Three-headed search monster
A breakup of its stand-alone mobile group and a shakeup of its wireless carrier relationships for mobile search are challenges Yahoo must overcome to gain market share from competitors such as Google and Microsoft.
Yahoo’s CEO Carol Bartz recently broke up the company’s mobile group and spread out the employees across other departments, leading to the departure of several senior executives. In addition, T-Mobile USA discontinued its search deal with Yahoo, instead tapping Google as its default mobile search provider, although Yahoo is still the default on the carrier’s European networks.
“These deals [between search engine providers and carriers] are primarily about revenue share and who is providing a good deal,” said Julie Ask, San Francisco-based vice president/principal analyst at Forrester Research.