New York — Yahoo Inc., a one time biggest internet player on the planet, but has been facing hard times during the past few years after Google entered the search market and rapidly replaced Yahoo as the search engine of choice for many users. But under the new rider Yahoo has been keenly engaged in shopping around its assorted businesses, seeking to make an acquisition that will allow it to become a bigger player in social networking and revamp its family of products, Chief Technology Officer Ari Balogh said last week.
According to reports in Reuters quoting Chief Technology Officer Ari Balogh said that Yahoo is looking to acquire companies that would enable it to become a player in the social networking industry and help it to revamp its family of products.
Balogh decline to describe the names of any companies that Yahoo was considering purchasing, but he would say that the country’s number two search engine has had conversations with companies about partnerships and other possibilities. One of the possibilities mentioned is building out the Yahoo platform and basic computing in addition to search.
“I can guarantee you there will be some acquisitions, and we will do some stuff in-house,” Balogh, who is executive vice president of products at Yahoo, said by videolink.
“It is a good time to be buying now,” he told audiences at the Reuters Global Technology Summit.
Balogh added that Yahoo! would look to innovate its search offering, after conceding that Google had “won the game” as far as dominating the search market was concerned. Yahoo! is expected to look towards mobile search in particular in an effort to revive its fortunes.
“I believe search is going to be far richer,” he said. “There is a whole other round or two to go in the search game and that is where we intend on playing.”
He said that Yahoo! was in a better state now to make inroads in to the mobile search and smartphone markets in the coming year, aided by a restructuring of the company which has given it greater focus and direction.
“For how many incredible applications we could have and should have [on mobile phones], for all the experience on Yahoo, we are terribly under-represented,” said Balogh.
Yahoo! said it will introduce new features across its suite of products and services that would allow users to maintain their personal settings and preferences on all Yahoo! products, including those on computers and mobile phones, he said.
Balogh added that Yahoo! will “push harder” in the area of social networking, launching a “status update” feature that will apply across all Yahoo! Sites.
The Web pioneer is striving to regain its fortunes as sales decline because of the recession and competition from other Internet heavyweights, including Google Inc.
In January, Carol Bartz took the reins as Yahoo CEO, succeeding co-founder Jerry Yang.
Another big question about the future of Yahoo’s Internet search business. Bartz and Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer have met about a potential partnership on Web search, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Balogh said any decision about a search deal was up to Bartz and Yahoo’s board of directors. But he said that whatever happens, Yahoo will continue to invest in its own search capabilities.
“The thing I will tell you is that, core to great experiences for people online may not necessarily be this version of search,” Balogh said.
He said search technology is a vital part of the consumer experience that Yahoo delivers, “and having leading edge scientists and technologists who understand search technology and where search is going is critical to Yahoo.”
Yahoo hopes that a large number of its users can give it an edge in social networking and that it can swiftly launch and build out a social networking backbone with “tuck-ins” of interesting products that are being developed by other firms.
Balogh said, “We are getting the pulse of companies you might not know about as well as interacting much more aggressively with companies you do.”