March 3rd, 2009

Yahoo's Bartz: Search data critical to us; I use Google Maps

Posted by Larry Dignan @ 12:06 pm

Categories: General, Google, Microsoft, Search, Web Technology, Yahoo

Tags: Google Inc., Yahoo! Inc., Google Maps, Search, E-mail Providers, Internet, Larry Dignan

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on Tuesday gave no indication that the company was going to punt on the search business. She said the data the search business provides is “extremely important” to Yahoo and is information the company has to have.

Bartz, speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, naturally fielded questions about Microsoft’s desire to buy Yahoo’s search business.

Bartz made the following points:

• For starters, Yahoo will negotiate with Microsoft privately.
• Yahoo would “never de-bone the company.”
• Yahoo has to sell joint programs between performance per click and display advertising.
• And retaining its search data is critical for Yahoo. “We to have the information of what search tells us regardless of whether we or somebody else manages it,” said Bartz.

When Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker indicated that it sounded like Yahoo may have more negotiating leverage than people think Bartz said: Yes, maam.”

Other odds and ends from the Bartz chat:

• Bartz was asked about the maps business and how Yahoo has fallen behind. She admitted that “I don’t use Yahoo Maps, I use Google Maps.”
• Backtracking a bit, a Yahoo executive explained that the maps business is capital intensive and requires a lot of servers–not to mention folks going out and taking pictures to match Google’s StreetView.
• Bartz talked up Yahoo’s new home page and said it will be a vast improvement on the “old fashioned” version you see today.
• Yahoo Mail is becoming increasingly critical to the company. Yahoo Mail has a billion emails pass through its servers every day and it’s critical that the company enables better photo sharing and other features.
• The company has high hopes for its partnership with newspapers and local advertising.