E-Mail Newsletters

Sign up to receive our free Tech e-newsletter and get the latest tech news, Hot Sites & more in your inbox.

E-mail:   

Select one:  HTML Text

Yahoo CEO Terry Semel predicts that PC content will move to TV and handhelds.

Yahoo

Q: Why is an Internet company exhibiting at a consumer electronics show?

A: If you look at Yahoo today, we have north of 400 million users around the world and a reach of 73% of all Internet users in the U.S. As the world continues to become more mobile, it's all about ... (having access to Internet information) on any device or TV anywhere in the world. We're at CES to show what we can do and meet with consumer electronics manufacturers to encourage them to use Yahoo technology.

Q: So you'll be showing pie-in-the-sky possibilities or things that are real?

A: I don't do pie-in-the-sky. I will be demonstrating things we have done, talk about how they currently work, which in general is not that great, and new solutions which will be embedded in some new devices that will start appearing soon.

Q: The marriage of computing and television is a hot topic. How do you see Yahoo interacting with the TV?

A: The TV is the focal point of the home for information and entertainment, and there are a lot of things people do on Yahoo that can move from the PC to the TV. Anything on Yahoo can move to a TV set. Today's viewer doesn't want to watch a stock ticker for three hours, they want to see "my" stock quotes. I don't want you to program me.

Q: So are you saying that instead of being a search company, now Yahoo is the seventh broadcast network?

A: No, we're a 21st-century media company. The big difference between 20th-century media companies and 21st-century media companies has to do with technology. With our great abilities in technology, it enables companies like us to be more on the cutting edge.

Q: Yahoo is a very different company from the one you joined in 2001. Back then it was primarily an Internet directory. What happened?

A: These things that we're doing now weren't possible three or four years ago. Broadband was just in its infancy, cellphones were in their infancy — cellphones were just for making calls, and (Internet protocol) TV didn't exist. We have learned a lot from things happening in other parts of the world ... that enables us to create technology to expand what we do. The possibilities are very exciting for companies like ours, and people who make gadgets of all kinds.

Q: Speaking of gadgets, which ones does Terry Semel take with him?

A: I carry two. A cellphone, which has my address book and the things I need, and a Creative Zen music player, which works with our Yahoo Music service. It gives me the ability to upload songs.

Q: To sum up, you see all personal Internet content — addresses and phone numbers, digital photographs, travel comments — moving from the PC to devices and TV soon.

A: Everything we hear from consumers and users is that the things we enjoy on the Internet, and things we've personalized, we want available in a seamless and easy way, to see on any device — and yes, this will all happen this year.