Jerry Yang's big challenge

Today's Future Tense featured interviews with two smart analysts, Charlene Li of Forrester Research and Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence (RealAudio - MP3 - iTunes). They talked about what Jerry Yang must do as the new Yahoo CEO to turn the company around.

At CNET News.com, Elinor Mills chimes in with five things Yang must do to improve Yahoo's fortunes. One is to improve its video offerings:

Another hot area where Yahoo is lagging is video, partly for the same reason as social networking--advertisers follow the eyeballs. Google nabbed the prize when it acquired viral video site YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock last year.

Yahoo has stated that it plans to target social networking, video and mobile. "They need to definitely be on the lookout for acquisitions that make sense in those areas," said Eric Jackson, chief executive and president of consultancy Jackson Leadership Systems. "I suspect that Jerry is going to be a little faster to move."