on Microsoft, but hints at Digg rival
Updated at 1:30 p.m. PST with Microsoft comment
PHOENIX--Yahoo executives speaking at an online ad conference on Monday were mum on Microsoft's takeover attempt, but were quick to tease a new feature, due out this week, on their home page--a feature that could be their rumored competitor to social news aggregator Digg.
In his first public appearance since Yahoo's board snubbed Microsoft's takeover bid, Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang gave the keynote speech at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's annual meeting in Phoenix. Yahoo President Sue Decker came with him to talk about the company's advertising business.
"Obviously I think we can't say a whole lot about the (attempted acquisition) process we're going through. Everybody has read about everything we're doing so there's not much more to add," Yang said when asked during a question-and-answer session following his keynote speech.
Yang said he has been spending a lot of time with the board and "key constituents" discussing the proposal, and executives want to make sure that "where Yahoo goes is the right place" for customers, employees, and shareholders.
"We're taking this proposal Microsoft has submitted to us very seriously. We've made a public statement about why we have not accepted the proposal given that it undervalues" Yahoo, he added. "It's been a galvanizing event for all of us at Yahoo...I think Yahoo is a very unique asset. I'm a little biased."
Relying on the same talking points, Decker said the Microsoft move had been a "galvanizing force and a catalyst" for the company, and admitted that the company had spent the past few years playing "catch up" on its search algorithm and search advertising.
Before the keynote address, Yang casually talked to attendees about becoming a father again (his wife is pregnant with a girl) and telling CNET News.com that he couldn't comment on the Microsoft situation.
Meanwhile, Decker was suffering from a cold, a Yahoo spokesman said later. That would explain why she seemed out of breath during the keynote and coughed loudly during the Q&A session.
Susan Decker
(Credit: Yahoo)
Digg rival due this week?
Decker did light up when talking about innovative products Yahoo is working on in the shadow of the Microsoft takeover bid.
There will be an announcement this week "on our home page where we have already been opening it up to third-party publishers...and refreshing it," she said. "It allows us to surface the very best content on the Web."
Decker didn't provide more details, but chances are the announcement will be related to Yahoo Buzz, a buzz tracker for items chosen by readers, similar to Digg and Reddit, but also items people search for on Yahoo and the company's network of publishers.
Decker also assured Web publishers that online ad networks and exchanges, like Yahoo's Right Media, won't commoditize ad inventory but will instead make online advertising more efficient.
"We see the exchanges as a critical part of the broader platform, driving openness and scale," she said. "If we can decrease the friction out of the process, it should only increase the yield for publishers because that creates value for marketers."
Later in the day a Microsoft executive said his company was still very excited about the possibility of merging with Yahoo.
"I don't know if I can add a lot that is new. We continue to believe it would be a great combination," Brian McAndrews, senior vice president of advertiser and publisher solutions group at Microsoft, said in a Q&A session. "Combined, we will be able to compete much better with Google."
Asked to comment on concerns that combining the second and third players in the search advertising market would create a duopoly with too much control in too few hands, McAndrews said that would be better than a monopoly. "You want two; you don't need more than two," he said.
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor. 
I always laugh when anyone touts a "competitor" site (in development no less!)
How about launching something truly innovative, and setting the way for a revolution instead of following in one.
Yahoo, your days are behind you. You should be bought and grown into so much more.
Also, do you understand Yahoo's key profitability drivers? Please try to do so before commenting.
Yahoo!.
The only thing my friends and I could think of that MS has
produced that is truly their own is "Microsoft Bob". So it is highly
unlikely that they will do anything unique with Yahoo!.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,125772-page,3/article.html
good luck Yahoo!
i hope you manage to suck the blood out of Digg.
- Yahoo needs to get their act together first
- by bertmg March 11, 2008 3:28 PM PDT
- Like Google, Yahoo have, for longer than Google, most of the tools to continue being a success and trend setter. But unlike Google, the company lacks vision and their tools lack integration.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(5 Comments)One powerful and second to none, Yahoo acquired Geocities, a potential MySpace, to dispose of it; It also acquired/created Yahoo questions, a potential Ask.com, to toss it; Now it got Flicker and it is offered as a "separate" non Yahoo service, same as delicious. Continuing the list, they continue reinventing the wheal: They come up with 360 and Mash to accomplish what they could not with Geocities. The difference is that Geocities already have a huge user database and they did not take advantage of it. Don't get me started with "Briefcase" and "Bookmarks". great services that are/did dissapearing with no replacement. delicious could replace bookmarks, but as mentioned is not branded with Yahoo.
The moment yahoo bought delicious, I saw it as a great way to compete not only with Digg.com, but also with competitor services that don't offer this one great functionality, like Google. AOL and Google have shown that integration along with alot of free services are the key to get users and extend their brand!. Yahoo's lack of Integration has been their Aquille's heal and it will be their demise. Until they don't get that working, the new advertised Digg rival service will be buried with the rest.
If they cannot be innovative like they were in the past, at least simulate the ones who are!... may as well sell themselves to Microsoft or any other company who understands the user market and branding better.