What do Yahoo’s first quarter financial results (here as a PDF) of April 18 mean to Google?
For one, there’s sobering reality. Yahoo executives reminded everyone listening to a conference call April 18 that the firm is a behemoth powerful enough to dwarf even Google.
Yahoo’s audience is 500 million a month. One of every two Internet users visits a Yahoo-branded site at least once a month, and Yahoo boasts 3.8 billion page views a day. Google may have sewn up the Internet search market, but it doesn’t post these kinds of numbers.
The Yahoo execs also suggested, in a roundabout way, that Yahoo has apparently grabbed a lot more Internet search customers in the United States, an area Google’s particularly strong in. Yahoo Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker told listeners how U.S.-based Yahoo Internet search queries grew by 15 to 20 percent year over year. All that growth has to come from somewhere.
Meanwhile, Yahoo is showing strong growth overseas, another area of contention with Google. In fact, Yahoo is running away with the Internet search market in Japan and Taiwan, CEO Terry Semel said during the call.
The two firms also apparently share the same major future initiatives, according to an outline Yahoo presented on the call.
Like Google, Yahoo will concentrate this year on user-generated content, its execs said on the call. Yahoo is particularly interested in social search, such as Yahoo Answers, in which users post questions and the community of users provides answers.
The two also apparently have mutual enthusiasm for video, one of the few premium features Google offers outside its business class search features. Yahoo execs said the firm plans to invest in its infrastructure to accommodate more video services.
And lastly, the execs said Yahoo is expecting to soon unleash an updated, do-it-yourself Internet ad feature that will supposedly generate more revenue for advertisers. So Google’s got to worry about Yahoo possibly trumping Google’s own AdSense feature, and drawing away advertisers.