So, just before interviewing Sun Microsystems’ DTrace team today (that’s a photo of them) I got a call from a source. He said “Semel is out. Yang is taking over.” This is why I am not a good journalist. I didn’t drop everything, tell the three geeks to hang on while I banged out a post, etc. Instead I went on with the interview, which was a lot of fun. It’s so nice to interview geeks who make things that transform businesses instead of marketing executives. Instead you’ll have to read the news reports and media storm over at TechMeme.
In case you’re wondering, that’s Bryan Cantril (right); Mike Shapiro (middle); Adam Leventhal, the three inventors of DTrace. Bryan’s wife gave birth to a baby boy yesterday afternoon which is why the three had cigars. More about DTrace and this team here.
Anyway, why isn’t Sue Decker the CEO of Yahoo? Because there are three separate constituencies that need a CEO at Yahoo.
1) Advertisers. They are very unhappy. I’ve talked with search engine marketers who do work for clients who take out thousands of ads on search engines and they tell me that Google’s service is easier to use than Yahoo’s and brings better results. They are customer #1 for Yahoo and explains why Semel is on the way out, why the stock price is flat, and why Decker isn’t CEO today. She simply hasn’t gotten the job done with the Panama platform that Yahoo/Semel/Decker were hoping it would be.
2) Geeks. Yahoo is losing geeks. Datacenter geeks. Networking geeks. Software geeks who’ll build the next cool search engines at Yahoo, etc. As I do more and more interviews I meet more and more people who tell me “I used to work at Yahoo.” It’s been a while since I’ve heard of a geek who’s done something the world respects end up at Yahoo. Even Yahoo’s good social media acquisition team has been quiet this year. I don’t remember meeting Sue Decker while hanging out at geek events. Maybe she gets along with developers, but the performance of Panama tells me she isn’t able to get the best from teams of developers.
3) Media types. You know, movie studios, vloggers, musicians, game designers, etc. This was Semel’s strong suit, except Semel, from what I’ve heard from several people, could barely type his own emails so didn’t quite enthuse the geekier of the creative types. I’m not sure how strong Sue Decker would be with this group, but I doubt it’d be strong. Musicians and folks like movie director Robert Rodriguez rarely get along with people who run advertising divisions at big companies.
I’d love to be wrong, though. Tell me why Sue would be a good leader to any of these three groups?
What’s really bad for Yahoo, though, is there isn’t a good CEO out there that’ll come in and be a quick fix for Yahoo’s problems. I think Jerry Yang will have to hire a CEO out of the advertising industry, since that’s where Yahoo is bleeding the most right now. The money is the main artery and that comes from ads at Yahoo. Geeks like Stewart Butterfield or Caterina Fake won’t be able to patch that up.
Unfortunately I don’t know of a good CEO for Yahoo right now. Who would I suggest? How about Clare Hart, vice president of Dow Jones?
The other lesson I take out of today’s news? Panama (Yahoo’s new advertising platform designed to compete with Google) is a failure. If it weren’t, Semel would be walking on water right now. That’s the real reason why Sue Decker isn’t in the CEO spot right now.
UPDATE: Jerry Yang (Yahoo’s temporary CEO) in his blog post, says that Panama had a “successful launch.” That’s not what I’m hearing from customers who buy lots of ads. It’ll be interesting to see what the next quarter’s numbers are.
Yahoo! will have to hire an advertising exec as CEO? I hope for their sake that they don’t do that. For anyone that’s interested, my take on what they need and why is on my blog @
http://www.psynixis.com/blog/2007/06/19/the-kind-of-ceo-yahoo-needs/
The short answer is: they needs a software person in charge.
Yahoo! will have to hire an advertising exec as CEO? I hope for their sake that they don’t do that. For anyone that’s interested, my take on what they need and why is on my blog @
http://www.psynixis.com/blog/2007/06/19/the-kind-of-ceo-yahoo-needs/
The short answer is: they needs a software person in charge.
What’s the difference between a geek and a developer?
What’s the difference between a geek and a developer?
Apart from the spelling!
Apart from the spelling!
“We spend a healthy 5 figures monthly on Google and Yahoo.”
It’s no wonder I’m developing away from Social networking and towards search. I bet nobody spends 5 digits a month on Friendster and MySpace. SNS is a revenue joke next to search engines. You just have to be HONEST *overture*.
“We spend a healthy 5 figures monthly on Google and Yahoo.”
It’s no wonder I’m developing away from Social networking and towards search. I bet nobody spends 5 digits a month on Friendster and MySpace. SNS is a revenue joke next to search engines. You just have to be HONEST *overture*.
Robert, I think you could have left the title and the photo and left it at that. Why isn’t Sue Decker CEO? Because of the boys-club culture represented by three dudes with big Freudian stogies in their mouths. That’s one take, anyway.
Robert, I think you could have left the title and the photo and left it at that. Why isn’t Sue Decker CEO? Because of the boys-club culture represented by three dudes with big Freudian stogies in their mouths. That’s one take, anyway.
Yes, Robert, Panama is not the answer. Improving the ad creation platform (back-end) does nothing to address the real problem, ad distribution (front-end). Coming at this from a search marketing perspective, there are 2 problems with Y! ad distribution:
1) Too much low quality syndicated traffic
2) Losing search market share to Google
Panama doesn’t address either of those issues. Y! could restore confidence in Yahoo! Search Marketing by simply letting advertisers buy ads solely on search.yahoo.com. A simple fix like that would work wonders.
Yes, Robert, Panama is not the answer. Improving the ad creation platform (back-end) does nothing to address the real problem, ad distribution (front-end). Coming at this from a search marketing perspective, there are 2 problems with Y! ad distribution:
1) Too much low quality syndicated traffic
2) Losing search market share to Google
Panama doesn’t address either of those issues. Y! could restore confidence in Yahoo! Search Marketing by simply letting advertisers buy ads solely on search.yahoo.com. A simple fix like that would work wonders.
Greg: are you sure you’re not Shelley Powers? That’s one answer. Remember, though, that Sue DID get a promotion yesterday to President and that’s after overseeing Panama which hasn’t yet gotten off to a ripping start. If it had then Semel would still have his job too.
Greg: are you sure you’re not Shelley Powers? That’s one answer. Remember, though, that Sue DID get a promotion yesterday to President and that’s after overseeing Panama which hasn’t yet gotten off to a ripping start. If it had then Semel would still have his job too.
Who cares about Yahoo, DTrace is much more interesting
The fact that DTrace is in Leopard (for a developer) is worth the price of admission all by itself. This could be the first ScobleShow I watch all the way through
Who cares about Yahoo, DTrace is much more interesting
The fact that DTrace is in Leopard (for a developer) is worth the price of admission all by itself. This could be the first ScobleShow I watch all the way through
May I suggestTom Glocer.
May I suggestTom Glocer.
After blowing off steam after getting ripped off by Yahoo’s overture division, this may seem a little awkward, BUT. If Yahoo wants to outsource any of the development on future modules. We can do it for them for about a third of what it would cost them in house.
I’m not sorry for complaining though. Millions of people got completely screwed by that class action lawsuit, and Yahoo did next to nothing to compensate it’s own customers, which I was one of.
If Yahoo can put that aside and wants to save investors some hard earned cash, they can contact me at any time.
After blowing off steam after getting ripped off by Yahoo’s overture division, this may seem a little awkward, BUT. If Yahoo wants to outsource any of the development on future modules. We can do it for them for about a third of what it would cost them in house.
I’m not sorry for complaining though. Millions of people got completely screwed by that class action lawsuit, and Yahoo did next to nothing to compensate it’s own customers, which I was one of.
If Yahoo can put that aside and wants to save investors some hard earned cash, they can contact me at any time.
Robert-
The real question is, “why aren’t you the CEO of Yahoo”? I don’t think that’s your aspiration, but, you’d be a good candidate
Robert-
The real question is, “why aren’t you the CEO of Yahoo”? I don’t think that’s your aspiration, but, you’d be a good candidate
Jeremy: that’s funny! But, no, I’d be a horrible CEO.
Jeremy: that’s funny! But, no, I’d be a horrible CEO.
Steve: why would a former lawyer be a good candidate to run Yahoo? I don’t see anything in his past that says he’s a good candidate to run Yahoo. How will he enthuse any of the above three constituencies?
Steve: why would a former lawyer be a good candidate to run Yahoo? I don’t see anything in his past that says he’s a good candidate to run Yahoo. How will he enthuse any of the above three constituencies?
[...] the fairy tale is over. Company co-founder Jerry Yang has taken over the reins as CEO, and Robert Scoble has some thoughts on why Yahoo! president Sue Decker didn’t get the job. Can Yang turn Yahoo! around? Fortune [...]
[...] and resources to them ? so as to keep adsense the only and the leader in web advertising now that Yahoo’s panama hasn’t been a great success [...]
[...] and resources to them ? so as to keep adsense the only and the leader in web advertising now that Yahoo’s panama hasn’t been a great success [...]