Jerry Yang’s Got Attitude, But Has He Got Game?

The failure of Yahoo 360, the Peanut Butter Manifesto, the Zawodny rant, the turnover of dissidents to China — all these were indicators that Yahoo had lost their way under former CEO Terry Semel, fossilizing into what one investor called a spineless suckup Hollywood-wannabe old media company. Then again, what do you expect from the former CEO of Warner Brothers?

Fortunately, Yahoo did some soul-searching by ceding search to Google, defining a new mission statement, and focusing on personalization. Yahoo’s returning to their roots as an agile people-driven push portal (Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle). As part of that return to their roots, they’ve just named cofounder Jerry Yang as CEO, relegating Terry to a non-executive role.

Part of the reason for Google’s success is that the two smart college kids who founded it are still in control, pursuing their original vision. They didn’t let goddamned MBAs get in the way. Yahoo, on the other hand, was overrun by old media types years ago. The difference here, though, is that Jerry Yang hasn’t done anything terribly earthshaking in over a decade. No, the first Internet directory was not terribly earthshaking. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, on the other hand, changed the very nature of information through their search algorithm. Larry and Sergey are fucking rock stars; Jerry and Yahoo cofounder David Filo just wrote the first playlist.

Sure, Jerry earned a place in history by joining his buddy David to put together a list of their favorite websites thirteen years ago, and maybe that irreverent spirit of personalization can save Yahoo from its mass-media calcification. After all, they named it Yahoo because they liked the Gulliver’s Travels definition of the word: rude, unsophisticated, uncouth, a definition well suited to a company catering to personalized quirks. Jerry himself is responsible for many overhauls to Yahoo’s homepage; the guy’s said to be passionate about personalizing the user experience. Whether or not the Chief Yahoo can revolutionize the company after years of not really doing anything innovative is another question entirely. Jerry’s got attitude (and Terry sure as Hell didn’t) but has he got game?