So What if Yahoo Trades at USD25

Jon D. Markman has posted today that Yahoo is no longer a punchline. He explains that to mean Yahoo can no longer be called a "joke"...it's now an investment (again, I suppose!).

He goes on to say that with the coming of Marissa Mayer, Yahoo has streamlined its operations focusing dutifully on smaller investments that are a better fit for existing products and which have a greater potential for unlocking revenue.

Right...that's all well and good but what about how I feel. Trading at USD25 is no consolation for my headaches using the once mighty portal. The fact is my head still hurts from the many frustrations:

1. When will linking to Yahoo stories or images stop being a crap-shoot and a nightmare for publishers. Try it. Link to an interesting story on Yahoo and very likely in a few months that link will no longer work.

2. Embed or link to a Yahoo video and the result is very likely the same in the land of the constantly shifting content.

3. How often have you seen a head turning headline on Yahoo only for the actual story not to have anything to do with the "hot" topic or the actual read reveals an amateurish rendition of sensationalism.

4. What about spam? The internet will never rid itself of spam and Yahoo's mailbox constantly reminds me of this fact.

5. And have you seen the recent quirky redesign of Yahoo's main portal with the image of the highlighted story partially blocked by what's meant to be a transparent overlay and the  headline itself. Surely Yahoo can do better!

Yahoo's stock price may have been climbing over recent months but so has been the overall Dow Jones Industrial Average, now at 14,000. Maybe the much maligned company has inadvertently benefited from this tumultuous rise. Maybe too the honeymoon with Marissa Mayer and the hope that things will finally take a turn for the better are still lingering.

I am not sure what's causing the writer's positive outlook and the piece posted today has no convinced me of anything. I am discounting the acquisition of Snipit that the writer has highlighted as part of the "new" approach and any price movement which may have been motivated by the overall market itself and instead wait until Yahoo has done something that will have everlasting impact on my direct experience using the site both as a publisher and regular user.  It's only then I will be convinced that Ms. Mayer has made a difference and that the company's business model has changed for the better.

And what the hell is Snipit by the way?