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Marissa Mayer speaks at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC 2012 this past May in New York City. Mayer was appointed president and chief executive officer of Yahoo Inc., the multinational Internet corporation. (Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images for TechCrunch/AOL)
Yahoo named Google Local, Maps, and Locations Services vice president, Marissa Mayer, to the position of CEO Tuesday, making her the fifth chief executive in five years for the troubled Internet search portal.
Mayer was the 20th employee of Google with an undergraduate and Masters Degree in Computer Science from Stanford University.
Interim CEO, Ross Levinsohn, was thought to be the new head of the Sunnyvale-based Internet company when he stepped in as a temporary replacement for Scott Thompson, who resigned after an alleged fabrication in his educational credentials.
However, the choice of Mayer for CEO is seen as a significant acquisition of leadership and insight within the field of Internet Search Technology.
With the CEO announcement Mayer also announced her pregnancy, with a due date of some time in October, sparking controversy amid industry insiders questioning whether full disclosure was had within the entire executive vetting process.
Despite the pregnancy, the more significant criticism with the appointment among tech analysts is whether Mayer’s heavy focus on product development will strengthen Yahoo, however, the significant lack of vision relates with its content offerings, an element not seen within the former Google VP’s experiential arsenal.
“While Ms. Mayer does not possess a content background, we expect Yahoo’s media strategy to continue forward with an emphasis on developing and improving its content offerings, as Yahoo’s core content properties remain its greatest assets for driving traffic, in our view”” said Barclays Capital analyst Anthony DiClemente in a note to investors.
This among analysts and tech insiders emphasizes the re-envisioned Yahoo as far from the Internet search company it was originally born as.
“Since it has either sold off its other assets—in the case of its search business—or de-emphasized them to the point of irrelevance (as it arguably has with properties such as Flickr), Yahoo as it exists now is primarily an online media company. And Mayer has virtually no experience with anything approaching the media business, unless you consider Google to be a media company whose content consists of search results,” said contributing editor to GigaOM,Mark Ingram.
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