Yahoo shake-up leads to more questions than Answers

So it looks like Yahoo! is taking steps to get its house in order after a period of less than positive financial results in recent months and the continued erosion of its search business by Google.

Yahoo! will be split into three divisions (Audiences, Advertisers and Technology), according to The Guardian.

[Hefty Yahoo! press release here]

The restructuring – called Project Souffle for some reason – has been designed, reports say, to “speed up decision-making” and “reduce bottlenecks”.

The new Audiences division will cover media, communications and general services, alongside taking responsibility for exciting projects as the new social media tools that internet giant is introducing, such as Yahoo! Answers.

This does sound overall like A Good Thing.

However what is rather obvious to most Yahoo! employees is that the current reporting structure is based on vertical markets, such as shopping, music, travel, cars, etc.

So what happens to a division, such as travel, which is both an advertising portal but would also consider itself a media and communications outlet, and heavily into tools such as Yahoo! Answers?

Might be wrong here, but one reporting line now split into two doesn’t exactly sound like the best way of improving supposed inefficiencies within the business.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution