Yes, Terry Semel reported disappointing earnings yesterday, but I want to applaud one of his actions from yesterday. Mediapost reported that “Yahoo previously said it planned to roll out Panama in the third quarter, but Semel said during Tuesday’s quarterly earnings call that the company was delaying the rollout to prevent disruption in ad purchasing and management during the holiday ad season. “We think this is the right decision for ensuring the most successful commercial launch possible,” he said, adding that advertisers should prepare to start using it in 2007.”
What I’m cheering in found in this quote from Josh Stylman from Reprise: At the same time, the delay also doesn’t hurt search engine marketers, said Josh Stylman, managing partner at Reprise Media. “It’s a pretty intense platform change,” he said. “Frankly, we’d rather make sure that it gets released properly and in a stable environment, rather than rushing it out before it’s ready.”
Congratulations to Yahoo! for putting customers need for a stable advertising experience ahead of short term earnings potential using beta software that could be disruptive to customers.