Yesterday brought BIG news in the search industry as Yahoo’s CEO and cofounder, Jerry Yang made his intention to step down known. Laurie Sullivan at MediaPost covered the announcement and quoted Yang’s reasoning:

“Having set Yahoo on a new, more open path, the time is right for me to transition the CEO role and our global talent to a new leader. I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation.”

So Yang will not be leading any more deals with Microsoft or Google, but will remain a well known face at the company. As for who will fill his shoes… well, we’ll have to wait and see, but it sounds like they’re considering both internal and external candidates for the position. No matter who finally gets this spot, they’ll have to have some years of industry success to get Yahoo back on the right track. We’ll keep hoping!

-Daniel Yomtobian, CEO