Yahoo! vs. ?

Since before Google launched its IPO, it was kicking some serious tail in the search/ad business. It then preceded to snap up billions of dollars worth of web services/code/gurus and well, hasn't looked back since. Yahoo invented the ad model on the web, or at least perfected it beyond any scope any once else had until Google came along. Now the only thing you hear out of Yahoo! is they aren't doing as well as Google. Yahoo!, what happened to ya man?

So, what did happen? It's the same thing that happens to most pioneers when a new guy comes to town and starting whipping ass. They curled up in the fetal position and preceded to give every excuse in the book as to why they aren't so bad ass anymore. It's the CEO, it's the model, it's the budget, it's all these companies we snapped up and had no idea how to capitalize on them, etc., blah blah, etc., blah. Well, in a lot ways it was all of that, but more than anything, Google just beat them being Google. Google is beating them, just being Google. When are companies going to get it?

When? or What? We'll go with the What? first. It's called envy. Remember that word, guys? Envy? How about a little wikipedia to clear it up:

Envy is an emotion that "occurs when a person lacks another’s superior quality, achievement, or possession and desires it."^[1] They also feel that it is not possible (or not easy) for them to have what they want. Otherwise they would simply go get what the other person had, and they would be satisfied.

Envy is one of the seven deadly sins.

At the core of envy seems to be an upward social comparison that threatens a person's self-esteem: another person has something that the envier considers to be important to have. A comparison is often rooted in the envier feeling low self-confidence, and they feel that they need to be or have the same things as others. If they don't have it, or they can't have it, they feel envy. This can be seen with money and power struggles.

The What? is Google Envy. Google Envy is like accidentally receiving Bill Gates' bank statement and spending the rest of your days staring at it and pretending it is all your's. It will never fix anything, ever. What happened to the innovative Yahoo!? What happened to the Yahoo! that did what it did and that was all it was worried about? Yahoo!, seriously man, Google's kicking your ass with search ads? Pick up something else and take some of that money back! They aren't going to just lay down for you...you are gonna have to knock their lights out. Rope that dope. Go Samuel L. on those moth... well, you get the idea. Or do you?!

Seriously, it isn't Yahoo! vs. Google for the title, it's Yahoo! vs itself for second place and, to be honest, those aren't very good odds either. Until they can get past the What?, there will never be a When?.