We've started our analysis of Play data for 2008 and looking forward to getting those reports out next month.

Our investigation of online entertainment was designed this year to break the content away from the device. Content now moves freely across devices large and small, digital and analog, desktop and handheld and consumer research must reflect that. But this blog post is not about Netpop | Play. It's actually about Yahoo! and the fact that this once former high-flyer is reportedly spiraling downward with no hope in sight (NYTimes, 1/11).

Josh and I happen to discuss Yahoo! quite frequently - Is it already a dinosaur? Can it still be a phoenix? I guess I've been the pessimist on this one in part because of the perspective I mentioned above. The media world is all over the place, the things we go online for are all over the place. We need a search engine more than we need a personalized home page. People are getting used to a new mode of media - one that embraces diversification. Everything is here, there and everywhere. Who needs a one-stop shop anymore? That's so simple. That's so 90s. That's so big media. Yahoo! always wanted to be the CBS or ABC of the Internet. The big media brand. It sure worked in the early dot-com days when advertising, even those new-fangled banner ads, were all about the old model anyway.

There is quite a lot of work to be done at Yahoo! to enhance it's image on Madison Avenue and on Main Street. They need to be a brand that makes sense for a new era when online media companies are expected to be the enablers and connectors, not the center-stage. Google may have become the borg, but they've managed to retain their self-effacing, under-the-radar stance quite well. Right now, Yahoo!s brand gets in the way of providing people with a sense that they have autonomous, unfiltered, control of their online experience.