There has been a lot of discussion in the past week about “How Yahoo Got Its Mojo Back,” as Om Malik puts it. Some go even as far to say that “Yahoo is the new Google. Google is the new Yahoo.”
I wouldn’t go that far in discounting Google, but I do claim that Yahoo has been unfairly passed over in the past year. I say “Yahoo!” to Yahoo! for making strides when others weren’t looking.
While Google was busy soaking in the riches and hype from its IPO, Yahoo bas been busy catching up in developing a competitive AdSense product: rounding out its own API, and upgrading its free e-mail product. More importantly, the company has been quick to recognize the value of the Incremental Web. Incorporating RSS feeds into my.yahoo was a momumental first step. More recently, the acquisition of Flickr and the beta launch of Yahoo360 demonstrate that the company is forward thinking about the internet’s transition to an incremental user-generated content medium. As a media company, Yahoo is placing a solid stake in the ground.
If all of the above is true, it surely hasn’t been recognized in the stock prices. Paul Kedrosky wonders when the stock price pairing of the two companies will diverge. I agree. The question becomes – when will Wall Street realize that their darling Google has an older brother Yahoo that’s flexing its muscle?