Matt Cutts, the currently on leave head of Google's search spam team, posted on Google+ last night about a rosebush he planted a few years ago with his wife in his yard. He said it is the Yahoo rosebush and then went on to talk proudly of Yahoo's new leadership and success since Marissa Mayer took over as CEO, after leaving Google's executive team a few years ago.
Here is Matt's post:
A few years ago my wife and I got a rosebush that I considered to be a "Yahoo" rosebush. It was some sort of hybrid that had yellow and purple flowers, which are the Yahoo colors. The purple blooms have faded away, but the yellow flowers are flourishing. I'm happy to see Yahoo flourishing in several ways too, from redoing their search contract with Microsoft to sponsoring the show Community. I'm all for more competition in the Internet space, and I think Marissa Mayer is doing a great job at Yahoo to foster that competition.
SEOs and webmasters and the whole industry is reading into it.
(1) Is this Matt Cutts hinting that he will be leaving Google and working at Yahoo soon?
(2) Is it just one of many of his flower posts, he shares mostly a "Sunday Flowers" post, I believe.
(3) Is this just him being proud of a former Googlers efforts at turning Yahoo around?
(4) Is this just him really enjoying more competition?
Could be yes to all, but the big question is number one. Is he hinting that he will be working at Yahoo in the near future? He has not responded to any of the questions on Google+ about that. I doubt he will.
Personally, I would not think he would go work for Yahoo. I mean, maybe Marissa came to Matt and said, here, go ahead and make a Yahoo search engine from scratch. The challenge, I am sure, would be compelling for Matt. But the question is, does he want that challenge or does he want other challenges?
I know he has huge respect for Marissa Mayer. I know he is coming up on his one year sabbatical mark. I suspect he has to make a decision about if he will stay on at Google or not. Who knows... I suspect Marissa made the offer and Matt is strongly considering it or maybe this is just wishful thinking - either way, I think it would be amazing if Yahoo did build out their own search engine again. I do wonder if Matt would be allowed to work for Yahoo doing search, if he has a non-compete, if he finds it ethical, etc.
There is now a lot of speculation around why Matt posted this. Like anything Matt writes, the community - including myself - read deep into it.
Forum discussion at Google+.
