Yahoo has <a href="http://axis.yahoo.com">just announced Axis</a>, a browser extension thing and mobile app that “redefines what it means to search and browse the Web [sic].”

Curtis explains why it shouldn't have, and how this tells us more (as if we needed it) about Yahoo right now.

The ever-readable Mat Honan on how Yahoo didn't get Flickr right, even though it was poised to do so in 2005 with social sharing. Why? Corporate Development. (Thanks @TehGreatGonzo for the link.)

Moments ago, <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/ericjackson/statuses/200602061610553344">activist Yahoo shareholder Eric Jackson tweeted</a>: "Just heard Carol Bartz's reaction to L'Affair Thompson by someone who talked to her: 'By the way, I DO have a Computer Science degree."

Zingg!! In fact, some at Yahoo now want Bartz back.

Yahoo announced first-quarter results on Tuesday night:

We’ve heard it before, heck, we’ve said it before. Yahoo has been weighed down for years by way too much product. Thompson’s light-bulb moment came after discussions about what it would take to change Yahoo: “Yahoo has been doing too much for too long … We need to be clearer going forward about what we won’t do.” How is he going to fix this? Fifty properties that “don’t contribute meaningfully” are being shut down. I’ve been told most of them are outside the U.S. but Yahoo won’t confirm that or provide details. Hard to imagine that 50 will be enough but Carol Bartz did give him a head start.</p><p>

Instead Yahoo will focus on the properties that contribute the most engagement and revenue — news, finance, sports, entertainment and mail. R&D and resources will go to owned-and-operated sites, halting third-party efforts.

Among the things that new chief executive Scott Thompson says aren't working is the alliance with Microsoft, which provides search via Bing. That's a big problem for Microsoft.

"For many in the technology business, this is just the latest chapter in a battle that most would like to see wrap up -- and quickly as possible, please. But since Yahoo was first to loose its lawyers, there's no shortage of critics in Silicon Valley who fault the company's tactics and strategy."

...And here's the details.

The Menlo Park empire strikes back.

Yahoo attacked Facebook with 10 patents, so Menlo Park has attacked Sunnyvale right back with 10 of its own. Get the popcorn; this is the biggest real-company-versus-patent-troll battle yet.

Kara Swisher says Yahoo is having a big think about:

How and where the company will make large-scale cuts in staff, which I have previously reported were coming and will perhaps be numbering in the thousands; which businesses to sell off and which to keep, including its ad tech unit; the correct structure for the reconfigured entity; and who will be left to run it all when it is all settled.

Also up for debate is the best course of a two-pronged effort — being led primarily by CFO Tim Morse and members of his corporate strategy team — to renegotiate its search and advertising partnership deal with Microsoft, while also engaging in active discussions with Google about it taking over Yahoo’s search business.

No explanation of why it might switch back to Google from Microsoft's Bing. But it would be a huge blow to Microsoft if it does.

(May require subscription:)

Yahoo's decision to sue Facebook for allegedly violating 10 of itspatents covering technologies like online advertising, privacy controls and messaging is widely linked to the determination of the company's new chief executive, Scott Thompson, to get a better return on its assets. Those assets include Yahoo's more than 1,000 U.S. patents, which reflect investments in research and development since the company was founded in 1994.

Some industry executives, however, view Yahoo's suit as a sign of weakness and a break with the Internet industry's tradition of avoiding patent suits.

The Yahoo lawsuit against Facebook turns out to be one of the most-hated that you've ever seen in Silicon Valley - by both Facebookers, ex-Yahoos and onlookers.

In case you missed last night...

The week of the long knives at Yahoo:

Sources said four other directors will also step down soon. As I wrote last week, in a post suggesting Yang might also go, the prime candidates to go appear to be: Chairman Roy Bostock, Arthur Kern, Vyomesh Joshi, and Gary Wilson.

"Yahoo Inc. is searching for several new board candidates to replace possible outgoing directors and has hired executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. to assist in that effort, people familiar with the matter said.

"The search for board candidates is aimed at possibly replacing directors who have been on the board for a long time, the people said."

Just go back and check whether the first letter of each paragraph spells out R-O-Y-B-O-S-T-O-C-K and J-E-R-R-Y-Y-A-N-G.

Henry Blodget points out that Yahoo's Alibaba sale will bring in much less cash than the $17bn people have suggested, and will actually just be in companies whose value will be uncertain.

"Within Yahoo, top executives including interim CEO Tim Morse, Chief Product Officer Blake Irving and Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo's chief for the Americas, are going about business as usual, working late hours to launch new services and courting Madison Avenue to sell more ads on Yahoo's websites.

"But many others in Yahoo's ranks, which number close to 14,000, are considering other opportunities as morale declines at the company, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former company employees and talent recruiters."

As one headhunter says later, call nine people at Yahoo about outside jobs, and you'll get nine calls back.

"Microsoft is officially kicking the tires at Yahoo again, three years after it failed to buy control of the company.

"The software giant has signed a confidentiality agreement with Yahoo, according to a person briefed on the move, joining other potential bidders like the private equity firms Silver Lake and TPG Capital. Behind the broad interest in Yahoo is what investors believe is a trove of riches that could be unlocked by providing stronger management. The Yahoo of today is in a weaker position than in 2008, having fallen behind Google and newer Internet players like Facebook. But Yahoo remains a formidable destination, with its news site along attracting 81.2m unique visitors in August."

The NDA means it can take a really careful look at Yahoo's books. All it wants is the eyeballs for Bing; Yahoo could make it profitable.

"...today announced agreements that should dramatically improve the process of buying and selling premium online display inventory. The agreements will allow ad networks operated by Yahoo!, Microsoft and AOL to offer each other's premium nonreserved online display inventory to their respective advertising customers."

Basically, trying to haul Microsoft's Bing somewhere towards the light of profitability.

"A deal with Yahoo could serve as a way for Armstrong to bow out gracefully. The idea is not new -- it was floated when Microsoft Corp made a bid for Yahoo in 2008, and resurfaced again last year when AOL hired Bank of America and Allen & Co to review alternatives.

"'As far as Armstrong's desire for an exit, he doesn't want to be doing what he is doing 18 months from now. He wants to be out,' said a source familiar with Armstrong's thinking. 'He's an ambitious sort of guy and AOL is such an afterthought. But he would definitely put his hat in the ring to run a combined Yahoo/AOL.'"

Your exercise for today: would Yahoo's future be more or less safe with AOL or Microsoft?

Danny Sullivan asks (as he's been asking for a while): "What’s the plan, Bing? Because 'at least I’m going to do something' isn’t enough.<br />
"In reality, the plan seems to be hang in there long enough until Yahoo slips away. It’s probably not a bad plan. Another plan might be to stop spending all that money on advertising. That never worked long term in the past. Marketshare might not drop, but the red ink might.<br />
"And, reading from Ad Age today, it sounds like the whole Decision Engine idea might be going away period. Sounds good. How about something fun, play off that old joke everyone thought Bing stood for, 'Because it’s not Google.' Give us some ads like 'Bing: We’re Not Google.'"

"Sure, Facebook looks massively successful. With a mind-boggling 750 million users, the social site can do no wrong, right?<br />
"Wrong. Look closer, and it looks like Facebook can do nothing right. The company has tried and failed to launch or integrate new services that might thrill users. But users aren’t thrilled. And now its strategy appears to be: Just copy Google+.<br />
"Don’t look now, but Facebook is quickly becoming the new Yahoo."<br />
<br />
The sort of piece that might have Mark Zuckerberg waking up going "ahhh!". Scarily true.

"A range of major players interested in acquiring all or a large piece of Yahoo have been prepping possible bids and have been in touch with the Internet giant’s board over the last several days."<br />
<br />
Will Yahoo or the euro get sorted out first? Which will leave the bigger crater? Andreessen Horowitz, of course, flipped Skype like a burger for huge reward. Could it do the same with Yahoo?

"Carol Bartz on Friday resigned from Yahoo Inc.'s board, a person familiar with the matter said, three days after the Internet company's board fired her from her post as chief executive.<br />
<br />
"The company previously said it expected her to resign from the board seat.<br />
<br />
"Ms. Bartz's resignation from the board caps a drama-filled week for the 16-year-old Yahoo, whose independent directors ousted Ms. Bartz after 32 months on the job amid middling financial results and a stagnant stock price."<br />
<br />
On Twitter, @fakecarolbartz's comment: "Tim Morse smells."

Customarily astringent analysis: "as Yahoo’s traditional raw material has commoditized, so has its user behavior data. The patterns that are emerging from the data are 'unactionable' by advertisers. There is little insight that can be gained from data on patterns of reading generic news. People are differentiated through their reading of niche sites and that data does not reside with Yahoo!<br />
"Thus customers (advertisers) have felt that the product (user behavior from reading licensed content) is commoditized. There is much more value in looking at patterns in Facebook or search. But those rich fields of data are under the control of competitors.<br />
"This is the core problem with Yahoo’s business and it’s been a problem for a long time. The question for a CEO should be how to fix this. The remedy is not better administration but either a change in the core business or innovation in terms of content sourcing (away from big media and toward blogs and niche media.)"<br />
<br />
Yahoo's dying, Jim.

"CNBC's Julia Boorstin reports that Hulu has hired Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim partners to help with its sale.'To the auction block!' she tweets."<br />
<br />
How much of a car crash would it be if Yahoo buys Hulu? Or would it be great? (By the way, we love BI's old stock photos.)

"Google is now the largest online display advertiser in the US in terms of revenues, knocking Yahoo! off its perch, according to figures from IDC. The report shows Google overtaking Yahoo! with 14.7% of the market in Q1 2011, up from 13.3% in the same period last year. Overall, the display advertising market boomed in the first quarter, with ad revenues hitting $7.3bn - the highest Q1 revenue for the industry ever, according to figures from the IAB and PwC.<br />
"Yahoo!'s market share is dropping almost as quickly as Google's is rising, dropping to 12.3%, down from 13.3% last year. This makes Google market leader in both display advertising and search, where it is the long-established number one. This shift comes as search ad revenues are squeezed by display, which now has a higher market worth."<br />
<br />
Tricky for Yahoo, which makes its money serving ads.

"This past January, upon seeing a demo of IntoNow, we noted that the media check-in game just changed. Apparently, Yahoo agreed — they’ve just acquired the company for something in the range of $20 to $30 million, sources with knowledge of the deal tell us."