fearlessrick - 10:12 pm on Jul 19, 2005 (gmt 0)

I did not hear the conference call myself, but mention of the competing YPN was made by Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, who apparently said that YPN would be rolled out "very soon."

This makes perfect sense as Yahoo reported a huge quarterly profit, most of it (.38 per share) due to sale of Google stock. Here's a snippet from an AP article:

The profit included a gain of $563 million, or 38 cents per share, from the sale of an investment. Yahoo company didn't immediately identify the investment, but the company owns a significant stake in one of its biggest rivals, online search engine leaders Google Inc., whose stock has soared by 61 percent so far this year.

So, if Yahoo has sold it's Google stock, one might assume that they're ready to launch an assault via a competing service. When, as in "very soon" remains to be seen, but Google reports it's quarterly results after the close on Thursday, July 21.

Could Yahoo try to steal some thunder from Google by releasing the YPN prior to G's quarterly? Doubtful, because that might be considered "dirty pool," but announcing the release date right around it might be in the cards. It's got to be within the next month, IMO, as Yahoo won't want to miss out on back to school advertising and get prepared for the Christmas season, which is now less than 5 months off.

My hunch is that they'll unveil it within the next three weeks. Get ready. It's going to be a bumpy ride.