Strategically speaking: Is Yahoo! a media-company or technology-company?

Looking at Yahoo! over its lifespan, it becomes clear that strategically it has always been in between a media- and a technology-company.

Starting as a web catalogue, Yahoo! was very much editorial and thus a media company. Since the web was still nascent then, it also had to develop a lot of technological capabilities which then led to the launch of its own search engine, eMail and other applications. It kept adding applications such as Delicious, but still held on to its roots as a general interest portal with a strong media- and content-orientation.

Over the past years, Yahoo! has shifted its focus clearly to media - with the outsourcing of search (a technology game) to Microsoft and the sale of applications like Delicious to Chad Hurley on the one hand and the acquisition of Citizen Sports and Associated Content on the other hand.

It will be interesting to watch what further strategic moves Yahoo! will do in order to further develop its product portfolio.