Enter Yahoo!. This is a company that was once a serious competitor for Google in the search and services business. That is not truly the case anymore although after some bad choices and more than one scandal where Yahoo! was accused of allowing spam to slip through their filters for money. Over the last few years Yahoo has worked (with some success) to turn this around and get back into prominence. Much of their forward progress has been through purchases or strategic partnerships until recently.

Now Yahoo! is looking to push back at Google directly with another competing service that might launch this summer (2014). This time it looks like it will be a user drive video service to compete with YouTube. This is not a new rumor as Yahoo! recently tried to buy the DailyMotion and has been open about their interest in this market. However, they know that Google and Vimeo are hart targets to hit. Because of this they (Yahoo!) appear to be taking their time in developing the right contracts and infrastructure services. It is rumored that Yahoo! will even be offering ad rates and revenue sharing higher than what Google currently offers on YouTube.

Marissa Mayer, a former Google Executive, knows how to compete with Google and could be what saves Yahoo!’s in the end if she can get the services off the ground and in use quickly enough. It will be interesting to see another direct competitor to Google and if current YouTube channel owners move to the new service. There are enough complaints about Google’s policies that we would think more than a few will be eager to jump if Yahoo! can make it attractive enough.

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