Ask HN: If you were in charge of yahoo, what would you do?

Focus on a few successful products. And focus on adding value.<p>A long time ago Yahoo was what now is Yahoo Directory: <a href="http://dir.yahoo.com/" rel="nofollow">http://dir.yahoo.com/</a> It rocked. Now it seems to be unmaintained and there's nothing today like that. Resurrecting it with quality links (no content farms, About.com, Experts Exchange, etc.) would be an alternative to SEO-pwned search engines.

Sell it and buy an island.<p>I'm sure there are good people working there. Have an independent firm hire some top notch developers and efficiency experts to come in, identify them, then split off a company with those people in it and call it something else like "Good Yahoo". ;) Then, sell the rest off in pieces.<p>Seriously though, it is a tough nut. They are still mostly known for an outdated search index. They have no winning product in the public mindshare. They are old. Marketing could fix that, if they had a super product/service to sell. But don't base that product/service's success on ad revenue. They can't compete with the big boys on that, nor can they make much money handing it off to them.

Buy Twitter, Zynga, Foursquare, Quora, and Groupon. Let them be independent for a long while. Yahoo does have a market cap of $19 billion - might as well use it.

I actually just commented on this on a recent Kara Swisher article <a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20100929/exclusive-major-meltdown-at-yahoo-as-more-top-execs-to-depart-including-u-s-head-hilary-schneider/#disqus_thread" rel="nofollow">http://kara.allthingsd.com/20100929/exclusive-major-meltdown...</a><p>The basic idea started with the idea of completely changing the company name to a name that can play well with their sub-brands, because of the poor connotation or generic feel that the name "Yahoo" brings to some people's mind.<p>I went on to cite Kraft as an example. They have a jillion products that have their own brands. Oreo Cookies. A1 Steak Sauce. Crystal Light. Cool Whip. Each of those have very different audiences to speak to. Kids, steak-eaters, weight-watchers, sweet-tooths. So each has their own brand that speaks uniquely to those audiences. Kraft has a brand on its own, but it stands in the background, allowing each of their products to act on their own for each product's best interest.<p>I believe this system could greatly benefit Yahoo. Instead of trying to brand their properties Yahoo so-and-so, allow those properties to break free from the Yahoo brand, so they can serve each of the unique audiences properly. Sports, finance, news, gossip, music etc.<p>I believe the Kraft example matches them very well. Humongously large company with a huge number of products that serve a wide-range of differing audiences. Kraft doesn't try to sell "Kraft" with each of their products, because that would confuse those products brands. You wouldn't have a commercial that sells "Kraft A1 Steak Sauce." Likewise, I think it's wrong for Yahoo to try to sell "Yahoo" with each of their products.<p>Flickr is an example of a successful Yahoo property that has no hindrances of the Yahoo brand. They were acquired of course, but Yahoo made the smart decision not to mess with it. But if had grown within Yahoo, then they would have called it something like "Yahoo Photos". How lame would that have been? It's like "Yahoo Music", or "Yahoo Movies." Those names just don't inspire.<p>So basically, I think it should be an excerside of allowing their properties to diversify, grow, and focus on each of their unique audiences from a branding and marketing perspective, rather than trying to unify the Yahoo brand among them all.

I'd cut everything that isn't profitable. Cut the employee base to the very, very minimum. Return as much as possible to the shareholders. Start paying a dividend.

That's a tough job. I'd start by pumping all brand promotion efforts away from Yahoo itself, into the various Yahoo Sites (finance, games, etc.) and away from search. Yahoo is so established in search, that it isn't necessary to promote that aspect of the company. Plus, it would be easier to establish that Yahoo is the leader in financial analysis and shopping results than trying to convince users that Yahoo can still hang with Google in search- it's an uphill battle not worth fighting.<p>After a bit of time passed, when it became visible what segments have potential, and what does not. It's time to cut. Surgically and decisively. The only way for Yahoo to compete in user-based web services is, in my opinion, to follow the Jack Welch method for cleaning up GE- cut everything that cannot make a reasonably stab at being the market leader. It saved GE from near certain doom. Under that same policy, GE has cut consumer electronics, their bread and butter for the first 50 years, but they are powerful and dominating in the spaces they do play in. Yahoo may have to ultimately drop search- it seems absurt to say it though. But as a company Yahoo has to trim the fat and cut the underperforming sectors. It's make or break time.<p>edit:Typos

Yahoo is still the 3rd most popular site in the world. It's not failing by far. So I would not go in there thinking the company is failing: <a href="http://www.google.com/adplanner/static/top1000/" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/adplanner/static/top1000/</a>

I would open source Pipes and YQL. I would shut down Delicious, sell Flickr to Google and try to find a buyer for Upcoming. Really, I think the best thing that's left in Yahoo! is Finance - I'd build that up.

Firewall the media-play from any technology that hasn't yet been murdered in the cradle, and make sure than each has the resources and direction needed to survive effectively; different strategies for each.

Bring back Geocities (yea it sucked, but it's part of the history of the internet)<p>Bring back their own branded search (kill the Bing contract)<p>Bring back Yahoo Shopping APIs

Kill Yahoo Messenger (there are more bots than users there).

The valuation of Yahoo assets in Asia is about the same to the current market cap. The bold move is to focus on emerging markets and move headquarter there.

a) Look to buy innovative startups. b) Solve the no-appstore-for-web-apps problem, win over developers by making this a nice rollout platform with simple cloud JSON data storage, search integration, social integration etc.

Double down on BOSS, open up monetization and let 1,000 niche search engines bloom (yahoo monetization is a nightmare right now). Double down on YUI, support niche deal sites. Start a venture fund and make seed 100 $1M seed investments in Yahoo platform companies. Yahoo's best assets are their dev platforms and their developers.