Yahoo's Mayer Steadies Ship | Hacker News Reader

Yahoo's Mayer Steadies Ship

online.wsj.com

66 pointsrpm432122 comments

I don't know how much she had to do with it, but the new flickr iPhone app really got me excited. It was a combination of being tired of looking at n00b pictures on instagram and finally being able to explore flickr properly on the iphone. I even ended up signing up for flickr pro. The 3 month free extension/trial that they provided at Christmas/New Years was pretty cool too.

This, while I was waiting to see which photo service would finally kill flickr. The final nail in the coffin so to speak. Pleasantly surprised.

The app is kinda weird, though. Is it me, or is it WebView-based? It was the first time I had to do a friggin' CAPTCHA on an iOS device(!).

I'm surprised at the lack of "innovative" new captcha ideas targetted towards mobile devices.

"Spin your phone clockwise 3 times and lick the screen to prove you're not a robot"

It wouldn't kill them to do a viewport check. I mean, unless they expect crackers to run their servers from a jailbroken iPad?

I also had to change my Yahoo! password for Flickr a while back, and I think the maximum length of my password was still at ~32 characters ... and there's not two-factor authentication to boot.

Yahoo! is very AOL-like still, which is one of those things I really, really hope Meyer can do away with.

> I mean, unless they expect crackers to run their servers from a jailbroken iPad?

Way more sophisticated than that. Think in terms of emulation, simulation, HTTP spoofing, etc.

Ah, of course. D'oh.

Maybe this is just my first real WebView experience with a log-in process. I just wonder how there isn't an alternative (besides a native app).

Actually, they do have two-factor auth and apparently have had it for over a year now (I had no idea as well) Hit https://edit.yahoo.com/commchannel/sec_chal_manage to set it up. They've also finally added https support to Yahoo Mail. It's turned off by default, but still encouraging signs considering how long we've been waiting for it.

It's only available for something like ten countries, though. :/

Yes, I can finally view my groups from my phone! Big fan of Flickr here, I've had a pro account since 2009. Spent the last couple of years watching Yahoo ignore it, torn between "well at least they aren't changing it in ways that ruin it" and waiting for the other shoe to drop and them run it into the ground like they did with Delicious. There's been some minor front page tweaks happening lately too. It's nice to see Flickr in active development again.

Mayer's approach seems to be an inside-out approach rather than playing to Wall Street. This is a very bold strategy. But I believe this is best for the long term success of Yahoo since there are some very talented engineers working there. If she can spur a Google-like innovation culture, we can see Yahoo reclaim its lost glory soon.

Mayer's approach seems to be an inside-out approach rather than playing to Wall Street.

This is the honeymoon period though, let's wait and see. Yahoo is easily pressured by a few hedge funds, so Mayer will have to deliver result$ soon enough I fear.

If you think Google doesn't play to Wall Street, just count the number of ads on the pages (or the number on non-ads, it's just easier) and major search "updates"

She stopped the planned issuance of dividends[1], so she seems to wield her CEO stick somewhat well.

[1]: http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/10/as-marissa-mayer-annoys-inv...

Wall Street is not a synonym for revenue.

Side note: with the pending shutdown of iGoogle, I went on a hunt a couple days ago for replacements. Turns out myYahoo! more or less fits the bill, and some of the gadgets (bookmarks) are a bit better.

It's still a bit cluttered and messy looking in the UI department (and some things only work in FF not Chrome), but after 15 minutes I had 90% of my iGoogle page set back up almost exactly like my original.

This could be an easy way for her to get constant eyeballs on Yahoo! as I go to my iGoogle page at least 20 times a day.

Any other options on an iGoogle replacement?

There's a few, but there honestly isn't a great replacement. I honestly do not understand the logic behind this move.

"Hey let's get rid of the service we have that requires almost no engineering resources and brings people to google multiple times per day!"

Outside of myYahoo there's an homage to iGoogle

http://www.ighome.com/

and here's a bunch of alternatives

http://www.howtogeek.com/129155/6-alternatives-to-igoogle-fo...

Yahoo doesn't have what it takes to become a content company. Mayer and the management have not really defined what that even means to them. They are aggregators, they borrow data, they do not create it.

Unless Yahoo plans on becoming a actual Journalistic organization, like the New York Times,Bloomberg, ABCNews or USA Today they cannot claim to be a content company.

Yahoo needs to pick, Technology or Content. Apple, Google, Microsoft and even Facebook have already decided. They distribute a lot of content but they are firmly in the technology business and there isn't much confusion about that.

Microsoft decided? They have their XBox division which makes lots of content.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios

I have to say that it's nice to see a real product person running Yahoo! I'll grant you that it's just the early days, but my gut tells me that we may see a second act for this old school classic.

> "[Mayer] said she wants Yahoo, [...] to become a force in mobile-device software for consumers and to provide "customized" content for people based on their interests, background and location."

I know that's vague, but isn't that the bundle of buzzwords every clueless Fortune 500 company wants to use 2013? No doubt Mayer can execute it better than most, but I'm wondering what Yahoo's advantage is over anyone else. What do they bring to the table?

A massive existing userbase that has proven surprisingly loyal despite lagging product offerings.

Their newish (and enticingly named) 'TimeTraveler' app is very well-thought out. UI is a bit clunky though.

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