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If you are Yahoo you have got to do one thing moving forward and one thing only. You have to find a way to make news that doesn’t involve you CEO’s level of competence. It’s pretty simple, don’t you think? Yahoo is a large publicly traded company, has (or more accurately had) thousands of employees, still is one of the leaders on the entire Internet in overall traffic but all it has become known for is being the fodder for the new National Enquirer type of “reporting” that has become the Internet industry space at times.

They just need to stop listening to everyone and everything, they need to determine what it is they actually do, state it clearly then do it with a laser focus. Laser focus has not been the company’s forte in recent years. Want to see what I mean? Let’s review.

Jerry Yang replaced by Carol Bartz – This was billed as the move for Yahoo to get serious. The removal of Jerry Yang to make room for a tough veteran c-level executive with a penchant for swearing like a longshoreman was supposed to put Yahoo on track. To sum up, we are now a couple years removed from the original hiring and high hopes around Bartz. Let;s just say her era at the helm will be felt for some time to come. Oh and, by the way, those effects have not been close to positive.

Carol Bartz replaced by Scott Thompson – Once Bartz’s act grew old enough to get her fired by e-mail (or so the legend goes) we were introduced to the Scott Thompson era. An executive from PayPal with no experience dealing in a company that does what Yahoo does (whatever that is today), Thompson came in and started throwing away everything regardless if there was bath water, a baby or even a tub. Much of that collateral damage was more employees losing their jobs. Now the number of ex-Yahooers might actually outnumber the ranks of the current?

Shareholder gets a bee in his bonnet and Thompson exposed as liar- If only Scott Thompson’s exposure had been him being a flasher in the park this would have all been easier to make sense of. Instead, one of Yahoo’s largest shareholders, Daniel Loeb of Third Point, LLC wanted to run Thompson out of town. There were board of directors seats in question and things got testy.

Loeb must have gone into this with his ace-in-the-hole being that he knew that Scott Thompson’s resume was, well let’s just say embellished a bit. You probably know about that matter of Thompson claiming to have a degree from a college that didn’t offer that degree program until years after he graduated? Those kinds of things can bring integrity into the fray. A no-no for sure.

Thompson goes silent – In what can only be explained as a “WTF do we do now!?!?!?” reaction, Thompson and Yahoo played some bizarre dance of going silent, half apologizing then pointing fingers at the recruiting firm it hired to do such a stellar job of finding such a great CEO like Thompson. In the process that recruiting firm, Heidrick & Struggles, showed that there is sometimes more to a company name than meets the eye, as they struggled to not go down with this listing ship. In the end, Thompson’s and Yahoo’s handling of this is yet just another in a long list of reasons why Yahoo has become great business school case study fodder for what not to do in virtually every business situation.

Thompson is fired resigns – Thompson has now been fired resigned and has been replaced. I won’t even bother giving you the name of the person because it may have changed from the time I finished this post and hit the publish button. (Actually it’s the head of global media at the company, Ross Levinsohn, who is now in charge and a new chairman of the board, Fred Amoroso, is in place as well).

Thompson reveals he has cancer – The Wall Street Journal reports that late last week Thompspn revealed to the board that he has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and that is part of the reason why he is stepping down. I feel for the man because cancer sucks. It’s just so odd that this is being used as an element of this whole plot. It simply adds to the bizarre nature of the whole situation.

Yahoo to decide if it pays Thompson on way out – Depending on how this whole thing is interpreted it appears that Thompson may miss out on some big money as a result of how this all came down. We’ll let the lawyers figure that out over time.

In the end, there stands Yahoo. Living off the fact that a lot of people have apparently developed a Yahoo habit of coming to the site for years for email or whatever without really thinking about what Yahoo was doing to keep pace with the rest of the online world (which has not been much). It’s bruised, battered and looks nothing like it used to. Apparently the remaining staffers are quite demoralized and who wouldn’t be?

I wish this would all just go away and Yahoo would just get down to business ….. or least what’s left of it.

Your thoughts?

What has 4,177,653 Facebook followers, 245,839 Twitter followers, 1,018 YouTube subscribers, 294,467 Google+ fans, but only  67 followers on Pinterest? *

The answer is Amazon.com! Those combined numbers landed them in the number one slot on Campalyst’s Top 250 Internet Retailers on Social Media index.

The index is proof that not all social media is created equal and that’s a good lesson for everyone. Amazon is rocking Facebook, but there are more than 50 companies on the list that beat them on YouTube. As for Pinterest, no one is pulling astronomical numbers but several companies are created a nice little fanbase there.

The infographic Campalyst created to go with the index shows that nearly all 250 companies use Facebook, Twitter, and even YouTube (90%). 67% are using Google+, which isn’t bad, but I have to wonder if they’re keeping them up or if they’re doing them any good. 61% are already on Pinterest and that’s kind of an elbow to the eye of Google+.

Facebook has the strongest social media pages thanks to their age (by social media standards, they’re the grandfather of the bunch) and their associated advertising options. Here’s another slice from the Campalyst infographic.

Overall, the Top 250 list is populated with companies you’d expect like Amazon, Staples, Walmart and Dell. But the list also has a few lesser known quantities that are making strides, like iHerb with 329 Pinterest followers (more than Kohl’s) and ThinkGeek with more than 44,000 YouTube subscribers.

If you’re a small business owner, don’t let these numbers get you down. These top companies have plenty of help when it comes to running to their social media channels. If you’re a company of ten or less, concentrate on building up Facebook and a second channel that speaks to your audience. There’s no sense driving yourself crazy trying to update Pinterest or YouTube if your customers don’t hang out there.

You can see the full Top 250 Internet Retailers on Social Media index and infographic when you visit Campalyst online.

*Data is based on numbers on the day the index was created and have changed since then.

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Many people see the 30% of overall search share for Bing as a milestone of sorts. Of course, it is still taking Yahoo and Bing’s combined shares to compete with Google but we’re pretty used to that by now.

So what’s the verdict? Well, if you like Experian’s Hitwise, Bing has hit the magic number with a combined 30.1% market share for April 2012 while Google gave up ground.

But stop the presses! comScore says “just wait a hot minute!”. They are recording that Yahoo has slipped in share for the eighth consecutive month while Google is holding steady. Ouch!

hese numbers show a combined share number of 28.9%. In the end, it’s all of a 1 percentage point difference but perception is reality, right? I have always felt that when Bing hits 40% of the market then we really have something to talk about. In the meantime, we are left with these monthly search non-events.

What is your take here? At what point does Google really need to be concerned? Is it now or at some point in the future or not at all?

An app would like to use your current location — is that okay?

74% of smartphone owners said “yes” to that question, up from 55% just a year ago. Seems like the tool that gave many people the willies at the start, is now becoming part of their everyday routine. Need directions? Want to find the bank branch closest to you or find the most popular coffee house in a new city? You can do it all, as long as you say yes.

Now don’t confuse the use of location-based services with location check-in services like Foursquare. A new report from Pew shows that only 18% of smartphone users participate in geosocial activities. That’s up from 12% last year, but it’s hardly a boom.

The Pew report breaks down the users by demographics and right off the bat there’s an interesting fact. Though men are notorious for refusing driving directions from humans, they don’t mind getting them from their phone. The use of location-services was almost equal between men and women and only slightly higher in the 18-39 group. Usage rose with income and education but even there the difference was negligible.

Of course, the results of this study were already skewed by the smartphone demographic. The person who plunks down cash for a smartphone is a person who is interested in all it has to offer, right? Why buy a smartphone if all you’re going to do is make calls?

What’s amazing is that 41% of all adults are using location-based service. That’s not smartphone owners, that ALL adults in the US. Smartphone ownership has risen to 46%. A year from now, we should easily crack the 50% mark. And while half isn’t good if someone offers you a dollar bill, it’s great for anyone in the mobile biz.

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Apple is rumored to be drawing one of the final battle lines that will truly separate Google and Apple, or (Android v. iOS if you prefer) in the world of mobile.

It’s about maps. Maps and the ability to get around while out and about are one of the most critical functions of any mobile device. Until now the backend of Apple’s maps function was Google Maps. With the introduction of iOS 6 in the near future that will end. According to 9 to 5 Mac

According to trusted sources, Apple has an incredible headline feature in development for iOS 6: a completely in-house maps application. Apple will drop the Google Maps program running on iOS since 2007 in favor for a new Maps app with an Apple backend. The application design is said to be fairly similar to the current Google Maps program on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but it is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience.

It’s the last line of that description that rings of the Apple way, ‘cleaner, faster and more reliable.’ In addition, there will be a 3D side that is supposed to be Apple-tastic, as well. Of course, that reads well but until it is seen that is purely an opinion. This will be an interesting test to see just what level of quality is deemed acceptable in the new Job-less era of Apple.

There is little doubt that Apple could produce something that is, even if they stubbed their toe, very good. The have made three company acquisitions in the mapping space and they are using that talent to create a complete mapping database. Add that to the fact that they, at times, have had more cash on hand than the US government and you have to feel confident they will produce.

What was not discussed, however, is what really lies at the heart of strong mapping offer in today’s world. Sure, Apple might be able to make a cleaner, faster more reliable map but the data that goes on top of it (i.e. Google Place Pages and other information) is what rounds out a map experience. As we have seen with Google, creating the infrastructure to build and manage the additional information that enhances a map experience is the catch. Notice I didn’t say support because Google doesn’t support much of anything in their maps ecosystem unless you are a super user or the squeakiest wheel.

So what will be on top of this incredible map offering? Will it be more than the name, address, phone number and simple directions? What other services will enhance the maps offering? When I am traveling by car to a strange place the Layers function in the Android Maps offering is great to look for restaurants, gas stations etc etc. Google Offers is now being offered in a Groupon Now like delivery. Will Apple’s maps now bring Apple into areas that are not their core competency?

Let’s face it. Apple can do whatever it wants because it can buy whatever it wants. What will it do to truly out pace Google Maps? Any ideas? If you could ask for anything what would you like a maps service do on an iOS device?

Facebook is about to go public with what will be one of the most discussed, examined and hyped IPO’s in history. We are all pretty fed up familiar with that story.

If you have been watching Facebook as of late, they are acting like a person who is entertaining a large group of people at their house and realized that it needed some serious clean-up work to be truly presentable. The latest effort to tidy up for money lenders is the introduction of the new ‘Terms and Policies Hub‘. In a nutshell, it’s the place where the myriad terms and conditions, privacy policies and the like reside. Mashable reports

Facebook, infamous for its changing policies and confusion among users about what they’re getting themselves into when they use the world’s largest social network, has finally aggregated all its terms and policies under the same roof.

That roof — Facebook.com/policies — contains, in the words of Facebook, “Everything you need to know, all in one place.” The Facebook Terms and Policies Hub, as it’s called, is clear and easy to navigate, with headlined links and sub-headlines. However, all of these links actually lead to a lot of information.

Infamous is a fair word to use when it comes to Facebook and policies, wouldn’t you say?

Facebook could have done something like this years ago to look more transparent to their all-important users but they didn’t. Why? I can only speculate but when I do I go to a dark place. They worked very hard over the past 8 years to put together the user base that would net them the payday they are about to get. ‘They’ can be read as Mark Zuckerberg in this case.

To get people to ‘buy in’ Facebook put up the front on many occasions that the were concerned about their users’ privacy but let’s face it, they’re not. They never have been and, in the process, we have all learned to accept it as ‘just the way it is’.

I am not begrudging Facebook their ‘success’. There will be many millionaires minted on the actual IPO date (and a few billionaires as well) and that was the goal all along. Facebook’s team has accomplished that. Along the way, though, they have established a new level of ‘do whatever it takes’ thinking that has made online business a seedier place than it used to be (and that’s saying something).

Look at what the latest app darling, Socialcam is doing to get numbers that will attract a buyer with deep pockets. They are positioned as a service that helps share user generated content through the app. Well, that takes some time for people to actually do that so rather than wait they are simply stealing taking YouTube videos that are obviously not new and passing them off as something Socialcam helped create. In other words, they are lying. Why are they doing it? To get traction so they can get bought and make money. How are they doing it? On the backs of growing hordes of unsuspecting accomplices in their video spamming empire. And for what? The money, not the improvement of the web experience. They are simply following Facebook’s lead and it will probably end in a big payday for a select few.

Facebook has created a business environment that says it’s OK to push the limits far beyond that of decency and good taste. Why? Because it is rewarded with power and lots of money.

Eight years of playing loose with people’s privacy is now neatly summed up and prettied up for the people visiting with large sums of money. Kind of convenient, isn’t it? But it’s all in the interest of the user, right? C’mon, we can’t be that gullible now, can we?

Do you sell things online? Yes? Great, cause I have some terrific news for you. Online retail spending is up 17% year-over-year. comScore says that in Q1 2012 alone, online retail spending hit $44.3 billion.

It’s weird, everyday I hear people talking about the bad economy and how it’s killing businesses but here’s online retail showing double-digit growth for the sixth consecutive quarter.

Scan this chart and feel good about yourself:

Now, if I was a glass half empty person (hush, you), I could say that it’s a nice rise since 2007 but not phenomenal. But when you look at the slump in 2008 – 2009, then the rise after that, it’s very uplifting. Don’t you think?

comScore’s Gian Fulgoni agrees with me;

“While the economic recovery continues to be painfully slow, the channel shift to e-commerce appears to be accelerating. This presents opportunities but also challenges for brick-and-mortar retailers if they can’t hold onto their offline market share in the digital world. E-commerce has reached critical mass in several product categories, and it will be important to monitor these sales trends by category in order to correctly gauge the impact e-commerce is having on overall retailer performance.”

Critical mass, huh? Winners this past quarter include Digital Content & Subscriptions, Computer Software, Consumer Electronics, Jewelry & Watches and Event Tickets. They all shot up at least 17% over last year. Honing in on the last two, we can see America returning to her old ways spending money on entertainment and luxury items.

comScore says that 48.8% of the transactions in the first quarter of 2012 included free shipping. This is the largest they’ve seen for a non-holiday period. We know that shipping costs is one of the things that trips up online buyers so finding away to make shipping free is bound to swing more sales your way.

Then we come to my favorite portion of the show – the tablet! 38% of tablet owners used it to buy online in the past month. You’ll never guess which category took the prize for top sales. Apparel!

So here’s to all the folks that sell things online, from handmade iPod cozies to macaroni and cheese by the case, it’s time to rejoice. Treat yourself to a break and a treat, then get back to work. Those numbers won’t keep climbing without help from you and yours.

Social gaming has been a hot spot for developers for awhile now, but a new study by Frank N. Magid Associates shows that their primary demographic is slipping.

While men rule the game controller at home, it’s always been women who led the charge online. And it’s been a heck of a charge, 81 million people play a social game once a day and total social gaming revenue for the year is expected to top 1,323 million.

The new numbers from Magid show a drop in the female demographic:

• Females age 12-17 down from 54% in 2011
• Females 25-44 down from 40% in 2011

Those are roller coaster-sized drops and though there’s been an increase in social gaming with seniors, their rise doesn’t make up for the loss.

• Males age 45-54 up 15% from 2011
• Males age 55-64 up 9% from 2011
• Females age 45-54 up 9% from 2011
• Females age 55-64 up 10% from 2011

Even if the seniors can replace the younger, bored players, it’s the dollars that count and that’s going down, too. The report states that 34% of gamers will be spending less this year with the average per person dropping from $78 to $51.

So what happened? There are more social game choices than ever before and that seems to have had the reverse affect on gaming. Has the novelty worn off? I don’t play much, but even I’ve noticed that every new game is basically a re-themed version of a game I’ve played before. Maybe we’re all waiting for the next big thing or maybe it’s simply time for the pendulum to swing back.

We came to social gaming from the console and now console spending is on the rise. Of course, the distinction between the two isn’t so clear anymore. Magid says that two-thirds of home gamers go online with their consoles several times a week. Downloadable Content for consoles is driving the dollars in this area with 45% of players saying they plan to spend more this year. Add that to the expected 10% growth in console players and that’s where the money is.

Console, mobile or Facebook, gaming is still one of the more popular forms of entertainment and why not. Thanks to gaming you can spend your afternoon racing in the Indy 500, fighting zombies or building your own kingdom without ever breaking a sweat. Why exercise when a machine can do it for you?

Bing has introduced its new look for its search offering today. It will be rolling out to US users over the coming weeks and the m.bing.com search option for mobile devices will be getting it as well. From the Bing blog

The new Bing introduces a brand new information architecture with a three column design that focuses on bringing you information from the web to help you take action and interact with friends and experts without compromising the core search experience.

Sounds like an interesting take. Here’s Bing’s video presentation with Director of Bing Search, Stefan Weitz. It’s a little longish but worth the look so you get the tour of the new Bing and the theory behind it.

Video: Spend Less Time Searching, More Time Doing: Introducing the New Bing

The next video is a much shorter and more marketing flavored take on the new look and features.

I am excited for a new Bing. This is the time where I would normally put in some snide remarks about Bing not having a chance. Whether that is true or not, only time will tell. I do feel pretty strongly now though that Bing needs to get more traction in search with a much larger audience to put all the “Google is unfair” talk to rest. I would LOVE to see these two go toe-to-toe in a business battle that is based on out-featuring each other and making real improvements that help real people. It would be good for us all.

What about you? Are you rooting for Bing?

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Facebook has announced their new app center.

From the Facebook Developer blog

Today, we’re announcing the App Center, a new place for people to find social apps. The App Center gives developers an additional way to grow their apps and creates opportunities for more types of apps to be successful.

In the coming weeks, people will be able to access the App Center on the web and in the iOS and Android Facebook apps. All canvas, mobile and web apps that follow the guidelines can be listed. All developers should start preparing today to make sure their app is included for the launch.

The App Center will apparently be driven by some strict quality control measures and high ratings for apps will be the way that apps get promoted. If you are not meeting the standard you won’t get the audience.

That’s all well and good but let’s jump to the meat of this offering. It’s about mobile and considering the latest mobile confessions from Facebook we may be getting to just how important this move could be for Facebook. The blog post continues

Driving mobile installs

The App Center is designed to grow mobile apps that use Facebook – whether they’re on iOS, Android or the mobile web. From the mobile App Center, users can browse apps that are compatible with their device, and if a mobile app requires installation, they will be sent to download the app from the App Store or Google Play.

This is a way for Facebook to monetize the mobile user that could take pressure off ad sales for mobile which seems to have Facebook a bit jittery these days.

So how could apps make money for Facebook since many will be free? Well, they all won’t be

Paid Apps

Many developers have been successful with in-app purchases, but to support more types of apps on Facebook.com, we will give developers the option to offer paid apps. This is a simple-to-implement payment feature that lets people pay a flat fee to use an app on Facebook.com. If you are interested in the beta program, please sign up to receive more information.

Facebook is getting creative and they are seeing that moving forward in the world of social won’t be a walk in the park. Once they are public the curtain will be pulled away to reveal either the real Wizard of Oz or the little man pulling levers and yelling into a microphone.

Facebook is admitting that monetizing mobile through ads will be rough. People are not going to want to wade through ads on a small screen to get to updates by their friends. They just won’t. It’s the problem with mobile. Too little real estate to pay the bills.

Developers, however, will be attracted to this system as noted in a VentureBeat post. This could be an effective way to get Facebook energized in the mobile space.

As a developer, you’d naturally see a lot of opportunity from integrating with Facebook. You might get more users, you might get better data. And eventually, you might see Facebook paid apps and Facebook Credits as a nice path to monetization, as well. And when developers monetize via Credits, Facebook wins to the tune of 30 percent.

By entering the app world in this way Facebook is opening the door to other ways to get money out of mobile Facebook users. It’s something they need to show investors at this moment because the rest of their mobile story may leave investors wanting more.