Yahoo has a huge problem to tackle even with its new head Scott Thompson.  Whilst the share price has recovered from huge lows during the summer profits have remained level.  Yet Yahoo is continuing to face wave upon wave of new up and coming social media as younger users migrate to sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

It's a Google sized problem.  The questions lie in how Yahoo places itself after several years of spreading itself too thin, both at management level and on a technology basis.  Yahoo is no longer the innovator that it once was and its challenges lie with it not knowing what it wants to be.

It tried to compete with Google, AOL, Microsoft all at the same time whilst leaving its most valuable asset, namely the time users spend online communicating, vulnerable to Facebook.  Even the domination of its webmail service (including the free version) is under threat as more and more alternatives come online.

Either way it is a testing time for Googles age old enemy and in my opinion something that needs to be addressed at a fundemental level.  Yahoo no longer knows what it is.  Search Engine?  Internet resource centre? Technology Firm?  Service provider?  Media Company?  Mail provider?  Flickr sidekick? 
Getting back to basics may be the only option Yahoo has left without relying on its Chinese partner Alibaba to save it from its own success.