Marissa Mayer Takes the Helm as CEO of Yahoo

The big surprise in the tech industry this week is the appointment of former Google executive Marissa Mayer as CEO of Yahoo. The announcement was met with mostly positive reactions, even after Mayer revealed she is giving birth to her first child in October and will not be taking maternity leave.

Yahoo is like the elderly statesman of the Internet. It’s been around from the beginning, but in recent years has been overshadowed by newer, younger companies like Google and Facebook, as well as its “CEO Curse,” having gone through five CEOs in as many years. The question is will Mayer be able to turn things around for the company that was once the top site for web search? The answer may depend on which direction she decides to take the company.

These days, most people use Yahoo for email services and as a web portal for news and entertainment. Search is dominated by Google with Microsoft’s Bing breathing down its neck, and Facebook has made it difficult to crack social media, effectively shutting out Google + so far. Yahoo owns the photo sharing site Flckr and some are hoping that Mayer will salvage it, which would mean going head to head with Instagram, the photo sharing app recently purchased by Facebook for $1 billion. Also, taking into consideration that Mayer’s last position at Google was as VP in charge of local, maps and location services, she could try to dominate the local/mobile market, an open niche that has no clear leader at the moment.

Do you think Mayer can save Yahoo? What do you think her strategy should be?