Yahoo Still Strong

Image via CrunchBaseYahoo is never - never say never, but I am saying it - going to overtake Google in search. Yahoo was number one, king of the hill, not that far back in time. The Google founders' first exit strategy was to get bought by Yahoo. But Yahoo has maintained a strong number two position this entire time, Mike Arrington's relentless harassments of Carol Bartz not withstanding. And Yahoo just made a move that Google could not have made, not even AOL could have. Only Yahoo could have made this content/media move.

ABCnews.com: ABC News, Yahoo! News Announce Online Alliance: more Americans get their news from ABC News than any other source ..... Under the agreement, ABC News becomes the premier news provider on Yahoo! News, with editorial teams from both organizations collaborating on original coverage to appear on both the Yahoo! News and ABC News sites. Teams will co-produce coverage for major news events and will have integrated bureaus in New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. ABC News content will be integrated throughout the Yahoo! News network, including the Yahoo! front page. ABC News will maintain editorial control over ABCNews.com and GoodMorningAmerica.com, and Yahoo! News will maintain editorial control of all its sites.

Yahoo has the internet in its DNA that ABC News simply does not. And it has mainstream users, people who are not looking for the latest fads in tech on TechCrunch, people who can't tell the difference between Yahoo Mail and Gmail. An email is an email is an email.

"A tree is a tree, how many do you need to look at?"
- Ronald Reagan

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By the way, I do know that Bartz was ousted. And looks like this ABC News move has been Jerry Yang's first move after taking back control.

Lytro: A High End Product?

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Hi Paramendra, I personally really like the photo with the martial artists and the sword. The dimension you get is really intriguing. Although your photo is of course great, too. I know what you mean about not carrying a camera around always because they can be so bulky; I’m really trying to remember mine more often because I often see pretty things in nature that I want to capture. The Lytro tech seems really awesome for people who need a little help taking professional-quality photos, but I don’t think most people will be able to afford it if it’s too expensive. The CEO Ng said it will cost under $10k, which is obviously way too much for most people, so it will be interesting to see if the company prices it for the consumer since they said it’s supposed to be for the consumer market. I wanted to share this video on the Lytro tech with you. I think you’ll appreciate how it analyzes news coverage from different sources to show various perspectives on the impact the cameras will make. I hope you’ll consider embedding the video in your post. http://www.newsy.com/videos/lytro-to-revolutionize-photo-technology/ Thanks, Kate (comment left to this Lytro blog post from earlier)

It takes a white woman to drive an Asian to his senses. What was I thinking? The founders of both Color and Lytro are "Asian." I need to be rooting for them. Every attack on Carol Bartz is an attack on Jerry Yang.

Yahoo Doldrums

Image via CrunchBaseMike Arrington has relentlessly gone after Carol Bartz from day one. Some of that I have attributed to sexism. Some I have attributed to the media's need for conflict and drama: that is partly how they generate page hits. Some I have attributed to Mike angling to get bought by Yahoo's rival AOL: that happened. But Yahoo does have serious problems.

Yahoo's problem is not that it is not number one, or that it is not going to get back the crown. Yahoo's problem has been that it has messed up being number two. Yahoo bought Flickr, and look at Facebook: photo sharing is the number one thing that happens on Facebook.

Yahoo: Lord Of The Middle Kingdom

Or maybe Carol Bartz is the Sarah Palin of technology. The two coasts might not "get" Yahoo, but the heartland/hinterland loves it, she claims. And she has numbers to prove the tall claim.

Voice Is Not Dead, Dumb Voice Should Be

Image via Wikipedia

TechCrunch: The Phone Call Is Dead: Text is just easier.

I have a few different phone numbers. I think I have three. Does that mean I am a huge fan of the telephone? Hardly. The opposite is true.

I tried to cancel my Yahoo Messenger number. I think I did. And they billed me anyway. My bank filed a complaint on my behalf. They gave me a new debit card. But that transaction went through. Felt like Carol Bartz was balancing the Yahoo budget on my back.

Mike Arrington Is A Sexist Pig: Say PeeeeG!

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeThe father of Quantum Mechanics Max Planck said once, people don't change their ideas, they die with them. When I think of Mike Arrington of TechCrunch and gender relations, I get reminded of that Max Planck quote. This guy will never "get" it. That's the impression I get. Like Hillary says in her autobiography, how her father was still homophobic all the way to his deathbed. Gays are just wrong. I feel sorry for Mike Arrington. This guy is missing the forest, he is missing the trees. Those who manage to cross over get to experience the richness that women bring to work and to organizations and to excellence that the sexist pigs miss out on. It is like they are color blind or something. They just can't see. It is almost biological. It is as if Mike Arrington was born with a tail and there is no surgery for it.

When Mike Arrington humiliated the female CEO of Yahoo on a public stage in New York City a few months back, I literally cringed. Sexism is the only word that describes the experience. The Yahoo CEO is older, much more accomplished, she is a role model to women. There are so few women CEOs out there that you become a role model whether or not you want to, and Carol Bartz strikes me as someone who really does not want to. But what you gonna do? You are a woman. So put on the pin. You are a role model now.

Months before that Mike Arrington hounded Anu Shukla who has been a trailblazer. Some of her cutting edge company's work is equivalent to the ongoing click fraud with Google's AdWords, but that does not change the fact that Google's money minting machine is a revolutionary product. (Anu Shukla Has Found The New Frontier In Advertising)

Mike Arrington is dripping with sexism.

And I actually like the fact that the guy is the founder of the top tech blog in the world. That tells me the only reason at least half of the excellent work done out there has not been done by women is sexism. I dig it that this dude's product is so very visible. On a non sexist planet, the founder of TechCrunch would have been some Maya Arrington.

Sexism is like communism, it is like Islamofascism, it is an ideology, it is a worldview. And Mike Arrington is dripping with it.

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FourSquare Must Cut A Deal With Yahoo

Carol Bartz wanting to buy Yahoo is no longer a rumor, this TechCrunch post makes it more than official.

TechCrunch: Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz On Foursquare: It Depends On How Much Money They Want The topic on everyone’s lips was Yahoo’s rumored talks with Foursquare ..... Bartz’s response: “It depends how much money they want.”

Selling FourSquare would be a mistake, a huge mistake, a fatal mistake, taking $10 million at a $80 million valuation from a VC firm would be a good move, but the best move at this point would be to take $10 million from Yahoo upfront and then $10 million annually thereafter to be reevaluated in two years to add location to as many Yahoo properties as possible. Just like Twitter took $25 million each from Google and Microsoft to let them offer tweets as search results so as to be able to claim they also now do real time search, FourSquare should also make money by letting Yahoo be able to say Yahoo now does location in a big way.

Take $10 million right away, and then another $10 million for the first year, and turn the various Yahoo properties into a major project. Expand the team. Get a new office space. I recommend Dumbo. (Digital Dumbo: Here I Come) If not Dumbo, then Williamsburg. Actually, Williamsburg would be far better. Cooper Union is too cooper.

If FourSquare can cut a deal like this with Yahoo, it can cut a deal like this with many other major web properties. It could fund its growth with all that money. You go to VCs, you get diluted. You make money like this, you don't get diluted.

Hire me to work through some of these deals: 4:16 PM @ FourSquare.

Yahoo would be a great first customer for FourSquare. You have to understand, Yahoo used to be Google, it was hot. It was so hot, selling to Yahoo was the first exit strategy the two Google founders thought of. It was Yahoo that refused. We already have a search engine, they said. Over the past decade Yahoo has tried to regain some of that lost glory. In FourSquare they see a chance of that happening. Yahoo mistakenly thinks buying FourSquare will do it for them. It won't. Instead if they cut a deal with FourSquare, that will cost them much less money, as less as one fifth, and could actually do the trick of making Yahoo a hip company all over again.

Yahoo is going through an identity crisis of sorts, and cutting a sound deal with FourSquare might just be that thing it needs.

FourSquare needs the money to grow. Yahoo needs location. Cut the deal. How will FourSquare add location to the Yahoo properties? That is a whole another blog post, or preferably a job.

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