Tag Archives: Yahoo!

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A Public Fan Letter to Marissa Mayer: Keep Fighting. Don’t Give Up.

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Marissa Mayer Yahoo CEO

Photo Credit: TechCrunch

Dear Marissa,

Navy Seals say, “the only easy day was yesterday.”

I can’t imagine what you feel as negative press swirls around you during your CEO tenure at Yahoo!. From an outsider’s perspective, it seems like you’ve been under personal siege since the summer of 2012 when you accepted Yahoo!’s top job. Tomorrow, a well-publicized book will be released about you. I’ve pre-ordered it to review and draw my own conclusions.

But, I don’t have to read the book to conclude how “tearing down Marissa Mayer” exploded into a schadenfreude, spectator sport.

I’m not a Yahoo! stockholder, but I cheer and root for you. Everyday. (more…)

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Sunday Brunch Reads with Social Media ReInvention: 12/14/14 to 12/20/14

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Sunday Brunch Newspaper

Photo Credit: Anton Diaz 

 

My apologies to subscribers who received this post before it was completed. I’m experimenting with an offline blog editor, and I accidently published my working draft. Thanks for your patience as I continue stumbling my way around a dark room before finding the light switch.

Here are your Sunday Brunch Reads. Enjoy your brunch!

 

1. Forbes.com: Four Secrets from a Super Power Connector. Judy Robinett published an important book this past year titled: How to Be a Power Connector — The 5 + 50 + 100 Rule for Turning Your Business Network Into Profits. I downloaded this book to my Kindle as an professional development investment. I want to learn and improve how I can deliver more value to my vast and growing LinkedIn network. Judy’s premise: the more value you deliver to others in solving their problems, the more value you build for yourself — Give Before You Ask.

Here’s a direct quote from the Forbes article (aka Secret #1): 

The Theory: “My network/superconnect theory begins with the idea that all the tough problems are solved with networking—lack of key critical resources; money, connections, knowledge all are attached to people orbiting specific ecosystems.”

 

2. <re/Code>: A Doc in Your Pocket: Doctor on Demand Gets Smarter by Katherine (Katie) Boehert: This insightful article may be the future of primary care medicine, psychotherapy, and psychiatry. It takes telemedicine to a different level by providing the visual component via your desktop or tablet. It makes scheduling a video visit with a real, board-certified physician or PhD easy. Katie described her experience and conducted the appointment from the convenience of her office.

Think about this for a moment. The real estate, time, and physician office investment implications are disruptive:

  • No waiting rooms
  • No inconvenience of finding a place to park your car
  • No office space 
  • No time implications in leaving work or your with driving to and from the doctor’s office
  • No physician office staff

Check out Katie’s video and article describing her experience with Doctor on Demand: 

 

3.  NYTimes.com: What Happened When Marissa Mayer Tried to Be Steve Jobs. Nicholas Carlson’s book, Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!, will be published in January 2015. Carlson’s article doesn’t paint an enviable picture of Marissa Mayer’s CEO tenure. His piece describes several rookie CEO mistakes:

  • Lack of a strategic focus
  • Inability to delegate
  • A misunderstanding of the media business versus the technology business
  • Poor senior leadership selection for key executive positions 

I’m not a Yahoo shareholder, but I root for Marissa Mayer everyday. She showed HUGE guts to accept Yahoo’s CEO job more than two years ago. She’s always under the microscope and high profile. And, I want her to succeed. I want our daughters and nieces to see more female CEOs not only in the Fortune 500 but also in Silicon Valley. I want our daughters and nieces to see smart and talented women like this:

 

Did You Enjoy This Post?

If yes, please share it with your friends and subscribe to my blog. Many Thanks!

 

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He thinks and writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy in his personal blog, Social Media ReInvention. Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.

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R.I.P. Blackberry: A Cautionary Tale for Microsoft

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Blackberry RIP

My Old Blackberry. May It RIP.

I just finished reading this great article: Bloomberg Businessweek, The Rise and Fall of BlackBerry: An Oral History.  

The article recounts how a once-dominant technology company of the past decade is no longer a relevant player. Blackberry's 1997 IPO to its 2008 stock market peak are highlighted.

After 2008, the iPhone, iPad, and Android OS systematically put Blackberry out of business. A series of anecdotes from former executives, journalists, and others recounts Blackberry's demise due to management missteps, hubris, and self-denial.

Microsoft, Are YOU Paying Attention?  What's scary is how Blackberry's key mistakes closely parallel the same ones made by Microsoft and Steve Ballmer (which eventually cost him his job).  

 

 

 

Here are key quotes from the Bloomberg Businessweek article compared to other quotes (from other sources) paralleling the ongoing Microsoft saga:

Pattern 1: Apple and the iPhone are neither a relevant mobile player nor are they a legitimate competitive threat.

(Blackberry) In June 2007, the first iPhone hits the stores. Far from recognizing the potential threat to BlackBerry’s dominance, Lazaridis and Balsillie (e.g., RIM's Senior Leaders) publicly belittle Apple’s device, criticizing its short battery life and weaker security.

(Blackberry) Chris Key (global account manager and carrier sales and relationship manager, 2001-09): "I remember being at a [customer] meeting and the CIO was carrying an iPhone. I found out that a lot of senior executives … were carrying iPhones. That was a big red flag for me. The attitude for most of the people in the senior leadership at BlackBerry was, “The BlackBerry solution is secure. It’ll lock down company data. It’ll allow the organization to maintain complete control over the business use of the device. IPhone is a music player and a consumer toy.”

(Microsoft and Steve Ballmer) “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item.”

Pattern 2: The Corporate / Enterprise Market is the only relevant market (which shields Blackberry from Apple's and Google Android's consumer penetration).

(Blackberry) Kevin Michaluk (founder of CrackBerry.com, a news site): BlackBerry was a darling of enterprise. If you had a BlackBerry you were an important person, as at that time a lot of people didn’t have a smartphone. It was almost a status symbol within the company. It was the most intuitive communication device. With that blinking red light, it had that addictive quality.

(Blackberry) Gillenwater: If BlackBerry was going to be serious about consumers, they needed to make a fundamental shift in the way products were thought about, created, iterated, marketed, and sold. This was done but never to the extent necessary. It was always a partial effort. There was a period of time when this could have been corrected, but when it became apparent that HQ and senior leadership were not addressing systemic issues, people like myself left.

(Microsoft and Steve Ballmer) “$500, fully subsidized, with a plan! That is the most expensive phone in the world and it doesn’t appeal to business customers, because it doesn’t have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine.”

Microsoft Better Find Its Next CEO Fast

Don't get me started on how both Blackberry and Microsoft / Steve Ballmer missed the tablet market and underestimated Apple's and Google Android's dominance.  Remember, the Blackberry Playbook? It's a distant memory because nobody wanted it.

Remember the vaunted Microsoft Surface Tablet?  That's latin for $900 million write-down.

Microsoft says it's active CEO search continues.   Too bad, this former Googler accepted Yahoo's CEO job a year ago.  Because, Marissa Mayer's kickin' ass …

 

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy for organizations and individuals in his marketing strategy blog, Social Media ReInvention.  Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+. 

 

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An Open Letter to Yahoo: Please Do Not Shut Down Delicious.com

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Please Sign 

Dear Yahoo,

This morning, I read this December 16th article from Tech Cruch that implies you are planning to shut down your social bookmarking service, Delicious.com.  Based on my quick scan of the approximately 600 news article or related blog posts headlines, it appears you may not shut down this highly valuable service.

I've used Delicious.com exclusively as my social bookmarking service for the past three (3) years.  I know there are many other social bookmarking networks choices available, but I've stuck with Delicious.com for the following reasons:

* It's so easy and convenient to use.  It's the epitome of user-friendliness.

* I learn so much from the members I follow within this community regarding topics I'm extremely passionate about such as social media, inbound marketing, and digital marketing.

* I've personally invested significant time in curating selected content on your site so I can easily refer to it in the future.  As an example, I have saved 1,590 bookmarks on Delicious.com, and all of these bookmarks are referenced for future blog post ideas or represent content I've saved as part of my own continuous education in social media and digital marketing.

I personally understand the corporate rationale why Yahoo may no longer believe Delicious.com is a viable investment. 

However, I hope you will fully take into account the personal impact your decision will have on tens of thousands (I'm sure even higher) of loyal users who have not only benefitted from this community but have also promoted it personally to many others.

If you decide to shut down Delicious.com, please give your loyal members ample time to export our content to another social bookmarking community.  Please publicly release a statement confirming and defining when Delicious.com will be closed down. 

And most importantly if you ultimately decide to shut down Delicious.com, please suggest the necessary steps your loyal community should undertake to preserve the self-selected content we've invested significant time to curate on your site.

My sincere thanks,

Tony Faustino
Author, Social Media ReInvention Blog

Photo Credit: By bixentro Via Flickr

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Irony? Microsoft Thinks Google Undermines Competition …

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Kick MeMicrosoft Says Google Acts Raise Antitrust Issues.  When I read this Reuters News headline, I honestly thought it was a prank of some kind.  But guess what, it's no joke. 

Isn't this incredibly ironic?  Remember when it was Netscape and Sun Microsystems who made their case to federal regulators about Microsoft's anti-competitive practices? 

Apparently, Dave Heiner (Microsoft's Deputy General Counsel) published a blog post on the company website titled, Competition Authorities and Search.  Heiner's post says (among many other things) if you're concerned with antitrust concerns with Google, "we suggest firms talk to the competition law agencies (complaining to Microsoft won't do much good)."

Not surprisingly, a significant portion of the blog post talks about Google's market leadership position in search.  Microsoft's Bing recently combined forces with Yahoo, and they want their combined search offering to gain greater market share. 

The following text (in italics) is from the "Competition Authorities and Search" blog post: 

Both search and online advertising are increasingly controlled by a single firm, Google. That can be a problem because Google’s business is helped along by significant network effects (just like the PC operating system business).  Search engine algorithms learn by observing how users interact with search results.  Google’s algorithms learn less common search terms better than others because many more people are conducting searches on these terms on Google.

These and other network effects make it hard for competing search engines to catch up. Microsoft’s well-received Bing search engine is addressing this challenge by offering innovations in areas that are less dependent on volume.  But Bing needs to gain volume too, in order to increase the relevance of search results for less common search terms.  That is why Microsoft and Yahoo! are combining their search volumes.  And that is why we are concerned about Google business practices that tend to lock in publishers and advertisers and make it harder for Microsoft to gain search volume.

Can you actually believe that big and powerful Microsoft is trying to make a case that poor little Bing needs a more level playing field?  Who would have thunk it? 

I'm looking forward to seeing how Microsoft and Google battle it out in the next 10 years in not only search but also other services (i.e., packaged software vs. cloud computing, Internet Explorer vs. Google Chrome, and the mobile wars).  Why? This fiercely growing rivalry will tremendously benefit the global consumer with better technology choices that will continue to reshape and impact our professional and personal lives.

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Google Real Time Search: Five Observations on the Strategic Implications for Search Domination

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Chess Last week, Google announced real time search and additional innovations to it core search offering.  These announcements received significant media coverage, and I find the various viewpoints highly interesting.  After reviewing a variety of publicly available sources, I've summarized my observations and opinions on the strategic implications for Google and the battlefield for search dominance.

Observation #1 - Real Time Search is a First Step in Addressing the Threat of Vertical Search Via Social Networks 

I recently wrote a blog post about this challenge in Charlie Rose's Conversation with Ken Auletta: Innovation, Efficiency, and Future Challenges at Google.  The partnerships with Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace enable Google to include updates from the Big 3 social networking sites into its search index.  Previously, it took a few minutes for updates from social networks and blogs to filter into Google's search results (not the case anymore).  By offering real-time social networking updates in a Google Search, they're decreasing the threat of users using these sites to conduct searches (particularly Twitter Search).  Which leads us to search relevancy …

Sources: New York Times – Google Add Live Updates to Results

Observation #2 – A Killer Combination: Real Time Search with Google's Search Relevancy

According to the New York Times article, Biz Stone (one of Twitter's co-founders) think Google is better at providing relevancy to a search user's questions.  In addition, TechCrunch hammers home how relevancy is a major strength of Google searches.  MG Siegler, the author of the TechCrunch article made some great points:

* "Relevancy is perhaps the key to making real-time search a pillar of the web."

*How Google Fellow Amit Singhal positioned Google's relevancy advantage: "It's Google relevancy technology meeting the realtime web."

In Adam Ostrow's Mashable article, the partnerships with Twitter and Facebook are a concession by these companies that they can't outbuild (or outspend) Google when it comes to search.  Just ask Carol Bartz, the CEO of Yahoo …

Sources: Mashable – Google Launches Real-Time Search, New York Times – Google Add Live Updates to Results, Tech Crunch – Google Aims to Push the Speed of Light with Realtime Results. Seriously.,  New York Times – Out of the Search Business, Yahoo Shifts Its Focus

Observation #3 – Google Continues Expanding Search to the Mobile Space

Christina Warren (another of my favorite Mashable writers) made some intresting observations about the implications for Google's competitors:

* Microsoft's Bing: They're now going after a moving target because Google will continue to innovate in search.

* Yahoo: Even though it's has more market share than Bing, Yahoo is conceding real-time search to Google and Bing.  Search isn't a focus for them.  Their niche is as a service provider.

In addition, The Wall Street Journal points out that Bing has gained market share and credibility in search.  Naturally, Google is going to protect its core business.  These announcements show Google is still on the cutting edge of innovation and will continue to introduce new advancements.  

Therefore, it's not surprising that these advancements focus on the mobile space:

*  Google Goggles: Allows users to pull up information about a landmark or product by taking a picture from their cellphones.  This service is currently only available on cellphones running Google' Android OS.  According to Vic Gundotra, a Google VP of Engineering, the end goal is to "visually identify any image over time,  merely by pointing a mobile device to it."

* Google Voice Search | Google Translation: Allows users to conduct search based queries by speaking into your phone (supports Mandarin, Japanese, and English).  When you speak into your phone in English, your query can be auto translated into another lanaguage (i.e., Spanish) and the query can can be spoken back to you out loud — your phone becomes a Universal Translator.

* Google Local Search / Location-Based Search: Allows users to get information about locations and user ratings of nearby restaurants and shops.  It will also provide "contextualized" suggestions relevant to the current location you're in.

Sources: Fast Company – Google Unveils Real Time Search, Translation, Image Searching, Goggles…Awkwardly, Forbes – Google Conquers Time, Mashable – What Real-Time Means for Google's Competitors, The Wall Street Journal – Google Rolls Out New Tools as it Battles Rival

Observation #4 – Personalizing Search is Going to be a Major Factor in Establishing Search Dominance

Silicon Alley Insider highlighted what Google considers The Four (4) Biggest Challenges in the Future of Search:

* Challenge 1: Modes – how and where people type in a search query
* Challenge 2: Media – how people manage and consume content
* Challenge 3: Language – how to help people conduct searches without communication barriers
* Challenge 4: Personalization – enable customized searches re: tastes, preferences, and locations

ComputerWorld emphasized the importance of Challenge 4 in the search rivalry between Google and Microsoft.  Search is becoming more indvidualized and that includes finding relevant and applicable content from images, video, tweets, and blog posts.  According to Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, search is "looking more like the dynamic lives of its users" because:

* Search is becoming more personal and granular
* Search results are now drilling down to include a single people's observations or opinions (whether you're famous or not)

Sources: ComputerWorld – Google, Microsoft's 'War of Innovation' Changing Face of Search, Silicon Alley Insider – Google Shows Off New Search Features to Top Bing

Observation #5 – These Innovations Bolster Google's Competitive Advantages in Advertising and Cloud Computing

Real-time search and the mobile innovations naturally support Google's vision towards cloud computing.  Google wants users to spend more time on the Internet searching for information (specifically with their search engine and subsequently looking at more of their ads).  By performing more Google searches, we'll provide more information on our online behaviors.  This data gives Google the advantage in delivering more appropriate advertisements (and that increases the value of the ads it auctions).

Sources: Forbes – Google Conquers Time