BOSS

Godspeed on That Investing Thing, Yertle–But I Still Have Some Questions for Your Boss, Arianna

Kara Swisher in News on April 28, 2011 at 10:19 am PT

Would it surprise you to know that BoomTown doesn’t really care anymore if TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington sidelines as a blogger while he makes investments in tech companies his tech news site covers? Especially after reading his post yesterday that made a good argument about who he is and, frankly, who he has always been. But that does not mean his boss, AOL content head Arianna Huffington, doesn’t have some ‘splainin’ to do.

Yahoo Troops Skittish With No Word From Top on Exec Departures (So's Microsoft)

Kara Swisher in News on September 30, 2010 at 9:49 am PT

“We are wandering around and people are asking us questions and we don’t know what’s going on ourselves,” said one very nervous Yahoo ad salesperson this morning in New York for Advertising Week, the most important gathering of the year for online sales. “There’s a lot of uncertainty from an employee perspective.” You can say that again. Today, as news BoomTown broke about the departure of Yahoo’s U.S. head Hilary Schneider and two other key execs at the Internet giant spread, I have been on the receiving end of a spate of emails and calls and text messages from staffers at the Silicon Valley icon searching for information about what’s up at their own company.

The Perils of Oversharing on Facebook

Marisa Taylor, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on August 21, 2009 at 11:40 am PT

Over-sharing on Twitter and Facebook has always been annoying, but in recent months over-sharing has been in the news for getting people fired from their jobs. Digits rounded up a few of the most notable stories from this summer as cautionary tales:

Liveblogging the Yahoo Search "Chalk Talk": Kill the 10 Blue Links!

Kara Swisher in News on May 19, 2009 at 12:05 pm PT

BoomTown liveblogged Yahoo’s “chalk talk” about search earlier today, which was an update of what the Internet giant is up to in the competitive space that includes Google and Microsoft. Presenting at the event were Prabhakar Raghavan, head of Yahoo Labs and Yahoo Search Strategy; Larry Cornett, VP of Consumer Products; and Marc Davis, chief scientist of Yahoo Mobile. In summary: Kill the blue links! Intent! Objects! Open! Mobile! And, most of all, WOO!

Get Ready for a Liveblog of the Yahoo Search "Chalk Talk": No Word Yet on Erasing Google's Market Share

Kara Swisher in News on May 19, 2009 at 10:33 am PT

Later today, as BoomTown reported last week, Yahoo is putting on a search party. Well, not a “party” party–although there will apparently be some lunch noshing at the “Search chalk talk,” during which top techies at the Internet giant will talk up the strategy for its more innovative products. At its HQ in Silicon Valley last week, Google put on a similar show-off about its latest search innovations, as both it and Yahoo brace for the launch a major overhaul of the search offering of Microsoft, which is expected soon. I’ll be liveblogging the Yahoo event, which begins at 11:30 a.m. PDT.

This Week, Google Talked Search; Next Week, Yahoo Does–a.k.a. Kumo-FUD

Kara Swisher in News on May 14, 2009 at 3:47 pm PT

Suddenly, search! Earlier this week, Google put on a show called “Searchology” about its latest search innovations at its Mountain View HQ. And next Tuesday, Yahoo will trot out its search extravaganza, called “Search chalk talk,” during which top search techies will talk up its more innovative products, such as Build Your Own Search (BOSS) and Search Monkey. Could all this search blabbing have anything to do with a certain upcoming launch of a new search offering by a very rich and even more determined giant tech company? As in: Microsoft and whatever it ends up calling its redone search product, code-named Kumo.

Time for AOLers to Meet Their New Sales Boss, Again

Peter Kafka in Media on April 30, 2009 at 6:12 am PT

Kara Swisher broke the story last night, but for the record, here’s the AOL press release announcing the Time Warner unit’s umpteenth new sales boss. Meet Jeff Levick, a Google vet who replaces Yahoo vet Greg Coleman, who just started in February.

Liveblogging the Yahoo Fourth-Quarter Earnings Call: Yes, We Can

Kara Swisher in News on January 27, 2009 at 3:21 pm PT

Oh, a nice tiny surprise from Yahoo, as it reported its fourth-quarter results, which came in at 17 cents a share in adjusted earnings, compared to the 12 to 13 cents Wall Street was expecting. “Despite the challenging economic environment, Yahoo! delivered adjusted operating cash flow above the midpoint of guidance for the fourth quarter,” said new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz in the company’s official release. But let’s experience Bartz Live and Unplugged at the fourth-quarter earnings call, including a Q&A in which–the company noted at the top of the call–former Yahoo CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang might make an unexpected cameo appearance. (He didn’t.)

Yahoo Search Gone Wild?

Kara Swisher in News on July 10, 2008 at 8:47 am PT

Did Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang have an extra bowl of Wheaties recently? If so, it could be a very good thing. In what is most definitely much more than a glimmer of innovative spark for Yahoo, the company has opened up its search technology to allow anyone to build their own search engine in a project dubbed BOSS.