Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Marissa Mayer's Pregnancy

Hillary Rodham Clinton, January 2007
Hillary Rodham Clinton, January 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Marissa Mayer is pregnant. Who knew before yesterday? It is like Bill Clinton became president in 1992 and a big chunk of the media talked often of Hillary Clinton's hair. It is one of those things. I think Hillary carries herself well, but style would not be her number one strength.

I am happy for Marissa Mayer that she is expecting. I know she is very happy about it. And I guess it is a very big deal to be Yahoo CEO. But there seem to be as many headlines about Mayer's pregnancy as her ascendancy to the CEO position. There is a tinge of gender there. She already has been a role model. Now she is to be a bigger role model for women. And one would hope the attention would soon pass on to the wonderful work she has done at Google and what she might be able to do for Yahoo.

People are comparing Yahoo to Apple when Steve Jobs came back in 1997, I believe. There are some legitimate high expectations there, and that perhaps is the bigger story.

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Marissa Mayer: Top Search Term At This Blog

Marissa Mayer is the top search term at this blog right now.


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Marissa Mayer: Captain Of The Ship

Marissa Mayer
Marissa Mayer (Photo credit: jdlasica)
Everyone and their cousin is giving her advice. I might be running late by about 12 hours, but here goes.

  1. Go slim by 5,000 to 10,000. The faster it is done, better for morale. Cut jobs. Slice and dice. Be done with it. 
  2. If you are not number one or two, exit the category. This is coming straight from Jack Welch. He knew. 
  3. Take Yahoo Mail to a whole new level. Reimagine it. 
  4. Yahoo News is good news. Build community around it. 
  5. Go big on mobile. Go big on local. You would know. 
  6. Yahoo has a big future in Big Data, the next big thing. This might be one rare way to bring sexiness back to Yahoo. It has hundreds of millions of loyal monthly users, and it collects data on them. Make use of it. This is the oil beneath the sand. 
  7. PR is important. Show up for the key events in the industry and talk your talk. You can be a good mascot. Marissa Mayer's got the sexy down pat. Infuse Yahoo with it, inside and out. 

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Monday, July 16, 2012

Mayer Shoots For Yahoo, Google Stock Drops

Marissa Mayer
Marissa Mayer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It has been heard over the grapevine that Google CEO Larry Page - who is not in the habit of reading news four times a day like the rest of us - was taken aback when he received a text alert on his Google Nexus phone - yeah, he is still on Nexus 1.0 - that the Google stock had nosedived. At first he thought the market was reacting to his long sick leave. But that was days ago, he said to Sergey Brin.

When Sergey Brin - who does read news four times a day - gently apprised him that maybe it was something to do with Marissa Mayer.

"What did Marissa do?" Larry Page asked.

Sergey Brin found himself at a loss for words. He did not quite know how to put it. But before Page took wild guesses, Brin volunteered.

"She left," he whispered.

"To launch a startup? How could she? Who did she take with her? What space is she looking at? I hope not local.... Did she tell you? How long have you known this?"

"It is all over TechMeme, Larry," Sergey whispered.
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A Marissa Mayer Spike In Traffic


Yahoo appointed Mayer CEO, and a lot of people googled up her name. Some of them were lead to a 2010 blog post of mine on Mayer. And this blog got a spike in traffic.

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Mayer As Chief Yahoo: Surprising And Exciting

SAN FRANCISCO - SEPTEMBER 08: Google Vice Pre...
SAN FRANCISCO - SEPTEMBER 08: Google Vice President of Search Product and User Experience Marissa Mayer speaks during an announcement September 8, 2010 in San Francisco, California. Google announced the launch of Google Instant, a faster version of Google search that streams results live as you type your query. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
New York Times: Google’s Marissa Mayer Tapped as Yahoo’s Chief

This is surprising and exciting. I guess Yahoo does not have to pretend it is a media company and it can now go back to being a technology company. Yahoo still has a lot of visitors that come back month after month. At some level it never really went away.

It can play for a strong number two position in some key areas. And with its resources it should be able to attract the talent to innovate.

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