I was surprised to see the report in the Seattle Post Intelligencer that quoted Yahoo, Chief Financial Officer, Susan Decker saying:
"It's not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search."
Some may take this quote out of context and think Yahoo is no longer focusing on beating Google at search relevance. I would agree it does look that way at first glance however, maybe there is another search market Yahoo is planning to tap into therefore they have another goal in mind. If you take into account the recent acquisitions by Yahoo which include:
There is a definite community or social theme residing in these acquisitions. Not to mention last week there was a buzz of speculation that Yahoo could acquire blog search engine Technorati among others based on a report in Red Herring. So in reading Decker's remarks I am not going to abandon ship on Yahoo Search as some, like Steve Rubel, are so inclined. Instead Yahoo might have another direction planned for its search offering that incorporates a social or community angle to search the opinions of the masses and the blogosphere. I do not believe a company like Yahoo would just lay down and let Google win in search without some sort of backup plan or alternate direction.
For other perspectives on Yahoo's search goal check out these posts on Blogspotting, The Unofficial Yahoo Blog, Weblogsky, Niall Kennedy's Weblog and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim.
