This week, I had a coffee with Emer Kiranne at Yahoo Web Analytics. Five years ago, I was the marketing director at IndexTools, before it was purchased by Yahoo. Emer and I never worked together, but we know the same people and share the history.
I always enjoy closing the loop, so consider this an update on my previous two posts about the IndexTools story (here, and here).
Few people in Budapest know that Yahoo Inc [YHOO] operates a small technical division in a warehouse in the ass end of the fourth district, an area I not so affectionally refer to as Cabbage Town (Kápostásmegyer).
Most of the original IndexTools developers still work for Yahoo, but the sales and marketing staff were let go, shortly after the acquisition in April 2008. CEO Marton Szoke, now a certified gazillionaire, still works with his old IT team, presumably with golden handcuffs securing him to his desk. Emer works directly for Yahoo, as an analytics account manager.
One thing I wanted to know is why it’s so difficult to get a YWA account. I had assumed the service is still in beta, while Yahoo continues to upgrade the server infrastructure. Apparently that happened fairly quickly. As Emer explained to me, the actual reason is the YWA business model. She also described some of the changes to the Indextools product, as well as the scrappy little startup I once knew.
Let me start by telling you why YWA isn’t open to the general public, and how to get an account.
Continue reading ‘What it means to go big: Indextools after the Yahoo acquisition’
