Yahoo Vows It's In Search To Win

Yahoo Inc., apparently stung by reports that it had conceded search to Google Inc., has denied that it 's satisfied with second place in the market, saying, "we're in it to win."

The Sunnyvale, Calif., company got the blogosphere humming when Susan Decker, its chief financial officer, told Bloomberg News this week, "It's not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share."

In its search blog, however, Yahoo denied its satisfied with looking at Google's back, saying its commitment to search is reflected in its hiring of talented people and in its research, innovation and new products, including My Web, Yahoo Answers and Open Shortcuts.

"As all of us at Yahoo agree, we're in it for the long haul, and we're in it to win," said the blog posting, which was signed by Qi Lu, vice president of engineering for search; and Eckart Walther, vice president of products for search.

Google is by far the market leader, accounting for 47.7 percent of all requests on the Web, according to the latest figures from Nielsen/NetRatings. Yahoo was second with a 21.8 percent market share, followed by MSN, 11.3 percent; and America Online Inc., a unit of Time Warner, 7.2 percent.