steveb - 9:45 pm on Jan 26, 2006 (gmt 0)

"So for all of those that think it was a smart move or the right move to make such a statement, you're in a shrinking minority."

That's not what people said. Maybe your pitchfork got in the way of your hearing.

The statements don't even contradict each other, because clearly in the long run just maintaining their market share could make them #1 as more competitors join in.

Is there any other area where hysteria is more rampant than search engines?

And more to the point, it should be easy to see that Yahoo's priority should be in improving its search product. Until they do that, they should be "very happy" to maintain their market share. If/when they improve their product somewhere down the line, in the long haul, they can put a different goal in their sights.