Yahoo 100 Days and… We’re at 98!

98 days and counting. Just two to go. I doubted Yahoo’s hundred day plan on day two. Over the weekend I linked to two posts that further compounded my doubts. If we get a plan I still suspect it will be very 1.0 and not 2.0 focused. Why? It’s in the language.

Yahoo Marketing Chief Escapes (We don’t know why although it appears it was not expected) Copy of the email. Talks about direct marketing and metrics. Doesn’t tell me about user stories.
Shaken Sue Decker Shakes up Marketing Email content with the link; elements quoted below:

We will now take this opportunity to move a number of functions to
support our consumer “Starting Point” big bet and initiate a more
dedicated focus of insights as part of our core Yahoo strategy.

Two phrase elements bothered me in this quote. “Consumer Starting Point” and “insights”. Yahoo doesn’t or shouldn’t have consumers…. we don’t consume we use, we play, we do, we converse. “Consumer” smacks of consumer product companies and has no place in thinking about Yahoo strategy for the future. Consumer was invented by CPG companies because they weren’t connected with the customers of their products.

Insights; suggests study, metrics etc. All which are important. However just talking to users and engaging them in the conversation would connect Yahoo more effectively with stories that determine their success. Where are these conversations? Does Yahoo have a clear social media strategy? I feel like they were experimenting and then stopped (Eg I used to get Yahoo Messenger updates when writing on Skype).

While not in the quote the other element that bothers me is “media”. Yahoo continues to see themselves as a media company. I think that may be a dead long-term idea.

If Yahoo thought about itself as the conversation company and users rather than consumers it would stop trying to push stuff at me and become immediately more engaging. It won’t change all they need to fix. It might help involve me in helping them where to go.

Dell’s Hell is now Yahoo Hell. The shame is Yahoo already has a lot of the tools in place. I think the language they are using is limiting their strategy. I guess I’ll give them two more days….

I know I am not alone following this story:

• Still no cure for what ails Yahoo | CNET News.com
• Hey Yahoo - Knock, knock. Is anyone home? - Unified Communications
• BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Poor Yahoo
• Yahoo Still Struggling to Please Shareholders