Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is speaking out publicly for the first time since taking charge of that company at Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women Summit.”
Jon Fortt reports, “No bombshells from Mayer, but she did talk about what Yahoo will, and won’t do, and her own personal priorities.”
“Yahoo has been getting locked out of the mobile app space. Mail is one of the Yahoo’s most important web franchises, driving traffic to other propeties, but that doesn’t translate on smartphones where most people use a native app for email,” Fortt reports. “In properties like sports, Yahoo does supply data to Apple’s Siri, for example, but that’s not the same as owning their own mobile franchise. And n categories like sports and finance, where Yahoo is strong on the web, it ranks 8th and 16th, in the app realm.”
Fortt reports, “That said, Yahoo is not going to try to do everything in mobile, one area Mayer said she won’t touch is maps. Mayer said, ‘I’ve done maps in my former life. It’s very expensive, very hard to do well. Apple is finding that out. So, we’re not going to do maps, right?'”
Direct link to video here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s Maps are fine*, getting better every day, and, regardless of your comments, we still love you, Marissa**!
*even if it is irrecoverably tarnished by the incompetence of now-removed employees and the idiocy of the media echo chamber.
**despite that hellishly annoying giggle.
Great comment! 🙂
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s Maps are fine*, getting better every day, and, regardless of your comments, we still love you, Marissa**!
remember the days on the internet when you could watch a 20 second clip without a 30 second ad?
Link take you to a flash video. Can’t see it on iOS
There are multiple apps that will let you watch Flash on iOS devices. Sadly, there are still times when we do want/need to see some Flash video. Go get an app.
There is a need for the ability to show video and that ability is there.
There is however no such thing as a need for Flash (other than the need for it to completely go away.)
MDN’s take encapsulates exactly the PROBLEM with Apple Maps. Apple used to be best-in-class. In maps, they’re settling for “fine?”
And of course, it is pretty-***-far-from-fine for any user who wants to ride a tram, train, bus, or ferry.
Sounds like you need Windows blue, and Apple Maps is best in class for turn by turn works every time.
What’s with the take, MDN? She didn’t say Apple’s map service was good, nor that it sucked, nor that it wasn’t going to get better. She merely stated the fact that mapping is hard and Apple fell prey to their own hubris.
+1
Criticizing Apple is the only unforgivable sin except not heaping wild sycophantic praise on cue and in unison.
Anyone who uses sycophant in a sentence is alright with me.
You are a MacFreak sycophant. I assume that I am still “alright” with you.
I don’t really think MDN was critical of Marissa…OK, the giggle thing was harsh.
I don’t know about the hubris thing. They put it out before it was ready, I think we all agree. As to whether that was hubris, I have not read convincing information. We do know that Google would not allow turn-by-turn and Apple wanted that. This was not a case of Apple simply saying “we dont need Google!”, which for me would be the signal of hubris.
The Marissa giggle was 9.5 on the gagmeter, ahead of the Seinfeld annoying laugh woman at 8.0.
Get used to it.
Marissa has a gag meter?
Thoughts turn away from all things Apple.
@DRMSSDB
They put it out before it was ready and called it “the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever.”
See: http://www.iclarified.com/24828/apple-stops-calling-maps-the-most-beautiful-powerful-mapping-service-ever
Wait. Where’s testicle-brain with his asinine ‘maps suck’ commentary?
I have used maps over and over again and have been disappointed only as much as is normal for any map app. Thanks to the controversy I discovered Waze and use it daily.
Apple: Buy Waze.
Apple don’t waste billions (see HP 38 billion) on crappy existing companies, continue building Maps from the ground up and save billions.
Actually they bought an existing mapping company to build their maps app.
good purchase
In fact they bought at least two mapping companies that I can think of. PlaceBase and Poly9.
i love apple and it pains me to say that i find the apple maps inferior to google maps. however i feel secure in the fact that Eddy Cue is now in charge and the 2 idiots who created this mess are fired, so i am very very hopeful. give apple time and the maps will be first class
Why is it inferior? Most people that use Maps like it a lot.
Including me.
If a person likes using Google’s Street View, then one could say Apple maps are inferior in that respect since Apple maps don’t offer a Street View. It had been claimed that Apple’s mapping dataset looked relatively empty compared to most of the datasets that have been around a good deal longer. That being said, with as much money as Apple has to throw around, they should have gotten a much better start. Apple tried to cut corners or save a few bucks and it didn’t work out all that well. OK, let’s give Apple some time to do better but Apple better put some serious effort into it or it will be left behind. Apple needs to hire an experienced team of mapping experts and let them go crazy with a fat mapping budget.
All I know is that Yahoo Mail never plays nice with the Mail.app. unlike Gmail. Always hangs, or asks for my password. Update the backend, Marissa!
Uh, she won’t be needin’ to do that anytime soon.
You, use Gmail Hmm…
I have heard that Yahoo Mail sometimes causes problems with Mail.app. But I get my Yahoo Mail on Mail and have not had any problems at all.
Hey…where’s our favorite Marissa eye candy pic??? 🙂
Added!
Thank you MDN.
Now that is what I call a CEO!
Is that an apple she’s riding?
I think all the flack Apple gets is entirely undue. No cloud based system has ever been released free of problems and issues. The fact is, you can’t test these things without mass usage. iOS 6 Maps should’ve been released under Beta status just as Siri was. That was the only real mistake they made. Most mapping solutions have been around for years and they STILL have problems of their own; I was looking for a funeral home earlier this year, iOS 5 Maps had it one block north of where it was actually located. So far, iOS 6 Maps has worked flawlessly (not that I use maps much).
I was expecting you to say that you were looking for a funeral home and it set your destination as ” One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA” 😉
My god! The infatuation with MM on this board is so nauseating. Like watching “Big Bang Theory” in real life.
She probably didn’t get where she is without being banged by Schmidt. Last time I heard her speak pretty much confirmed it. Now, after today’s comments it is pretty much a certainty.
Hey, “More Years,” perhaps you haven’t seen some of her more aggressive business interviews. You’re off base criticizing her. She knows what she’s doing. Stock is up. She’s got a plan and it seems workable at the moment. Everyone before her has failed. It’s still early, but she seems to be pulling things together there. Having someone beautiful AND bright may be strange to you, but it’s not for many of the rest of us. I admit to being surprised that they hired her. But it clearly seems to have been the right move to this point. Post your scumness elsewhere.
If men can be handsome and bright (like me), then so can women. I know a bunch. I don’t MM, but she is an above-average looking human being. And I doubt the Yahoo board would have hired here just for banging Schmidt (she looks way out of his league anyway).
Your comment disgusts me. The thought of that ugly, dirty piece of Schidt anywhere near MM is revolting.
I actually really like the Maps app. Sure, there is a location or two that it doesn’t find, but I love the implementation of turn by turn directions.
I love Maps and a turn-by-turn voice that’s understandable and accurate. It has found streets and directions that only locals would know. Keep going…
Maps are hard to do when people are paying attention to you.
No one is paying attention to Yahoo.
. . . oh hell, I’m just going to look at that photo some more!
People bought and stayed with AAPL because of the CEO (SJ).
People are now buying YHOO because of the CEO…and not (necessarily) because of the (stunning) photo of the CEO.
Fortunately, AAPL lovers don’t feel a conflict also buying a few shares of YHOO.
Search is a hard thing to do too.
Yahoo found out and became irrelevant.
That picture causes a spontaneous mess all over my iPhone when ever I see it. That’s why they call me Messy. I 💖 you Marissa!