Yahoo on the Brink of Throwing out The Golden Goose?

[Brett_Tabke]

Much of the scuttlebut recently has revolved around a simple question: will Yahoo toss the directory out when it goes to full Inktomi powered results?

That was once sacrilege to ask, but it is pretty clear that the directory model is a relic of history.

[dirkz]

> Back then, we did some analysis on present and future cost of running the directory and potential earnings. The charts did NOT look good.

Ok, it's pretty clear that it's not the golden goose. You won't get rich with it. I just can't believe it's not profitable (meaning that earnings are higher than costs).

Even if they just break even with it, what is Yahoo without a directory? And I don't mean financially.

Remember? :)
[wired.com...]

[dirkz]

> dirk - Something like 65% of IBM's revenue (or earnings, can't remember) is from SERVICES now...

Yes, but I bet they still sell hardware. It's International Business Machines, not Services :)

... checking to see whether IBS can be service marked :)

[rfgdxm1]

I think the answer for you Brett depends on this: Does the Yahoo! directory bring in more revenues than it costs to run? I don't know the answer to this. However, so long as it is at least marginally profitable, why kill it off?

[jbauder]

rfg

I think the answer for you Brett depends on this: Does the Yahoo! directory bring in more revenues than it costs to run?

Or if they have "a plan" that could make it bring in more revenues than costs

my question is if yahoo is going to throw it out
why wouldn't google buy it ... by their search results they view it as the most relevent site on the internet

;)

[Lothar]

I don't know how they couldn't make money on an editor reviewing a site for 10 minutes tops for $299. That's a total of almost $1800 for 60 minutes and I'm sure they are not paying those site reviewers/editors anymore than 20-30 an hour.

Obviously, that is a simplification because there is more overhead in running a directory than just that. But the economics seem sound to me.

[ByronM]

This is great news for those of us who love the Open Directory. It means DMOZ will be more important than ever!

Please oh please don't say this. Yahoo directory is many more times better maintained then Dmoz IMHO.

I would rather PAY for dmoz insertion if it meant active editors! (and decent servers)

[mquarles]

DMOZ Alexa rank has been slowly but steadily dropping since the third quarter of 2002, and I see no reason that this trend will be reveresed.

MQ