Yahoo on a revamp trail

Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s co-founder and CEO, is a busy man these days. Entrusted with the task of getting the glory days back at Yahoo, Yang is leaving no stone unturned to revamp the company so that it is better placed to confront competition from stalwarts like Google.

According to comScore, 136 million persons visit various Yahoo Web sites in the US every month, making it the most popular search engine. However, when it comes to internet search, Google is giving Yahoo a tough time in the middle. “We want to dramatically improve our performance,” Mr. Yang said, while describing his turnaround plans for the company. He adds, “I am very well aware of the significant challenges we face.”

His turnaround plans seems more realistic with the prototype version of Yahoo’s email software that has now been transformed into a powerful communications hub. This new software could tap into any network’s portal to give higher priority to messages coming from senders. Also, the new email can locate restaurants mentioned in the email and when dragged onto Yahoo Maps icon, it would further pinpoint the restaurant’s location, and finally, sent a dinner invitation to all. Apart from this, Yahoo also plans to overhaul other services and open them to the rest of the Web, making Yahoo a primary online ‘starting point’ for users.

Though Yahoo’s revamp efforts are appreciable, there are many challenges that are left unattended. The company has to revitalise its advertisemnet business considering the fact that players like Google and Microsoft are already making a serious effort to capture the internet advertisement pie. Even in the personalisation space, Google has launched its personalised home page service called iGoogle as a rival to MyYahoo. Well, with investors getting restless and competition getting on to the top, Yahoo is finally embracing the change. But considering the speed with which competition is adapting itself, one wonders if Jerry Yang is too late to response to the market dynamics.