Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 7th June 2009
36 COMMENTS 
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Now, this is rather fascinating. Technophobe Louis Gray (clearly I’m being sarcastic) shared a link to a site called Blind Search that lets you search all three major search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) simultaneously, the twist is that it shows the results from all three without indicating which results are from which engine – you simply select which of the three is your preferred set of results.
I tested it with a number of various search terms and almost every time selected a different search engine to the last. I couldn’t help but laugh.
Now, what this might prove is that in general, most people could cope just fine no matter what search engine they used. What’s even more conclusive however is that it’s not just about search any more, it’s about the family of services and products accompanying search, the ancillary products, and we all know who wins there.
Microsoft’s most successful ancillary product is likely either Hotmail, MSN Messenger or Live Maps. Yahoo; either Delicious, Finance or Flickr. Google; Gmail, Docs, News, Calendar, Gtalk, Reader Maps and not to forget Picasa, Earth, iGoogle and of course, Wave.
It’s almost laughable the array of quality products and services that accompany Google Search in comparison to their competitors. It’s why I know it will take something seriously special, revolutionary even, to tear my finger tips away from typing Google.com to find what I’m looking for. Whilst Yahoo and Microsoft battle away STILL trying to get search right and fight for their 17% search market share, Google were at this point years ago and have spent the last few years developing innovative, reliable and yes – revolutionary – products, the majority of which are free to use. Whilst Google continue to do this, they’ll have my business, and yours, for a long time to come.
Written on 16th April 2009
4 COMMENTS
Anne Helmond, hard bloggin' scientist
Ricardo Baeza-Yates is VP of Research for Europe and Latin America, leading the Yahoo! Research labs at Barcelona, Spain and Santiago, Chile, and also supervising the lab in Haifa, Israel. Yahoo! Research is about developing new technology, not only for search but also for other internet purposes. Web search is no longer about document retrieval so we need means for web-mediated goals.
Intent and result
Search all depends on your intent. We’re trying to move away from a to-do or to-find intent to actual task completion. What are the challenges we are facing? You have to do it fast and it has to be scalable. Fast completion may be achieved through immediately presenting short cuts, deep links, enhanced results.
The premise is that people don’t want to search. Instead, people want to get their tasks done and get straight to their answers. So how to we do this? We move from a web of pages to a web of objects. People, places, businesses, restaurants are all objects that have attributes such as noisy or expensive (in the case of restaurants.) Intents of searchers are satisfied by presenting objects and attributes. It’s not exactly the semantic web but about finding implicit relations through web usage.
Opening up search
Baeza-Yates shows the SearchMonkey Ecosystem which he describes as a “win-win situation” where publishers can contribute objects and define how they want to present themselves and yield better results. By building an open ecosystem publishers would have incentives to contribute. The aim is to provide a more coherent search experience. The ecosystem wishes to leverage the wisdom of crowds which is not about the internet but about people. The premise of the wisdom of the crowds is that
under the right circumstanes, groups are remarkably intelligent.
The problem is the word ‘right’ – aggregating the ‘right’ data is the answer.
In the history of search 1996 was about descriptive data such as descriptions from librarians. In 1998 it was all about links, ranking and PageRank, using the wisdom of the publishers, the webmasters. However now in 2009 anyone can put links on the web so it’s not working anymore. According to Baeza-Yates it’s all about tags and in t future – we can use everything, queries from all web users.
Tag Explorer shows how tags may be used within search. In the example Baeza-Yates shows what people do with Flickr. It’s an endless form of image browsing where you can edit/add/remove tags and change your query. Tags are better than image features but together they are much better as they are complementary. One uses semantics and the other syntactic features but if you search for images, tags are better than just image processing.
Exploiting microformats
So how can we use the existing great amount of content? We need to exploit the metadata that is already on the web and make it even richer by bridging implicit and explicit metadata. The Correlator can already bridge such relations within Wikipedia and provides a new search experience by bridging implicit and explicit metadata.
Written on 18th February 2009
15 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Yahoo News has joined other heavy weight news agencies in confusing US President’s name Barack Obama with international terrorist Osama Bin Laden.
CNN made a blunder not so long ago which it was forced to apologise for:
This latest screw up from Yahoo News can been seen below, time for another apology.
Written on 11th December 2008
3 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
Thank you, dear reader, for coming in. I have some information regarding our organization I’d like to tell you in person. I appreciate what you have done for The Next Web. As you know, The Next Web has had a challenging year and is focused on reducing costs. We’ve had to make some tough decision around eliminating a number of readers. Your position is one of these being eliminated.
Nah, just kidding!
The text you just read is straigh out the Yahoo! “How to Fire Employees for Dummies” manual. Condensed into a few easy to understand PowerPoint slides. Valleywag obtained the slides (clearly marked “Yahoo! Confidential. Do Not Forward”) and published them on their blog. Here is one of the the slides:
As you might know Yahoo! is ”getting fit” this Wednesday by firing 1500 people. That procedure is painful for all parties involved so management is trying to coach managers doing the actual firing with these slides.
Expect more Yahoo! documents to leak the following days as those 1500 apparently ‘unfit’ ex-employees use the web, blogs and, no doubt, all the Yahoo! tools to upload every bit of confidential info they can get their hands on.
Written on 3rd December 2008
0 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
![Will this man buy Yahoo? [Updated]](http://thenextweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/jonathan-miller.jpg "jonathan-miller")
Jonathan Miller a veteran of the Internet business is looking to raise funds to purchase Yahoo reports Reuters.
Yes, you may laugh at the possibility that one man may find the funds to official purchase the company, however Miller is no average man. He was CEO of AOL for four years and a founding partner of the Velocity Interactive Group investment firm, if there’s anyone out that can do it – he can.
According to Jessica E. Vascellaro of the WSJ, “Mr. Miller has been talking to private equity investors and sovereign wealth funds for months in hopes of raising money for a Yahoo deal.”
In regards to how much Miller is looking to raise, Vascellaro elaborated “Mr. Miller believes he can do a deal that would be worth around $20 to $22 a share to Yahoo shareholders . . . which would involve raising about $28 billion to $30 billion to purchase the entire company.”
With Yahoo’s stock currently at 11.50, it values the company at approx $15.94 billion which would be pretty favorable to Yahoo shareholders and board members. (more…)
Written on 21st November 2008
0 COMMENTS
Mircea Goia, Next Web US Webtipr
Having big problems at home where the stock is still plummeting Yahoo, finally, sells Kelkoo, the Paris-based shopping comparison search engine, according to Techcrunch.
Kelkoo was bought by Yahoo in 2004 for 475 million euros. Sadly enough, Yahoo couldn’t make it more profitable and known among other international shopping comparison search engines and thus Kelkoo usage has fallen down the hill (see the general trend record on Google Trends – the trends might vary for different Kelkoo domains).
Nothing new here, some of the acquisitions Yahoo made had the same fate…falling down to the competition.
The new acquirer of Kelkoo is Jamplant, a UK-based private equity firm (some details about this company here) and the amount they have paid is around 100 million euros.
Kelkoo will still continue to power Y! Shopping, Cars and Travel.
You can read the announcement from the former Kelkoo CEO Pierre Chappaz here (in French) and here is the internal email Glen Drury, Kelkoo’s managing director for the UK, sent to the employees.
Written on 18th November 2008
1 COMMENT
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
![Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is to Step Down [updated with Personal Memo]](http://thenextweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/225px-jerry_yang1.jpg "225px-jerry_yang1")
**UPDATE: We have just updated the post to include Jerry Yang’s person memo to the Yahoo staff.**
Yahoo have just released a press release to announce that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang will be stepping down from his position and the search for a replacement has already begun.
Yang will apparently remain on the board of directors and in his own words “will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo! realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation.”
Too late? Or just in some time…What do you think?
Press Release Below:
Yahoo! Conducting Search for New CEOCo-Founder Jerry Yang to Step Down Following Appointment of New CEO
and Return to Former Role as Chief Yahoo! and Board Member
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov 17, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) today announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a search for a new Chief Executive Officer. Jerry Yang, co-Founder of Yahoo!, has decided to return to his former role as Chief Yahoo! upon the appointment of his successor as CEO, and he will also continue to serve on the Board. Yang, 40, assumed the CEO role at the Board’s request in June 2007, and he has led Yahoo! through a strategic repositioning and transformation of its platform.
Chairman Roy Bostock, working with the independent directors and in consultation with Jerry Yang, is leading the process of assessing potential candidates and determining finalists for consideration. The search will encompass both internal and external candidates, and the Board has retained Heidrick & Struggles, a leading international executive search firm, to assist in the process.
“Over the past year and a half, despite extraordinary challenges and distractions, Jerry Yang has led the repositioning of Yahoo! on an open platform model as well as the improved alignment of costs and revenues,” said Roy Bostock. “Jerry and the Board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level. We are deeply grateful to Jerry for his many contributions as CEO over the past 18 months, and we are pleased that he plans to stay actively involved at Yahoo! as a key executive and member of the Board.”
“From founding this company to guiding its growth into a trusted global brand that is indispensible to millions of people, I have always sought to do what is best for our franchise,” said Jerry Yang. “When the Board asked me to become CEO and lead the transformation of the Company, I did so because it was important to re-envision the business for a different era to drive more effective growth. Having set Yahoo! on a new, more open path, the time is right for me to transition the CEO role and our global talent to a new leader. I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo! realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation.”
via Techcrunch
**update**
Boomtown have managed to obtain a copy of the Memo sent by Jerry Yang to the Yahoo staff.
See below:
To: all yahoos
Fr: Jerry
Subject: update
yahoos -
i wanted to address all of you on the news we’ve just announced. the board of directors and I have agreed to initiate a succession process for the ceo role of yahoo!. roy bostock, our chairman of the board, is leading the effort to identify and assess potential candidates for consideration by the full board. the board will be evaluating and considering both internal and external candidates and has retained heidrick and struggles to help in this effort.
i will be participating in the search for my successor, and i will continue as ceo until the board selects a new ceo. once a successor is named, i will return to my previous role as chief yahoo and continue to serve as a director on the board.
last june, i accepted the board’s request that i assume the ceo role to restructure and reposition the company as a whole in order to more effectively meet the fast-changing needs of both users and partners. since taking on the ceo role, i have had an ongoing dialogue with the board about succession timing. thanks in large measure to your tireless efforts, we have created a more open, competitive yahoo! and we believe the time is now right to transition to a new ceo who can take the company to the next level.
despite the external environment we face, the fact remains that yahoo! is now a significantly different company that is stronger in many ways than it was just 18 months ago. this only makes it all the more essential that we manage this opportunity to leverage the progress up to this point as effectively as possible. i strongly believe that having transformed our platform and better aligned costs and revenues, we have a unique window for the right ceo to take ownership over the next wave of mission-critical decisions facing the company.
all of you know that I have always, and will always bleed purple. i will always do what I think is right for this great company. while this step will be an adjustment for all of us, i know it’s the right one. i look forward to updating you on this process as soon as the board has developments to share, and will continue to do everything i can to make yahoo! fulfill its full potential.
thank you,
jerry
Written on 5th November 2008
3 COMMENTS
Mircea Goia, Next Web US Webtipr
Bad news doesn’t seem to stop for Yahoo. Several days ago they killed Yahoo! Live, the live video streaming service.
Now today Google decided to pull the plug to Google-Yahoo advertising deal, a deal which would have brought around $800 million/year to Yahoo and would have filled partially the hungry-for-cash pocket of the old search engine and portal.
The main cause which made Google walk away seems to be that the government regulators and some advertisers still had concern about this deal and Google didn’t want to get into a legal battle, according to Google blog.
“However, after four months of review, including discussions of various possible changes to the agreement, it’s clear that government regulators and some advertisers continue to have concerns about the agreement. Pressing ahead risked not only a protracted legal battle but also damage to relationships with valued partners. That wouldn’t have been in the long-term interests of Google or our users, so we have decided to end the agreement.“
Google probably didn’t forget the advertising deal with MySpace where they paid hundreds of millions/year in exchange of having Google search on the well-known social networking site. Probably they don’t want to repeat that with Yahoo (especially in this bad economic time), but this is just a assumption.
Anyway, Yahoo now has an even rougher road ahead. It has to find another cash cow or it has to improve its advertising technology to make it more competitive. If that means sacrificing Jerry Yang and the rest of the staff, then so be it.
Surprisingly, Yahoo stock went up 5% after this announcement while Google stock went down 1.4%. That won’t last long probably.
Either way, I hope Yahoo will not fade out totally and leave behind only two major Internet players: Google and Microsoft.
Good luck, Yahoo!
Written on 30th October 2008
2 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
Reuters reports that a person familiar with the talks told them that Yahoo and AOL are looking at each other’s books to figure out how much money they could make together and where costs can be saved. If the results are positive a merger could be an option. Officially this means nothing. Unofficially it means that Yahoo is still looking for alternatives to staying independent.
From the Reuters snitch: “Talks are focused on how to integrate AOL’s content and advertising business into Yahoo, said the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly because the discussions are confidential.”
It is hard to predict if their futures are aligned but at least their stock prices match up pretty well:
Who do YOU think Yahoo should merge with?
[poll id="4"]
Written on 16th October 2008
2 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Five weeks ago I wrote about the home improvement going on at Flickr HQ. The Yahoo-owned photo service presented the design in a sneak peak fashion. After clicking on a button on the homepage, going through the Flickr balloons and a MIDI version of Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night, the new homepage appeared.
Those of the 31 million Flickr members who could resist the temptation of clicking on the “Psssssst! Want a sneak peak at your new homepage?” will now see the new homepage as well.
Flickr wanted to show its users more of the social interaction of the service, hence the homepage now consists of all kinds of “check out these things in your social circle” elements. The page shows more pictures from your contacts, introduces the latest pics from your groups, and pushes the blog plus your personal stats to the front.
Check out the announcement on Flickr and don’t forget to watch the fancy screencast.
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
