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Yahoo’s already crushed stock price has fallen further today - its down 8.36% since this morning, bringing it to a nearly five year low of $17.75. Yahoo has been as high as $34 in the last year (thanks to that Microsoft takeover bid), which means nearly $23 billion has been taken out of shareholder pockets in that period.

How long can Jerry weather this storm? Is he willing to drive the company into the ground to prove how much he hates Microsoft?

Plans must be in place at the board level to name a successor soon. In fact, I’m guessing some arrangement was made with Carl Icahn when he agreed to back off his proxy fight before the Yahoo shareholder meeting last month. If the stock price continues to fall, Yang will be forced to step down sooner (at least, any sane public company would remove him, Yahoo has not shown much sanity this year).

We’re still betting on Dan Rosensweig, who left Yahoo in December 2006, to come back. In June we named him as a possible successor should Yang bail out. Our guess is he’d take the job if asked.

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Google may be the leader in the worldwide search engine market, but in Nippon, it has some catching up to do: In 2007, Yahoo Japan saw a whopping 76% of the nearly 350 billion search engine and portal-related pageviews registered in the country, clearly outperforming Google (second with 5.4%, according to Nielsen Japan). More recently, ComScore shows that in July, Yahoo Japan had ten times as many monthly pageviews (21.9 billion versus 2.2 billion for Google) and nearly twice as many monthly unique Japanese visitors (46 million versus 26 million).

The Japanese web market is just too big to be shrugged off: The country boasts one of the highest Internet penetrations worldwide (74%, compared to 70% in the USA), a $5.7 billion online advertising market (out if one estimated to be worth $45 billion globally) and is ranked No. 3 in terms of total web population (94 million, about as many as Germany and the UK combined).

So how does Google challenge Yahoo’s position as the hub of the Japanese Internet?

In the West, the popularity of Internet portals has waned in the past years, but not in Japan, where seven sites in Alexa Japan’s Top 25 are of this kind. That forced Google to change its simplistic design for the local market: Similar to Google China, for example, the Japanese version now contains tab links to other Google properties. It also features a keyword suggestion function in the searchbox.

Nippon-only initiatives include allowing users of Mixi (Japan’s biggest social network) to embed Google Maps on their blogs, partnering up with web company Hatena (which operates Japan’s most popular social bookmarking service) and launching “One Green Project”, a microsite dedicated to prevent global warming.

But these measures are just of the cosmetic kind. In fact, Google Japan keeps localization of its fixed Internet site at a relatively low level (it doesn’t transform into a Yahoo-like portal site, for example). Instead, the company aims at taking over the Japanese market with a double-staged approach: Avoid Yahoo and take over the (bigger) mobile web market first to win the fixed Internet later.

Mash-up Strategy of Collaboration, Experimentation and Circumvention
Japanese cell phone carriers can regulate which search engine their Internet service subscribers use by default. A good spot on the official, pre-installed starting menus is crucial to winning the mass market.

That’s why in January this year, Google Japan inked a deal with the country’s leading telecom company NTT Docomo, following a partnership with the country’s No. 2 carrier KDDI au that started in 2006 (both mobile partners also were among the first to join the Open Handset Alliance but have been rather close-mouthed about Android development ever since).

Google’s mobile strategy—in Japan and possibly elsewhere—depends on whether the 74 million Docomo and KDDI au Internet subscribers will embrace the Googlization of their mobile web life.  (Compare that number to the 15 million subscribers that the No. 3 carrier, Yahoo partner SoftBank, serves in this country)

Both NT Docomo and KDDi au incorporated Google’s search engine directly into their default start menus, synthesizing content from both mobile and PC web sites (including the display of contextual text ads). Users can also easily access Google Calendar, Youtube and other Google services. Some Docomo handsets now come with pre-installed Google Maps Mobile. In addition, Google gets access to a massive amount of behavioral data in the world’s most advanced mobile web market. So it’s no wonder Google Japan says its partnerships have had “a huge impact” on business and traffic (although it refuses to disclose specific details).

The company additionally uses insular, cell phone-enamored Japan as an isolated testbed for unique mobile web applications and services to be deployed worldwide at a later stage.

It’s not only about search and ads: KDDI au, for example, started to offer a rebranded, Japan-only version of mobile Gmail (“au one mail”). The service is free of charge and can also be accessed through PCs, doubling as a Trojan horse for Google to attack Yahoo Mail’s premier position in Nippon’s email arena. Japan is also the world’s first country where users can integrate animated picture characters into their mobile Gmails (very important in Nippon) and use Google Mobile to get extra-fast info after earthquakes strike.

The holistic strategy the company pursues not only avoids a losing, long-term confrontation with Yahoo Japan but also strengthens the brand among Japanese web users and the mobile industry in general. The company also gains insights on how to improve and adjust its search technology for the Japanese and international markets.

One examplary finding John Lagerling, head of Google’s Wireless Business in the region, publicly shares: Contrary to popular belief, traffic on mobile Google doesn’t get a big bump in the morning (when millions of Japanese commute to work and school) but peaks from 6pm through bed-time at 1am. Lagerling expects usage trends like this to be repeated outside of Japan once flat-rate data plans and browser-enabled handsets prevail on a global level.

Google’s multilayered strategy certainly makes sense strategically: Japanese people usually demonstrate unwavering loyalty in established, popular uber-brands like Yahoo. Google still needs to prove a) its now beneficial partnerships will sustain, b) it can really take over Yahoo’s place through the backdoor, c) what role Android will play in the future and d) how much Google’s Japan-specific experiences can shape the mobile web on a global level.

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The mass exodus of both execs and rank and file employees at Yahoo continues. In fact the real defections may just be getting started at a high percentage of employees vest on lucrative restricted stock units this month.

Yahoo’s head of communications Jill Nash continues to try to keep the resignations as quiet as possible, and suggests informally to press that most of the high level departures are really just a cleaning house procedure.

What a housecleaning.

Two more SVPs are bailing out. Previously reported was Todd Teresi (pictured left), SVP of Network Business. Teresi is now the Chief Revenue Officer at Quantcast.

Now we’ve heard that the number 2 exec at Yahoo Mobile, ten year Yahoo’er Steve Boom (pictured right), has resigned as well. Boom started in Yahoo’s London office in a business development role. More recently he oversaw Yahoo’s broadband partnerships with AT&T, Rogers, BT and Verizon.

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Buzz, Yahoo’s Digg-like effort to leverage reader gestures and third party content in determining the most popular news, removes it’s barriers to entry tonight.

Until now only a hundred or so invited publishers could post news to Buzz. This was a big plug - Yahoo pushes a few Yahoo Buzz stories to their home page every day, resulting in huge, server-melting traffic surges to the lucky third party sites. Starting tonight, the invitation requirement is gone, and anyone can submit their stories to Buzz.

It’s hard to compare Buzz to Digg. Like AOL’s Propeller, they chose to add editorial discretion in determining headlines to reduce gaming. That also seems to make users less interested in participating, though. In Yahoo’s case the fact that they promote headline stories on the home page of Yahoo gives them a huge traffic boost, which skews results.

Stories can be submitted here once it goes live in a few hours.

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All of a sudden, Yahoo and Google want to make it easy for you to opt out of their ad targeting on both their sites and across the Web. Yahoo announced a new one-click opt-out policy today, and Google made it possible to opt out of both Google and Doubleclick ad targeting with one click yesterday.

At least Yahoo was honest enough to come out and say that the new policy was a direct response to Congressional scrutiny over the intrusiveness of online advertising and behavioral targeting. Google’s announcement was buried in a blog post about Doubleclick cookies.

The truth is that both Yahoo and Google would rather take symbolic action themselves than be forced to take a more draconian one later. Who’s going to bother to opt out of ad targeting? Some people will, but the vast majority of people probably won’t. What would really mess up Yahoo’s and Google’s advertising ROIs is if Congress mandated that ad-targeting (via cookies) be opt-in. They’d surely get even fewer people opting in for those cookies than they will now get opting out. I know I’m too lazy to do either.

But if you don’t want those cookies, you can decline Yahoo’s here and Google’s here

(Flickr photo by scubadive67).

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In preparation for the start of the summer Olympics on August 8, Yahoo has added Olympic-themed Shortcuts to its search results. Yahoo Shortcuts serve up contextually relevant content from various Yahoo properties inline within the search results. Now, whenever somebody searches for Olympic results, news, or athletes, different Shortcut widgets will pop up.

A search for “Olympics medal count,” for instance, will generate the table above, which comes from Yahoo Sports. A search for “Olympics medal China” will bring up only that country’s medal count.

Searching for an athlete’s name, like swimmer “Michael Phelps,” will bring up a picture, news stories about him from Yahoo News, and stats as well.

With Shortcuts like these, Yahoo is blurring the line between search results and content by offering up key pieces of data right on the main search page. And if you click off for a deeper dive, you end up going to other Yahoo properties. Exposing Yahoo content within search results is designed to help drive more traffic back to Yahoo—which is all right, as long as it’s useful. Sometimes Yahoo’s Shortcuts can serve up inappropriate results as well (but it is probably being extra careful with these to avoid any embarrassment).

Update: Google is doing the same thing with OneBox results for Olympic-related searches.

Update 2: The Michael Phelps Shortcut image above is what you currently get if you search for his name. Once the Olympics start, athlete names will turn up a shortcut that looks like this:

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In a demonstration of just how open Yahoo search can be, one of its senior engineers has created a simple search mashup that combines Yahoo’s BOSS framework and Google’s App Engine. Yahoo BOSS allows developers to create their own customized search apps based on Yahoo’s search engine, and the Google App Engine is a platform for hosting apps. Vik Singh, the engineer who leads the Yahoo Boss project (and a former Google engineer) created a simple Question-Answering Service, where you put in a question, and it tries to come up with the answer based on the top 50 results from Yahoo. (So, if you ask, “Who invented the light bulb?,” it looks for the most popular dates in the top 50 results and returns: “Thomas Edison”).

Singh explains in his blog that he was able to create this demo with just 50 lines of code. This is not the first time a Yahoo BOSS app is running on Google’s App Engine (Cuil knock-off Yuil, now 4hoursearch, is also a mashup of the two services). But it does show how seriously Yahoo is taking its open-search strategy.

As I’ve argued in the past, Yahoo needs to out-open Google if it is going to have any chance at competing in search. Even if it’s too late to catch up to Google in core search, an open approach could help Yahoo differentiate its product, win over developers, and open up new avenues of search that Google is currently ignoring. And being open means embracing Google as well.

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The Yahoo shareholder meeting is going on right now, but already not everything is going according to plan. Yahoo was able to avoid a showdown today with activist investor Carl Icahn by agreeing to open up three board seats. Icahn is taking one, and the board will vote for the other two members. Former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller was added to the list of candidates at the request of Yahoo, and was considered a shoo-in for one of the two other available seats. Not anymore.

At the 11th hour last night, Time Warner decided to object to Miller’s appointment to the board, according to three sources, including a former AOL executive close to Miller. Without Time Warner’s blessing, Miller cannot serve on Yahoo’s board since he is still under a non-compete agreement with AOL.

Why Time Warner would decide to do this is unclear. Before Yahoo and Carl Icahn publicly disclosed Miler’s name as an addition to the slate of people Yahoo’s board will choose from to fill the extra seats, Time Warner gave the green light to Miller’s inclusion. Now the strategy has changed, and last night Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes reneged on his earlier approval in a phone call to Miller. It gave no reason for the about-face. (Former Viacom CEO Frank Biondi is now a favorite to take one of the two available board seats).

When Jerry Yang found out about this he was “fucking livid,” says a source. Miller was someone Yang felt he could work with on the board and lean on for advice, given Miller’s past experience running AOL. Miller was someone Icahn was happy with as well.

So Time Warner just pissed off one of two possible buyers for AOL. Time Warner management has been obsessed with trying to sell off AOL, and the only two realistic buyers are Yahoo and Microsoft. “It is the entire AOL strategy,” says the former AOL executive. Now,Time Warner is angering a potential bidder for AOL, and effectively giving Microsoft more leverage to give a lowball offer. Institutional shareholders, many of whom own large chunks of both Yahoo and Time Warner, won’t be too happy about that.

“If you are the SS Titanic of AOL, you have to be friends with everybody,” says the befuddled former AOL exec. What is ironic is that if anyone could have made a Yahoo-AOL deal work it would have been Miller.

So does Time Warner think that it can make Yahoo less attractive to Microsoft, and AOL more attractive, by keeping Miller off the board? Or can Jeff Bewkes simply not stand the thought of Miller (whom he removed as CEO of AOL in favor of his own guy) becoming the CEO of a merged Yahoo-AOL down the road? That might make Bewkes’ earlier decision look stupid, especially given AOL’s poor performance since the switch. In business, it’s always personal.

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Secure in knowing that he will get minority seats on Yahoo’s board, Carl Icahn has decided to skip tomorrow’s shareholder meeting. He doesn’t want to cause a “media event,” he says. (Because he’s so shy, you know).

Seriously, it’s probably a good idea for him not to show up. On his blog he explains his reasons, and his thinking on why he settled for a compromise deal with Yahoo instead of going ahead with a full proxy battle:

Realizing I could not gain control, I saw no point in spending the final two weeks in a debilitating fight, where little would be accomplished except to build animosity between both camps and the end result would be no better than the compromise that was reached. In fact, in winning a minority position on a board by a fight to the end, you always have to be concerned that you may be “boxed” out by the majority that remains on the board. Committees can be formed that you are excluded from and you are given information only on a need to know basis. An important part of my compromise with Yahoo is that the board in the settlement agreement has agreed “that any meaningful transaction, including the strategy in dealing with that transaction, will be fully discussed with the entire board before any final decision is made.” Additionally, if any committee is formed to negotiate a meaningful transaction, Carl Icahn will be a member of that committee.

In other words, it might become a media and shareholder circus tomorrow. But don’t look for anything “meaningful” to happen until afterwards, when the new board is in place.

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Caterina Fake, who co-founded Flickr along with her husband Stewart Butterfield in 2004, has announced her plans to join a fledgling new startup called Hunch. Flickr is one of the web’s most popular photo-sharing sites, and was acquired by Yahoo in 2005 for $35 million. Since then, Flickr has been one of Yahoo’s most successful properties, but Fake left the company in June as part of the executive exodus from the struggling search giant.

In her blog post on the matter, Fake says that she will be joining Hunch as Chief Product Officer. Details about the New York-based startup are very slim at this point, and Fake’s description doesn’t shed much light on the matter:

“What is Hunch? Well, as you might assume, it is a consumer internet application, it will have a lot of user participation, and it is more than a little fun. Beyond that, we’re still making it up.”

Beyond that nebulous description, Fake offers few details beyond stating that Butterfield won’t be involved with the project.

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The mystery announcement we mentioned yesterday was just released - Yahoo, Hewlett Packard and Intel are jointly announcing a new cloud computing research initiative called the Cloud Computing Test Bed. Users will be able to build and launch new applications on the platform.

It’s being described as “a globally distributed, Internet-scale testing environment designed to encourage research on the software, data center management and hardware issues associated with cloud computing at a larger scale than ever before.” Other partners include the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) (which is distinct from the MDA, I believe, which is unfortunate), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany:

The test bed will initially consist of six “centers of excellence” at IDA facilities, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Steinbuch Centre for Computing of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, HP Labs, Intel Research and Yahoo!. Each location will host a cloud computing infrastructure, largely based on HP hardware and Intel processors, and will have 1,000 to 4,000 processor cores capable of supporting the data-intensive research associated with cloud computing. The test bed locations are expected to be fully operational and made accessible to researchers worldwide through a selection process later this year.

The test bed will leverage Yahoo!’s technical leadership in open source projects by running Apache Hadoop — an open source, distributed computing project of the Apache Software Foundation — and other open source, distributed computing software such as Pig, the parallel programming language developed by Yahoo! Research.

“The HP, Intel and Yahoo! Cloud Computing Test Bed furthers our commitment to the global, collaborative research community that is advancing the new sciences of the Internet,” said Prabhakar Raghavan, head of Yahoo! Research. “With this test bed, not only can researchers test applications at Internet scale, they will also have access to the underlying computing systems to advance understanding of how systems software and hardware function in a cloud environment.”

Researchers at HP Labs, the central research arm of HP, will use the test bed to conduct advanced research in the areas of intelligent infrastructure and dynamic cloud services. HP Labs recently sharpened its focus to help HP and its customers capitalize on the industry’s shift toward cloud computing, a driving force behind HP’s vision of Everything as a Service. With Everything as a Service, devices and services will interact seamlessly through the cloud, and businesses and individuals will use services that anticipate their needs based on location, preferences, calendar and communities.

More on Yahoo, HP and Intel’s websites. This gets Yahoo in the game that Microsoft, Amazon and Google have been playing for some time.

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