Pinned Tweet
Appreciate the deep dive and as @rustybrick, @mgsiegler and others have noted these were all core values of the product from the start.
Also important to note that the quality (and distinctiveness) of our answers stems in large part from the unique, structured Yahoo data that we package up and send to the LLM. This will amp up even more as we add personalization for our logged in users.
🤖 Yahoo! released Scout, its new AI search engine, a few days ago, and it has, hands down, the most “open web” friendly interface compared to ChatGPT or AI Mode… and honestly, the best interface overall 👇
I’ve been comparing Yahoo! Scout vs. ChatGPT & AI Mode across answer quality, formats, and link inclusion, testing different search intents and verticals, and I couldn’t believe how consistently Yahoo! Scout delivers a more user- and open-web-friendly answer experience:
* Across most answers, it features a prominent, highlighted “Read More” button linking directly to the most relevant source behind the answer.
* It includes links to external sites directly within the answers, starting from the very first paragraph, often showing dozens of links to original sources (in addition to linking to all sources together at the end in a sidebar). In contrast, other AI platforms include far fewer links in the answer itself, and mostly push users to a sidebar to access external sources.
* It’s honestly crazy that after so much time of complaints from website owners, publishers, and the SEO community, Yahoo! ends up releasing a far more “open web”-friendly interface in its AI platform than… Google, that has supposedly been committed to improving theirs.
Although I was skeptical when I first saw the announcement, I’m more than happy to eat my words, and I want to congratulate Yahoo! for designing not only an easy-to-use interface, but one that genuinely incentivizes users to keep browsing the sites where the answers come from 👏
I really hope product managers and designers at @Google and @OpenAI take note.
Jim Lanzone retweeted
Excited to be on @MTSlive today at 11:40am PT! Tune in to hear us dig into the new @Yahoo Scout, the rebuilt Yahoo Search and why the open web matters more than ever. 🎙️
ANTHROPIC IPO | SHORT TIMELINES | MERCOR RAISES xitter.twitterapi.xyz/i/broadcasts/2BlPrbmVN…
Jim Lanzone retweeted
I’d bet you didn’t have Yahoo! creating the most innovative search experience this year on your bingo card. But here we are.
Https://scout.yahoo.com
Yahoo Scout is officially out of beta and ready to rock. @FastCompany with the scoop and first review. Scout still puts publishers from and center compared to others - and we do it in the most useful and thoughtful way. Great job @efeng and squad yet again. Keep going!
“Google keeps shuffling AI pieces around a page built for blue links. Yahoo’s new search results page, by contrast, feels like a clean, well-lighted place. The organization of the information in the search is clearer. And the Pivot Search feature is more intuitive to use than Google’s approach, which mostly puts its AI Mode at the same level as its other search types.”
fastcompany.com/91637528/yah…
Yahoo Scout is officially out of beta and ready to rock. @FastCompany with the scoop and first review. Scout still puts publishers from and center compared to others - and we do it in the most useful and thoughtful way. Great job @efeng and squad yet again. Keep going!
“Google keeps shuffling AI pieces around a page built for blue links. Yahoo’s new search results page, by contrast, feels like a clean, well-lighted place. The organization of the information in the search is clearer. And the Pivot Search feature is more intuitive to use than Google’s approach, which mostly puts its AI Mode at the same level as its other search types.”
fastcompany.com/91637528/yah…
Jim Lanzone retweeted
Studio built. Livestream locked. Microduck secured.
Deirdre Bosa Live goes daily Monday. Weekdays at 1p PT / 4p ET.
Jim Lanzone retweeted
SOON: Exclusive with Jensen Huang --fresh off the GTC Berlin keynote stage.
Watch here LIVE: youtube.com/watch?v=sH5qyeHS…
Jim Lanzone retweeted
Some think of Yahoo! as an old business, decaying.
But somehow @jlanzone and team are doing the unexpected - and really turning it around into a relevant modern juggernaut.
Kudos to my friend Jim even if he sucks at fantasy football.
great ROI for its investors too.
NEW: In 2021, Apollo acquired a massive internet business for ~$5B.
Just 5 years later, it's become *one of the fastest-returning deals in the firm's history.*
700M monthly users. Billions in revenue. And an enormous distribution advantage that would be nearly impossible to replicate today.
Apollo's Reed Rayman recruited Jim Lanzone (@jlanzone) to lead the turnaround.
The company? @Yahoo.
I sat down with CEO Jim Lanzone, one of the internet industry's most accomplished turnaround executives, to go inside @apolloglobal's PE M&A playbook for Yahoo, the economics of the acquisition, & why this may be one of the most underrated assets in tech.
The numbers:
› ~$5B acquisition
› 700M monthly users, including 100M+ each across Yahoo Finance & Sports
› 75% direct traffic, with ~75% of daily users logged in
› Hundreds of millions in annual ad-tech losses addressed through restructuring
› Major divestitures including AOL, TechCrunch & Edgecast
› One of Apollo's fastest-returning deals, with Jim saying they're now "playing with house money"
› Newer search companies valued at 6X Yahoo despite having a fraction of its users, revenue & profitability
But the most interesting part of this deal is the operator.
Before Yahoo, Jim helped drive a 50X stock increase at Ask Jeeves, grew CBS Interactive from 70M to 220M users, and led Tinder.
And unlike the traditional PE playbook of aggressive cost extraction, PE micromanagement, Apollo backed an experienced product executive to restructure the business, rebuild its leadership, & reinvest in growth.
Now Yahoo is moving from turnaround to comeback, with an entirely rebuilt product ecosystem, its own AI search engine through Yahoo Scout, and a potential path back to the public markets.
We get into what it's really like operating under Apollo, the leadership decisions behind the turnaround, the value of internet distribution at scale, and why some startups with less than 0.1% of Yahoo's users command higher valuations.
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Jim Lanzone, CEO of Yahoo
(01:33) How Apollo bought Yahoo for $4.8B
(04:16) Taking over a company in the middle of COVID
(07:22) Is private equity really the villain?
(12:42) The mistake that handed Google the internet
(16:09) Where Yahoo's 700M monthly users come from
(17:07) Why Yahoo sold AOL & TechCrunch
(21:21) "You can't skip levels of the video game"
(27:58) Why people still trust Yahoo in the AI era
(30:26) How Yahoo Scout competes with ChatGPT & Perplexity
(33:48) Saying no to the AI gold rush?
(37:31) From turnaround to comeback
(39:42) One of the fastest paybacks in Apollo history
(42:50) The biggest mistake companies make at scale
(44:21) Silicon Valley startups are now worth more than Yahoo with 0.1% of its users
(46:25) Why Yahoo is ready for the next crash
(48:57) Barry Diller, Tinder & the tweet that predicted Yahoo
(54:36) Is Yahoo finally back?
Jim Lanzone retweeted
TIL: Gen Z loves Yahoo ?!?
“Over 50% of our audience is Gen Z & Millennial. 75% of Gen Z is using Yahoo or one of our products.”
Jim Lanzone (@jlanzone) reveals how Yahoo’s legacy brand was able to capture the Gen Z audience:
“College Fantasy Football, we kinda broke the internet when we announced it this summer, and it has been amazing.. We had our 3 biggest days ever this year for NFL, but College—40% of those users are brand-new to Yahoo.”
“We have seen a 31% absolute point lift in brand love with Gen Z. That’s from our Cardi B campaign, from our Kyle Cooke, the Weatherboy campaign, from Summer House.”
“It has been incredible to see that Yahoo has a lot of latent brand love in there for it, & especially with younger audiences.”
NEW: In 2021, Apollo acquired a massive internet business for ~$5B.
Just 5 years later, it's become *one of the fastest-returning deals in the firm's history.*
700M monthly users. Billions in revenue. And an enormous distribution advantage that would be nearly impossible to replicate today.
Apollo's Reed Rayman recruited Jim Lanzone (@jlanzone) to lead the turnaround.
The company? @Yahoo.
I sat down with CEO Jim Lanzone, one of the internet industry's most accomplished turnaround executives, to go inside @apolloglobal's PE M&A playbook for Yahoo, the economics of the acquisition, & why this may be one of the most underrated assets in tech.
The numbers:
› ~$5B acquisition
› 700M monthly users, including 100M+ each across Yahoo Finance & Sports
› 75% direct traffic, with ~75% of daily users logged in
› Hundreds of millions in annual ad-tech losses addressed through restructuring
› Major divestitures including AOL, TechCrunch & Edgecast
› One of Apollo's fastest-returning deals, with Jim saying they're now "playing with house money"
› Newer search companies valued at 6X Yahoo despite having a fraction of its users, revenue & profitability
But the most interesting part of this deal is the operator.
Before Yahoo, Jim helped drive a 50X stock increase at Ask Jeeves, grew CBS Interactive from 70M to 220M users, and led Tinder.
And unlike the traditional PE playbook of aggressive cost extraction, PE micromanagement, Apollo backed an experienced product executive to restructure the business, rebuild its leadership, & reinvest in growth.
Now Yahoo is moving from turnaround to comeback, with an entirely rebuilt product ecosystem, its own AI search engine through Yahoo Scout, and a potential path back to the public markets.
We get into what it's really like operating under Apollo, the leadership decisions behind the turnaround, the value of internet distribution at scale, and why some startups with less than 0.1% of Yahoo's users command higher valuations.
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Jim Lanzone, CEO of Yahoo
(01:33) How Apollo bought Yahoo for $4.8B
(04:16) Taking over a company in the middle of COVID
(07:22) Is private equity really the villain?
(12:42) The mistake that handed Google the internet
(16:09) Where Yahoo's 700M monthly users come from
(17:07) Why Yahoo sold AOL & TechCrunch
(21:21) "You can't skip levels of the video game"
(27:58) Why people still trust Yahoo in the AI era
(30:26) How Yahoo Scout competes with ChatGPT & Perplexity
(33:48) Saying no to the AI gold rush?
(37:31) From turnaround to comeback
(39:42) One of the fastest paybacks in Apollo history
(42:50) The biggest mistake companies make at scale
(44:21) Silicon Valley startups are now worth more than Yahoo with 0.1% of its users
(46:25) Why Yahoo is ready for the next crash
(48:57) Barry Diller, Tinder & the tweet that predicted Yahoo
(54:36) Is Yahoo finally back?
Thank you @MollySOShea! That was a fun one.
NEW: In 2021, Apollo acquired a massive internet business for ~$5B.
Just 5 years later, it's become *one of the fastest-returning deals in the firm's history.*
700M monthly users. Billions in revenue. And an enormous distribution advantage that would be nearly impossible to replicate today.
Apollo's Reed Rayman recruited Jim Lanzone (@jlanzone) to lead the turnaround.
The company? @Yahoo.
I sat down with CEO Jim Lanzone, one of the internet industry's most accomplished turnaround executives, to go inside @apolloglobal's PE M&A playbook for Yahoo, the economics of the acquisition, & why this may be one of the most underrated assets in tech.
The numbers:
› ~$5B acquisition
› 700M monthly users, including 100M+ each across Yahoo Finance & Sports
› 75% direct traffic, with ~75% of daily users logged in
› Hundreds of millions in annual ad-tech losses addressed through restructuring
› Major divestitures including AOL, TechCrunch & Edgecast
› One of Apollo's fastest-returning deals, with Jim saying they're now "playing with house money"
› Newer search companies valued at 6X Yahoo despite having a fraction of its users, revenue & profitability
But the most interesting part of this deal is the operator.
Before Yahoo, Jim helped drive a 50X stock increase at Ask Jeeves, grew CBS Interactive from 70M to 220M users, and led Tinder.
And unlike the traditional PE playbook of aggressive cost extraction, PE micromanagement, Apollo backed an experienced product executive to restructure the business, rebuild its leadership, & reinvest in growth.
Now Yahoo is moving from turnaround to comeback, with an entirely rebuilt product ecosystem, its own AI search engine through Yahoo Scout, and a potential path back to the public markets.
We get into what it's really like operating under Apollo, the leadership decisions behind the turnaround, the value of internet distribution at scale, and why some startups with less than 0.1% of Yahoo's users command higher valuations.
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Jim Lanzone, CEO of Yahoo
(01:33) How Apollo bought Yahoo for $4.8B
(04:16) Taking over a company in the middle of COVID
(07:22) Is private equity really the villain?
(12:42) The mistake that handed Google the internet
(16:09) Where Yahoo's 700M monthly users come from
(17:07) Why Yahoo sold AOL & TechCrunch
(21:21) "You can't skip levels of the video game"
(27:58) Why people still trust Yahoo in the AI era
(30:26) How Yahoo Scout competes with ChatGPT & Perplexity
(33:48) Saying no to the AI gold rush?
(37:31) From turnaround to comeback
(39:42) One of the fastest paybacks in Apollo history
(42:50) The biggest mistake companies make at scale
(44:21) Silicon Valley startups are now worth more than Yahoo with 0.1% of its users
(46:25) Why Yahoo is ready for the next crash
(48:57) Barry Diller, Tinder & the tweet that predicted Yahoo
(54:36) Is Yahoo finally back?
Welcome to @yahoo and @YahooFinance, @dee_bosa!! Great to finally have this news out there. Can’t wait to see your next chapter come to life. Yodel button en route.
More details on what I’m building: a daily, hour-long livestream in partnership with @YahooFinance
Live, online, interactive and based in San Francisco.
@sarafischer has the news here:
axios.com/2026/09/08/yahoo-f…
Jim Lanzone retweeted
Every column and all my rankings on Yahoo can be found here, plus a bunch of clips from our shows. Can bookmark it.
sports.yahoo.com/author/hayd…
Jim Lanzone retweeted
College Fantasy* Football, now on @YahooSports & @YahooFantasy. Drafts are officially open and @RGIII is excited. Play now.
You know who you are.
Yahoo just redesigned its weather app for the ‘weather geek’ in us all fastcompany.com/91581251/yah…
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Jim Lanzone retweeted
NEWS: @YahooSports has launched College Fantasy Football🚨
yahoofantasy.com/college
Fantasy Football is going back to school. 📣
College Fantasy Football is now on @Yahoo. Get started now: yahoofantasy.com/college
Since the dawn of time, fantasy football fans have shared one common dream: College Fantasy Football.
The wait is over. Introducing Yahoo College Fantasy Football. Same game, same rules, Power 4 conferences. yahoofantasy.com/college
It's real and it's going to be spectacular. @yahoosports @YahooFantasy
RT @ryanspoon: Fantasy football isn't just for Sundays!
💥 New for 2026: Fantasy football is coming to Saturdays with @YahooSports' new Coll…