The Road Ahead for Yahoo…

I had the privilege of spending 2 days at Yahoo’s campus in Sunnyvale with about a dozen different product managers, including those from Yahoo Panama (YSM). The entire event was fantastic and gave those of us attending the advisory board, great insights into where Yahoo is heading. I’m obviously under an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), so this post has been reviewed by Yahoo to ensure that it is in compliance with the agreement - although they have had not editorial control over the opinions.

My Top 5 thoughts:

1. I think Yahoo finally gets it! The Peanut Butter Manifesto has sunk in and they’re rationalizing their business in order to create depth of product offering, and not breadth.
2. Panama’s roadmap is looking impressive and although they were slow out the gate, I think it will become a very close competitor to Google Adwords, with the exception of the volume differences in traffic.
3. Yahoo gets “Web Apps“! Some of the new features and enhancements are moving more and more to browser based apps, and away from desktop ones.
4. Affiliates are a key part of Yahoo’s growth plans for the next few years, across all their properties.
5. I see a sense of empowerment within the organisation that hasn’t been there in the past. The groups we chatted with, gave me the impression that there was more under their control now, then in the past and that the winds of change are blowing which is leading to a more aggressive approach by each individual business unit to go out there and get ahead of the market.

Time will tell, but I think Yahoo is well down a path of recovery from the hiccups it has had with Panama just 6 months ago, amongst others.

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