The Ungoogle

Michael Malone at Wired calls Yahoo the "Ungoogle":

While Google was busy becoming what Yahoo! used to be, Yahoo! has become what AOL should have been.

Google is on its way to Redmond to battle Microsoft later this decade, while Yahoo! is going Hollywood.

I think this is overstated. While Google is more focused on technology, both companies are innovating, both are competing against Microsoft, and both continue to develop media products.

In the same article, Yahoo CEO Terry Semel talks about Yahoo's focus on increased customization and personalization:

Customizing the site down to the neighborhood level will make it more appealing to users and indispensable to advertisers. "If you are looking for a plumber or a pizza parlor, you don't want one 3,000 miles away," Semel says. "You want your search to be customized just for you."

Yahoo does have an advantage here. Many Yahoo users have already entered their zip code at some point or another into Yahoo's systems. Although implicit data like geolocation on your IP address can provide a guess on your location, that might only be good enough for targeting local advertising, not local search.