randle - 8:27 pm on Aug 7, 2009 (gmt 0)

Directories and search engines are two different animals.

Quite true, but back then when people went searching for something they often went to Yahoo, and the searcher really had no idea of the difference.

but it was never a leader in spidered search.

Yes, very true as well, but they sure have done an awful lot of spidering over the years, they certainly have tried to be a force in it. To now have the ceo declare they were never a search company, is pure and simple spin against the backdrop of letting MSN just take over that area.

Saying they have failed as a search company is much closer to the truth than declaring they never were a search company, which insinuates search was never a very big core part of their business model.