Yahoo Kills GeoCities

GeoCities was a pioneer and a goldmine for its founders and investors, fetching $3.6 Billion in 1999 dollars.  Hopefully the beneficiaries cashed out quick, as that was once-upon-a-time when Yahoo’s stock was well above the $300 per-share mark.

The point here is, Yahoo once again blows it…shoots themselves in the foot…makes a dumb move…drops the ball…is the butt of a joke.  Yes, the site was antiquated in Internet terms, but GeoCities had users which means it had value.

Analogy – I own a fixer-upper in The Bronx.  It needs some paint and the pipes aren’t copper, and ok, there is a slight bug problem.  So what do I do?  Tell the tenants they have 120 days to vacate since I am going to demolish the building – or – sell to a speculator who knows a good contractor who can renovate?

To give you an idea of how much value GeoCities may have held, it was the 199th most visited website in the world at the time of its shuttering, according to Alexa, the de-facto authority on web traffic measurement.

This was a pre-Carol Bartz decision, I am sure, but the deal was sealed on her watch.

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Yes, part of the reason is Google rules the search game, with over sixty percent market share, but also because the management at Yahoo are blithering idiots, with those at Microsoft (Bing, MSN, Live) not far behind.

When you or I search for something at Google, Bing, Ask or most search engines, it’s free, and the search engines make nothing, provided you don’t click on a “Sponsored Link.”  Sponsored links are the ads listed on the far right side of the page in that vertical box, or on top of the page in the slightly off-color area.

A company will pay a handsome fee to be listed in these sponsored areas so you, the consumer, will see them first – and hopefully click to reach their website.  All search engines do this – but coming up next is where Google wins and Yahoo is plain pathetic.

Google has a program called AdSense, in which website owners can apply to the program and run Google ads on their own website.  If approved, Google provides some unique code that the website owner installs and then almost like magic, advertising appears on their website.  Google and the website owner then share this revenue.

Google AdSense Partner TheParty.Net

There are hundreds-of-thousands of these websites within the Google network, so Google doesn’t need direct traffic to generate revenue, they can rely on others – and it is pure profit.

Yahoo’s Publisher Network program is somewhere in hyperspace, between never-never land and who-knows-where.  It has been in Beta since 2007, possibly earlier.

I applied for the Yahoo Publisher Network program August 9, 2007 for another website I operate, and this was the response: Thank you for applying for the Yahoo! Publisher Network beta program. It is currently in beta and we are accepting a very limited number of new publishers, but we will let you know when we launch to the general public or if we are able to invite you to join the beta before then.

Out of curiosity, I applied with Yahoo once again this afternoon, and the automated response read: Thank you for your interest in the Yahoo! Publisher Network beta program. This is to confirm that your information will be stored in our database and be considered for the beta program.

For all you Yahoo shareholders out there, that is at least 798 days in Beta.

The issues with Yahoo search are for another day.  The fact that Google is earning ridiculous profits is great, the reasons why Yahoo is not is also clear and I wonder if new CEO Carol Bartz has her finger to the pulse of the Internet community enough to right the ship.  Jerry Yang was brilliant in launching the company, but he didn’t see this glaring issue when he was CEO, prior to Bartz.

Carol, are the lights on?

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