Why Google Finance Makes Me Sad (by Jeremy Zawodny): Personally I’m not a big fan of the finance sites at either Google or Yahoo!. Not because they are not cool technology but because I’m much more interested in the actual technology itself than the financial aspects of profiting from the stocks associated with the underlying technology. This said, I do think it is very cool that Yahoo’s! Jeremy Zawodny feels that he has the freedom to blog and put a post out that is openly critical of his employer Yahoo!.
From Zawodny: “It makes me sad because I end up thinking about how Yahoo! Finance has stagnated for a long time. It never really recovered from the pain of the dotcom crash. So many of my old Finance coworkers have either left the company or moved on to other groups (several moved into Search last year). Heck, I encouraged many of them to get out!
There was a lack of leadership and, even more importantly, a serious LACK OF VISION. It really disappointed me.”
The fact that Zawodny can feel free to blog the truth, even when it is not in the interest of his employer, tells me that Yahoo! is indeed a very cool place to work. Although as a big time blogger Zawodny probably is somewhat insulated from a corporate reaction (it would not look good to see a Yahoo! fires blogger headline) it is positive that he feels comfortable enough having this discussion in a public space out from behind the closed doors of Yahoo!
Thanks Jeremy and good for you.