So it looks like Yahoo has been mixing it up in the Mission Statement department this week. For those of you who don't want to wade through Executive Vice President Jeff Weiner's explanation of each three word grouping, it boils down to this: "To connect people to their passions, communities, and the world's knowledge."
In comparison, Google's much more info-centric Mission Statement is, "To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful."
In terms of tracking market share or performance, comparing mission statements is up there with comparing team mascots. However, doing so does shed some light on how each company wants itself and its goals to be perceived. In exploring this connection Loren Baker over at Search Engine Journal revealed what we've suspected all along--with Google's dominance in the areas of search and information, Yahoo is finding a new angle of attack.
According to Baker, the key difference that Yahoo's new mission statement highlights is its focus on the archiving and sharing of life experience. I've heard rumblings of Yahoo's social appeal over Google's in the past, so it's not surprising that they've chosen this course for their new mission. Baker explains that this appeal stems from, "its integration of social offerings such as Flickr and Yahoo Answers into the lives of its registered userbase." Given the distance (in terms of interface) between Google's information focused core and its booming YouTube community, I'd have to agree with Baker.
Even though I'm not crazy about Yahoo's interface, the integration of acquisitions like Flickr seem to be a lot smoother than any of Google's social offerings. This may be partially due to the fact that YouTube's community has and continues to be a creature all its own complete with a justifiably laissez-faire attitude--but again, in comparing Mission Statements it's more about perception rather than functionality.
But with the boom of user-generated content, it only makes sense for Yahoo to position itself as the approachable pathos to Google's efficient logos. Although with shaky stock performance, the exit of Yahoo Auctions, and no Microsoft merger in sight, it will be interesting to see if Yahoo's new mission actually gets accomplished.
