Yahoo CFO Tim Morse, led the quarterly earnings call this week since CEO Carol Bartz was ill. Bartz could perhaps have handled the call with more aplomb, but Morse did draw from her trademark speech style by using an analogy of Bartz’s to describe Yahoo’s improved way of working around around search:
The next revolution isn’t with the algorithms that provide results, it’s in creating a better, more personally relevant search experience. This is where we’ll differentiate ourselves and compete vigorously without the billions required to keep up in the arms race that generating search results has become.
Let me give you an analogy that Carol has been using to explain this point. Consider basic search to be an Intel chip. An Intel chip is used in Dells, HPs and Macs to provide the computation needed to operate them but the differentiation between these products isn’t at the chip level, it’s in the different user experiences that are provided on top of them. It’s the same for us in search. We’ll innovate on top of the results that are provided to us by Microsoft.
Unfortunately that seemed to be the only part of the call that was flawlessly delivered – left to his own devices Morse stumbled repeatedly and appeared to dodge questions. Bartz is definitely the better public speaker
Meanwhile, at the San Fransisco Web2.0 event, Google co-founder Sergey Brin dropped in and talked about Yahoo’s new role as Microsoft’s sidekick to interviewer John Battelle:
JB: Do you like Bing? You a Bing users?
SB: I use all search engines out there. Bing reminds us that search is a competitive market. There’s Powerset that Microsoft bought. There’s Cuil. There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on. It’s a shame Yahoo is abdicating.
JB: They would say they’re not.
SB: Sorry that was my impression.
JB: Do you have a comment on Microsoft/Yahoo search deal?
SB: I shouldn’t comment on that. But Yahoo had some interesting things, they should stick with it.
The Dow-Jones reported that Brin commented despite Google’s near dominance of the Internet search advertising market, he believes there is healthy competition. However, Brin did express disappointment that Yahoo, is decreasing its commitment search research and development in favor of teh deal with Mcrosoft.
“I think there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on,” Brin said at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco. “I think it’s a shame that Yahoo has abdicated that area. Yahoo had a number of interesting innovations there and I wish they could have remained in search.”
He added that Google has been reminded that search is a “competitive market,” thanks to Microsoft’s newly-launched search engine, Bing.
Brin also exressed an optimistic outlook for the value of Internet advertising, display advertising in particular, stating that the efficiency of the medium was significant compared other types of advertising.
As a side note, Brin claimed to be “surprised” at the opposition to Google Book Search.
Will Yahoo come up with new search options? Or will they simply take a back seat to Google and Microsoft?