Google vs. Yahoo

Here's an interesting article from Cnet's News.com about the corporate culture at two of the most widely followed internet companies, Google and Yahoo. Yahoo seems to be turning into a company that has tough "management discipline" and a numbers-driven approach. Google, on the other hand, is often referred to as an "intellectual playground", where super-smart engineers are encouraged to work on individual projects, which has led to Google services such as Google News.

The two companies seem to be headed for a showdown, especially in the online advertising business. As you might have noticed, Google's ads are all based on search and keywords, while Yahoo has more traditional ads, like banners. According to one analyst quoted in this article, brand advertisers would prefer Yahoo's offerings to Google's. But Google's ads, meanwhile, seem to be more consumer friendly, because of their relatively unintrusive nature. It'll be interesting to watch what happens in this battle.