Yahoo has hosted a press event called SearchSpeak trying to convince everyone that they are definitely not out of the search game, due to the many rumours that Yahoo was no longer investing in search and would from here on out be a minor player, concentrating on news. Search Products SVP Shashi Seth was all set to give his presentation but right away the power in the room went out, leading some to comment that Yahoo’s trouble with search wasn’t their only problem!
Seth started his presentation anyway, talking about how Yahoo was NOT going to give up on search, and commenting on CEO Carol Bartz’ recent comments to the press and in conference calls about Yahoo’s future. Bartz has been speaking out about the mistakes Yahoo has made and insisting that the end is nowhere in sight for the company when it comes to search.
Seth continued, saying he would never have committed to coming to Yahoo a month and a half ago if the company wasn’t committed to search. He also said there was a great team at Yahoo.
The power came back on and he showed his slides, admitting that there’s still a lot to be done as per user experience and front end innovation – Yahoo is having to revamp their approach. Seth also mentioned Yahoo’s role in Asia as well as their presence in the global mobile field.
Prabhakar Raghavan, SVP of Yahoo Labs/Search Strategy commented next on how Yahoo feels that people don’t care about the index size anymore; they care about the right information or “answer,” basing this realization on the fact that 99 percent of search queries on Yahoo “have a noun” in them. People are searching for real information about real things, not ‘objects’ (documents), and they want it in real time. This would tie in with Yahoo’s heavy news feel to a lot of their content. Raghavan also pointed out that Yahoo’s search expertise is recognized, stating that the three top texts about search are by Yahoo scientists and that Yahoo also has won top prizes (papers) at all the 2009 and 2010 data mining conferences so far.
Larry Cornett, the VP of Consumer Products pointed out that Yahoo is still rolling out Search based apps and products, including Search Assist, Search Pad, breaking news/Twitter and multimedia search, and offered some glimpses into upcoming tools. He showed “search a sketch,” which will be a mobile search tool allowing users to draw out a custom area on a smartphone map and search within that area. He said that Yahoo wants to provide a more customized experience for mobile users instead of just copying and shrinking the PC presentation.
According to Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land, the Q&A portion revealed more information:
Candidly Seth acknowledged the search share losses that comScore and Hitwise have reported. He attributed some of those losses to toolbar and default search deals that Yahoo no longer had or that others had aggressively grabbed away.
I asked, “many in this audience want Yahoo to be competitive and succeed but remain skeptical that you can.” Larry Cornett responded that he was at Apple during the “dark time” before the return of Steve Jobs, when critics were calling for the company to shut down. He likened the media perceptions of Yahoo Search now to that period in Apple’s history and promised that Yahoo Search would “be back.” He added that many of Yahoo’s innovations were being freely copied by its competitors but in more superficial ways.
Greg also mentioned that Yoelle Maarek, new Senior Director at Yahoo Research in Israel and previously at Google, told him that there was greater openness and “humility” at Yahoo and that she greatly respected the Yahoo Research team.
Will Yahoo make a search comeback? They certain seem poised to do so.