How I would Fix Yahoo

April 22nd, 2006 by Michael Gray in Random Thoughts, Yahoo

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Read my top posts or learn more about Michael Gray. Want more frequent updates follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!

I was reading SEOMoz The New Yahoo! Home Page - Why isn’t this News? and am still feeling the halo effect of Gladwell’s keynote at pubcon. I actually started to post this in the comments, but it got to long and wordy so decided to post it here (sorry Rand).

I like Yahoo, I like a lot of the products they offer, I like the tools they make, and I like that they play much nicer with web publishers. However Yahoo is missing something, they don’t have an evangelist, they don’t have a maven who’s working the interweb, and blogorama bringing the Yahoo goodness to the masses. Don’t get me wrong Jeremy (who wore the same “I’m not Matt Cutts” t-shirt I did to pubcon) is doing his thing, and this isn’t a dig against him. I actually like that he’s critical of Yahoo from time to time. However there’s no one out there shamelessly self promoting what Yahoo is offering to the publishers, the users, the bloggers, the digg-nation, the netizens and most importantly the digerati. In short Yahoo is missing a missionary who sincerely believes in Yahoo what they are offering, and how it will make the web a better place. Here are some examples of what I would do if I were Yahoo:

  • Show local businesses how they can use Yahoo local, show them how to get customers to submit reviews, show them how they can integrate Yahoo Maps. Show them how integrating Yahoo offerings adds value to their website and company.
  • Push Flickr into the mainstream, sure you and I know what flickr is but how about your neighbor or your grandma, find a way to get it in front of them, maybe offer a bounty for referrals, for people who sign up new pro accounts.
  • Del.icio.us ok don’t you dare screw this one up, it has got to be one of my favorite things you own. It took me a while to “get it” though, you need to work on a way to get it outside of the geek set. How about tieing in with a TV show or movie. Get people tagging clues from CSI or something, then at the end of the season open up a contest and have people solve a mystery or puzzle with things they’ve tagged from the show. What you are really doing is teaching people how to use the tool, and how helpful it can be.
  • Yahoo 360 how about you bring some cool people into the community. Some marquee name athletes or summer movie blockbuster celebs. Have them post to their Yahoo 360 blog and connect with other people.
  • Get a team of people who develop and release code that lets you do cool new stuff to integrate Yahoo offerings into people’s web pages and blogs. It doesn’t matter if they integrate it into your platform or not, just get the message out that “hey Yahoo has some cool stuff and look what you can do with it”

C’mon Yahoo it’s not to late to step up to the plate and do what’s got to be done.

Related Posts
Sphere It

Text Link Ads


3 Responses to “How I would Fix Yahoo”

  1. Dave Starr Says:
    April 22nd, 2006 at 4:19 pm

    Have to agree with all your recommendations on fixing Yahoo!. In particular, as the owner of a small busiess .. which might or might not be listed in Yahoo Local, I feel they are missing out big time. It’s easier to crack the password on most servers than it is to get through their log on processes, and after one does get listed there seems to be no advantage. And if abusiness moves? Good luck on getting the address updated.

    The other tremendous boner Y! is currently pulling is the ruale sof engagement and customer support for YPN. I make money each and every day from Adsense. I signed up to be a YPN publisher as well .. why am I not? Pushy, talk-down phone bank people at Y! and the responsibility of the pyblisher restricting clicks from overseas … in my tiny blog more thna half my readership is outside the US. According to Y!, it is _I_ who must control this, rather than them auditing clicks and throwing out what they don’t want. Totally missing the mark as to what the web is about. They are currently Adsens’s best friend … perhaps Boogle pasy them a comission?

  2. bee Says:
    April 24th, 2006 at 1:25 pm

    I’m going to http://www.yahoo.com and i’m not seeing the screen shot I see on seomoz’s page. Is that the yahoo home page you are talking about?

  3. Administrator Says:
    April 24th, 2006 at 1:34 pm

    It’s an IE only thing