Yahoo! in trouble (Pandia Weekend Wrap-up June 22 2008)
We apologize for the missing wrap-ups.
As some of you might know, the Pandia editors are both busy people having full time jobs besides Pandia. Susanne has given a presentation on Web 2.0 and elearning i Lisbon, while Per has been in Sofia, taking part in an EU review on the Bulgarian innovation system.
Believe it or not, this is actually all very relevant to the question of innovation in the search engine industry, but it does not immediately lead to new blog post. But we are now back on track.
The last couple of weeks have not given us any final answer as regards the search engine company constellations. Microsoft has formally given up its attempt to acquire Yahoo!, while Yahoo! is making all sorts of experiments in order to calm down angry stock holders.
There is one hilarious website out there that helps Yahoo! employee’s writing their resignation letters. It is interesting also because it gives you an insight into what some Yahooers find disturbing, including the advertising alliance with Google (why test out Google Adwords on Yahoo! if you sincerely believe in your own Panama advertising product?).
It seems many Yahoo! employees are losing their faith in the company. That is a very serious threat indeed! Google will have a walk-over if both Microsoft and Yahoo! fail to develop innovative culture that inspire the staff and gets them to walk that extra mile.
Here are some other headlines of interest:
- Google Video Now Equipped with Video Search Suggestions! Explore more! Enjoy More!
According to the Google Video Blog, Google has introduced a video search suggestion, in an effort to enhance the user video search experience and also to help viewers discover more interesting videos. (Page Traffic June 21 2008)
- 5+ FireFox Extensions To Explore Backlinks
Search Engine Journal lists them all (June 16 2008)
- Matt Cutts Shares his Views on White Hat Link Building
Matt Cutts emphasizes on the fact that, the best links are those that are original research and provide value to readers for example, in the form of a Firefox extension. However, he did denounce too many reciprocal links. (Page Traffic June 18 2008)
- Google’s Two Tiered Internet World Sinks to a New Low
Google laid everyone else bare, naked and exposed but kept their own stats locked up and private. (GrayWolf June 20 2008)
- Google Adds Site Traffic Analytics to Google Trends
Google Trends for website displays traffic for a particular website over a specified time frame. (SE Journal June 21 2008)
- Google Offering New Google Trends
If you have a Google Account you can now download trend information in CSV format. Very cool. (Researchbuzz June 15 2008)
- Microsoft Plans European Search Center
The center will actively work with the global Live Search organization and be dedicated to advancing the state of the art in search technology (June 17 2008)
- Search the Web with International Search Engines
Search all over the world through the eyes of international search engines. Here are just a few of the international search engines that I’ve found on the Web (Wendy Boswell June 19 2008)
- reddit goes open source
When we say ‘open-source’ we mean specifically that the code behind reddit is available to the public for download. (reddit blog June 16 2008)
- Flickr founders leave Yahoo
The high-profile departures at Yahoo continue with the news that Flickr founders Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield are leaving. (MacWorld June 18 2008)
- Yahoo!’s big reorganization will do nothing
Yahoo executives are discussing a plan to centralize numerous product groups, such as its mail, search and home-page divisions, into a global-product organization. (BloggingStocks June 20 2008)
- Yahoo Doomed del.icio.us
Of all the executives jumping off the good ship Yahoo, del.icio.us founder Joshua Schachter’s departure should be among the least surprising. (Mark Evans June 20 2008)
- Yahoo The Failure: Myth Versus Reality
Danny Sullivan: “As SS Yahoo appears to be sinking, let me be the contrarian about her future. I admit, I find it as hard to believe as anyone that Yahoo has much life left in it after all executive departures this week.” (Search Engine Land June 20 2008)
- Google Faces Off With Compete, Alexa, Comscore, Quantcast (And Soon Firefox)
Google has just introduced Google Trends For Websites, a new tool that lets users take a peek at the traffic data from sites around the web. (TechCrunch June 20 2008)
- ComScore: Facebook is beating MySpace worldwide
Facebook appears to have surpassed longtime rival MySpace in worldwide unique visitors for the first time. (The Social June 20 2008)
- Ex-Yahoo search chief to lead Yandex lab
Vish Makhijani, until this week Yahoo’s senior vice president in charge of search, now is leading a San Francisco Bay Area lab of Russian search engine and portal site Yandex. (NewsBlog June 20 2008)
- Yahoo Mail hopes to lure users with ‘ymail.com’
Yahoo Mail, the top provider of Web-based e-mail, is letting users sign up with the ymail.com and rocketmail.com domains in an attempt to attract new users and keep existing ones loyal. (NewsBlog June 18 2008)
Original post by Per and Susanne Koch