Although Yahoo (formerly Yahoo!) still exists as a search engine, its popularity has become very limited over time. However, we are seeing increasing signs of a search engine comeback.
In the online search market, Google still dominates by far. Behind it, a myriad of other, more confidential search engines, such as Yahoo. This one, however, lived through its heyday until a good ten years ago (already!). More and more tracks collected by search engine land tell us that Yahoo could soon return to the front of the stage.
A job ad posted by Yahoo
The first clue is none other than a job offer for the position of ” Senior Product Manager, Yahoo Search“. It was published a few weeks ago and says:We are looking for a Search Product Manager at Yahoo. We’re looking for people who want to go beyond the status quo to change the way people use and interact with search.»
This product manager will have the daunting task of developing a research roadmap and leading the teams. Yahoo adds this:You will determine what is prioritized for our customers in our search experiences.“. The company’s general manager and vice president, Brian Provost, re-shared the announcement on LinkedIn and, to him, “there will be so many innovations in research in the next few years and there are not many places where it can have such a big impact right away».
An experienced CEO at the helm of Yahoo
What is especially remarkablesearch engine landIt is that the CEO of Yahoo, Jim Lanzone, who came to lead the company in September 2021, has an interesting history. He worked there at Ask.com for seven years, rising to the role of CEO in 2006. During those few years, he was able to bring several innovations to the service in terms of search. He was also the CEO of CBS Interactive and later of Tinder.
Greg, I think you and Barry know: there are always new ways to get around the mountain. There’s no reason to go straight to that. But we’re excited to start exploring again… and we’ll be patient to figure it all out.
—Jim Lanzone (@jlanzone) January 31, 2023
Jim Lanzone seems confident in Yahoo’s strong comeback as, on Twitter, he said: “we’re excited to start exploring again… and we’ll be patient to find out all about it».
Yahoo Search reactivates its Twitter account
For a few days, the count Yahoo Search on Twitter has been reactivated and new tweets have been published. One says:We just came by to remind everyone that we investigated before it was cool.»
I just popped in to remind everyone that we did a search before it was cool.
BRB making it cool again.
— Yahoo Search (@YahooSearch) January 20, 2023
What is Yahoo preparing for its return to online search?
If at the moment there are no clues to guess what strategy Yahoo will adopt to make its comeback, we can still make some assumptions.
Google being a generalist, itscompetitors(i.e. other companies in the same market, but not necessarily taking shares), many are trying to stand out. There is, for example, Ecosia, which raises awareness about ecology, Qwant for targeted advertising or DuckDuckGo for privacy. We can think that Yahoo is also trying to distance itself from Google in an attempt to reverse the trend.
The search engine could turn to questions of ecology or privacy, which are two issues on which Internet users are increasingly aware. The other great innovation of the moment and that we are waiting for in online research is the arrival of artificial intelligence chatbots for research. In short, ChatGPT connected to the Internet. We know that Google is working hard on AI and that Microsoft wants to integrate ChatGPT with Bing. In China, the giant Baidu is preparing a similar system, which is not based on GPT-3.
Yahoo could also do the same, although this operation raises questions about its profitability. Running an artificial intelligence like ChatGPT requires significant computing power. Also, a search bot’s responses may not include ads, which could put search engines that add it at risk.
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