Last night I frantically kept on updating my post named Yahoo's CEO, Terry Semel, To Be Replaced By Jerry Yang on Search Engine Land. The news came out in dribs and drabs from several different sources. Soon, it became clear, how the new Yahoo will be organized.
Terry Semel, Yahoo's CEO, has stepped aside to give stockholders and Yahoo users want they want - a new CEO. Yahoo's co-founder, Jerry Yang is taking over the CEO position, with Susan Decker is promoted to President from executive vice president. The statements are now all out and the Techmeme coverage is overwhelming.
Here is a roundup of the larger reports: - Yahoo! Co-Founder Jerry Yang Named Chief Executive Officer is the press release - My new job is Jerry Yang's blog post at the Yodel Anecdotal blog. - Semel Steps Aside as Yahoo CEO from the Wall Street Journal is one of the original places to break the story.
Again, you can see all the coverage at Techmeme.
Danny clarified that Yahoo has no plans to bring in a new CEO. They believe Yang is the man for the job, since he understands Yahoo better than anyone else. I am for that.
My big question is how will this impact you guys, the SEOs and SEMs, in the short and long term. We have Panama, will Yahoo release more features for it soon? We have Yahoo! Search which has not really seen much excitement recently. Will Yahoo now begin to make things happen with both? Don't get me wrong, Panama is a huge undertaking and investment - and they have done a good job with that. But the Yahoo! Search side seems to be lagging behind.
I suspect Yahoo to quickly come out with some technology announcements to back the managerial changes that just happened. Or at least, I would hope Yahoo would back the management changes with technology changes. The question is, in which parts of the company will we see it?
There are many wishes from the SEM community in the forums. Most focused around the YPN product.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Cre8asite Forums, DigitalPoint Forums and Search Engine Watch Forums.
