Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
Yahoo cedes search game to Google, for now
If you’re losing the game, time to change the playing field. Yahoo is counting on exactly that.
Ari Balogh, Yahoo’s chief technology officer and product development czar, would be among the first to admit that Google reigns supreme in the search space.
“Search the way we know it, with 10 blue links, Google has clearly won that game. Saying anything other than that is just not stating the fact,” he told the Reuters Global Technology Summit.
But Balogh says that doesn’t mean Yahoo is giving up. Inviting comparisons to the automobile industry, now infamous for bankruptcy, ballooning debt and clunky design, Balogh says innovation in search is only just beginning, and it’s too early to declare a winner yet. Ford and its Model T was once the pre-eminent mass-consumer vehicle, but today the once mighty Detroit giant — the only one of the surviving Big Three that doesn’t appear to be flirting with corporate failure — has to fend off the likes of Toyota and Hyundai.
What’s important to understand though is this really is like the auto industry in 1910….At that time, in 1915 or 1920, it sure looked like it was going to be Ford.
Because of the rapid innovation that’s going on, because if you look at that search page, it is an anachronism. When has advertising ever been so ugly in the last 10, 15 years? When has the onus of sorting through a pile of stuff, that much of a pile of stuff, ever fallen on people to do themselves?
Q&A with WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell
Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Group Plc, was interviewed as part of the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit held this week around the globe. He talked to Reuters reporter Kate Holton in London, with groups of reporters calling in from Paris and New York to ask questions. Here are extended excerpts from a longer interview:
SOFTER 2009; REBOUND IN 2010 Reuters: How is the U.S. advertising market holding up in light of the credit crunch and housing crisis?
Sir Martin: I would just say that I think we continue to be surprised by the relative strength of the US in the first four months of the year, I guess.
Reuters: Previously said you see a stronger 2010 but concerns in 2009. Are you still happy with that characterization?
Sir Martin: Following the Beijing Olympics and the elections of the new US President, 2009 may see a little bit of slowdown in China but all of these things are relative because China is still growing at 20 percent plus and it can’t carry on forever. The GNP can’t continue to grow 10 percent per annum consistently so — forever. The laws of compound arithmetic just make it very difficult. So ’09 I think you have a little bit of relaxation and also I don’t think the world has decoupled. So if America’s weak, as we have said before, you may not catch a flu, but you may certainly catch a cold.
And then in 2010 a number of events –you have the (U.S.) mid-term congressionals. So any US President has to do something unpleasant in ’09 will do it early and hope that mid-term congressionals would not be affected. But you’ve got the Shanghai fair, the expo in 2010. You’ve got the Asian games. You’ve got the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and you’ve got – the biggest event is probably the World Cup in South Africa
Reuters: If we did experience a greater economic downturn would you expect to see increased competition amongst agencies for business? How does that impact on you?
While you keep concentrating on the big guys, what we now call the “legacy media companies,” and advertising
dollars and market share are being lost, new players such as http://www.ourtown.com are becoming successful with feet-on- the-street reporting and hyperlocal advertising. OurTown Media has launched more than 70,000 websites and is successfully licensing local editors.
Silicon Valley execs self-absorbed (and thats not all bad)
With the white noise of MicroHoo ringing in everyone ears, we asked Adobe Systems CEO Shantanu Narayen why he thinks “royal weddings” — idylic mergers between multi-billion dollar companies — in Silicon Valley are few and far between.
You know, because, giant Deathstars are better for everybody, right?
The answer: Even though some merger adviser is probably ringing to talk about “strategic alternatives” (we suppose), Silicon Valley entrepreneur-types are, like, you know, obsessed with minding their own beeswax.
I think the Valley is all about innovation and about charting your own course. And companies seeing opportunities for themselves. I’m focused on how do I continue to drive great new products and deliver value to my shareholders.
I think the zen or the DNA of people there is all about growth and all about driving new innovation.
He was speaking in New York at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecom Summit, where he spoke of his own company’s appetite for mergers.
(Photo: Reuters)
