HOWZAT

Developed over the last two years under the codename "Project Panama", the redesign is believed to have cost tens of millions of dollars. It is the first major overhaul of Yahoo's advertising system since it acquired Overture, which pioneered the paid-search concept, for $1.6 billion in 2003.

Everybody is agreed that the tweaks Yahoo has announced sound interesting. But Sasa Zorovic and Charles Ruch of Oppenheimer are far from the only analysts to want clarification on the "expected monetisation improvements" Yahoo thinks the system will deliver – and when.

China, PayPal rival?

Other items on analysts' wish lists include clarification on Yahoo’s progress in China – where it has a strategic partnership with Alibaba, the country’s largest e-commerce site – and on the company’s mooted re-entry into online payment services.

Robert Peck, an analyst for Bear Stearns, has noted that Yahoo received a patent for "systems and methods for implementing person-to-person money exchange" on April 18, which could be similar to eBay's PayPal system.

"We are unclear what exactly Yahoo may plan to do with this patent, or whether it plans to utilise it at all, but we expect this topic could be brought up at the analyst meeting," he said.

Yahoo is also understood to be considering an online classified advertising system, an area in which Craigslist and Google already operate and on which Microsoft also has designs.

Denise Garcia of WR Hambrecht also expects Yahoo to share information about its content strategy

Yahoo launched two content-driven sections this quarter, Yahoo Tech and Travel. "We are expecting a review of these products, including advertiser and user reactions, and an outline of the company’s future content strategy as a result," she said.

Be like Google and regress

Meanwhile, Deutsche also wants Yahoo to emulate Google in its own brand-building efforts.

"In recent years, Google has successfully employed an effective PR strategy of pushing its brand, services and technology to surpass Yahoo on quite a few fronts. On the flip-side, Yahoo has been asleep at the wheel," it said.

"We think it should put its $1.2 billion in sales and marketing spend to work, in terms of getting David Filo and Jerry Yang back out to the masses on what made Yahoo special in the early days."

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