Terry Semel Rates Google as No. 4 in Web 2.0 Conference
At Web 2.0 conference, Terry Semel, has remarked that Yahoo! has a better role to play in the future of internet and has ranked Google as the number 4 portal.
Richard MacManus has reported on the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. In ZDNet blog he has quoted, Terry Semel, the CEO of Yahoo!, as saying that Yahoo! has a “much richer experience” than Google, and that Yahoo! has much more diversified model, which is well-positioned for user-generated content and community, suited to the future of the internet.
Even though Google is “starting to look like more of a portal” (referencing all the things Google is doing currently), Semel rates Google as the number 4 portal only. He said Google has lots of beta products, but “so far don’t seem to have a real plan”.
According to Richard, Semel thinks user-generated content is “of utmost importance” to Yahoo!, “gigantic piece of what we do”.
According to the report, Semel started out by saying that Yahoo! is both a media and tech company and that’s necessary for a 21st century media company.
Semel said in the Web 2.0 conference, “Yahoo is all about content” and mentioned the 3 different types of content that Yahoo! is focused on: user-generated, professional, and the future of what content may be.
According to Semel Yahoo! will try to take a leadership position in designing the future of content.
In terms of the competition, Yahoo! will compete with Barry Diller’s company in some verticals. But Yahoo will have a much broader selection, due to user-generated content.
Semel will judge Lloyd Braun, head of the Yahoo! media group, on results in 12-18mths and evaluate Yahoo!’s success in attempting to create “a whole new experience” in media.
Richard reports in the blog that there was also a significant amount of discussion on Yahoo!’s competition with Google. “Semel says Google has done great with search, but they don’t have the pillars of Yahoo!, meaning content, personalization, communications, shopping, and other media-focused things”.
Semel also thinks Yahoo is monetizing better than Google, saying that communications products and content are the 2 main forms of monetization. He also said Yahoo! will “always be more open than they [Google] are”.
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