Comments on: Is Yahoo public enemy No. 1 for Big Media?

By: Ross Bradley

Ross Bradley — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 21:07:57 +0000

If I could make one more “biased” comment? – Thanks.

“Is Yahoo public enemy No. 1 for Big Media?” or, Is Yahoo hearing footsteps????

Yes …. I’d also like to point out that Looksmart have “FIND”-”SAVE”-”SHARE” all over their Vertical Sites ….And in spite of it having a TM (Trade Mark) notification, read on.

http://www.gobelle.com/p/search?free=1&qt=+headlines+The+New+York+Times&x=23&y=6

Whilst it has been said, that “Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, it must also be said …….. but why flatter your competitor? … Copying is the lazy way to avoid the discipline of naming. Be unique. …”

I noticed a post from the SearchEngineWatch blog:

Hey Dude, Yahoo Wants You To Dig It, Tag It, and Share It!

The Yahoo team in Sunnyvale has filed for a new trademark/service mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that hits on tagging and sharing (aka MyWeb 2.0).

What’s the phrase Yahoo wants to register?

+ Dig It. Tag It. Share It.
Serial #: 78720852

Might this be a new Yahoo/MyWeb slogan?

I’m guessing (oh no!) that “dig” means to look, search and hopefully find material of value. If not, using the word “dig” just sounds so cool! (-: Of course, the slogan plays on Yahoo’s FUSE philosophy of finding, using, sharing, and expanding knowlege.

Posted by Gary Price on Oct. 9, 2005 | Permalink

_______________________________

That Looksmart’s CEO David Hills has been using this “FIND it”-”SAVE it” and “SHARE it” theme for months now, is maybe an indication of the fact, that Looksmart are not only being watched by competitors, but also being copied!!!

Yahoo, not satisfied in copying Looksmart’s Furl with Myweb, now they want to clone Looksmart’s signature phrase, it seems??

Great!!

“Is Yahoo public enemy No. 1 for Big Media?” or, Is Yahoo hearing footsteps????

I ask you???

Thanks.

LC

By: Robert Niles

Robert Niles — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 12:55:04 +0000

The Feds make us do it.

By: Ryan Tate

Ryan Tate — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 11:50:11 +0000

It will be interesting to see if Yahoo has the ethics to be a credible media player. From 1999 – 2001 I was a reporter at Upside.com, the online site of now-defunct Upside magazine, covering, among other firms, Yahoo. At the time, the vast majority of our traffic came from Yahoo Finance. We would write about public tech companies, and our stories would be associated with the ticker symbol for each company.

I was writing about Napster, digital entertainment, and large portals like Yahoo. I noticed Yahoo was receiving scant coverage on Yahoo Finance so I began to write about them more often. Some of these reports were fairly critical. Here’s just one — http://ryantate.com/clips/upside/yahoo_numbers-jul_13_2001.htm — raising skepticism about a plan to focus on premium services rather than online advertising and skepticism that Yahoo could prosper even as its core advertising was deteriorating and traffic growth had halted thanks to folks like Google who remained focused on search.

Anyway, as I was writing these mildly hard hitting stories on Yahoo, on more the one occaision, someone from the business side of the building would come over and say, “I really liked your Yahoo story, but I think it got under their skin. I am not supposed to say this to you, but the last time we talked to them they said, ‘Do not bite the hand that feeds you.’”

The ‘bite the hand’ quote I remember verbatim, and it was repeated often in the newsroom as a kind of joke. Of course, this is second or third hand information — I never heard such words from Yahoo directly. When our contract with Yahoo came up, it became considerably more expensive to plug our news into Yahoo Finance, but that may say more about what a sweetheart deal we had originally than about any retaliation.

By the way, it is pretty fascist of USC to require my birthday before allowing me to post.

By: Mark Feffer

Mark Feffer — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 06:19:36 +0000

Despite the huge influx of talent, I have to admit it’s hard for me to take Yahoo as seriously as I might as a news enterprise as long as it ducks behind it’s “Let China be China” arguments in the case of the jailed journalist Shi Tao. I don’t even recall seeing much of a protest from Yahoo over the matter. As good as it is, Yahoo’s news organization may be in the same position as, say, ABC News – a good group of journalists often forced to compromise because of wider corporate concerns.

By: Chip Von Gunten

Chip Von Gunten — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 18:43:45 +0000

Looks like Yahoo will be enabling the average joe to “get off the grid” of current news service. Thank you! I am so tired of reading “what we’re supposed to know.”

By: Ross Bradley

Ross Bradley — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 16:33:09 +0000

From Jeromy Verba’s comment:

< So just as Yahoo has used, and continues to use, traditional media to create a better, all-encompassing experience, so too should print et al use Yahoo to augment their experience to retain customers (and dare say, even attract new ones!). >

Maybe even, they (“print et al”) could do even better and “share” among themselves!!! Along with a DAILY (relevant) “combined” news source passed on to selected (many) partner Verticals with all/any articles contributed, having a Link back (from an article), to that contributor’s site!!

Now THAT could help attract new customers!! I’m sure.

“Bloomberg Cites ‘Specific Threat’ to N.Y. Subways”

http://www.nytimes.com/

http://www.looksmartparents.com/p/search?free=1&qt=threat+to+new+york+subways&x=16&y=7

So, in time, even your favourite Looksmart Vertical could very well have a selection of “up to the moment”, relevant news, sourced from the likes of The NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, BLOOMBERG and REUTERS,…. Maybe even The New York Post ???

LC

By: Jeremy Verba

Jeremy Verba — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 14:12:08 +0000

Media consumption is not necessarily a zero-sum game.
Why don’t the print media figure out what they do better than Yahoo (or for that matter, what they do that Yahoo can’t do! – such as on a daily basis, deliver something to someone’s front door!), and use what Yahoo is doing (i.e. Kevin Sites) to augment their product?
There are enough consumers out there that love the feel and user interface of a newspaper who continue to subscribe and/or buy the product on a daily basis. If traditional media play Yahoo’s game, they likely lose (although there are exceptions such as bbc.co.uk!). So just as Yahoo has used, and continues to use, traditional media to create a better, all-encompassing experience, so too should print et al use Yahoo to augment their experience to retain customers (and dare say, even attract new ones!).

By: Mark Glaser

Mark Glaser — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 12:46:58 +0000

After deadline, I got this quote from Charlie Tillinghast, president of MSNBC.com, on the subject of Yahoo being a friend or foe of Big Media:

“I think that news sites that have distribution deals with Yahoo are in a pact with the devil. It’s like Boeing contracting the production of plane wings to China to gain access to that market. The next thing you know, the Chinese will be building their own commercial jets and competing directly with Boeing. Yahoo depends on their news partners to attract users TODAY, but they won’t necessarily need them in the future. When that day comes, Yahoo’s partners will be marginalized as news sites.

Of course Yahoo won’t admit that, it’s not in their interest to do so. The whole issue is quite intriguing.”