NEWS
There were some encouraging statistics for Yahoo!'s search business. Revenue increased 11 per cent globally and 18 per cent in the US, Jorgensen said. In the US, search queries increased 10 per cent compared with the year-earlier quarter. Overall, revenue per search grew in the high single digits, he said.
But not all is well. Google last week was relatively bullish about its search-ad business, reiterating its argument that the directly measurable return on advertising investments make it stronger during times of economic trouble. Jorgensen, in contrast, offered a note of caution that the economy means people aren't searching for things to buy as often. "We're tending to see cost-per-click growth but click yields and fewer commercial queries are starting to impact revenues in general," Jorgensen said.
Bartz continued with the assertive tone set in her introductory press conference just two weeks ago, coming out as a strong Yahoo! advocate.
"I didn't come here to sell the company," she asserted.
Alongside keeping an eye on Microsoft, Bartz is also monitoring Facebook with its younger demographic. While it's nice to have young users on your site, "They do grow up", Bartz said. People in their late 20s are "much more interested in Yahoo! Finance".
And, she added, that age group is easily jaded. "Just as MySpace was hot and it moved to Facebook, who knows what's next? We have a lot going on. We're dabbling in it with Yahoo! Open Strategy. I was surprised. We have a demographic that serves the entire web. I think we can get some growth in other areas." Overall, her tone was optimistic, which is to expected from a new CEO. Twice she said Yahoo!'s prospects look better from within the company than from the gloom-and-doom press view she got in 2008.
"If we have strong products, we will attract the audience that just beats everything," she said. "It's not just about search. It's about people coming for content and information."
