With Yahoo! Inc.'s (NASDAQ: YHOO) recent management shakeup, will any other big changes be coming soon? The bad taste left in the mouth of many investors over the lavish pay package given to former CEO Terry Semel while Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was beating up his company and taking all its lunch money is not going away soon. Even more unsettling is the fact that company co-founder Jerry Yang stepped in as CEO over savvy and well-respected Sue Decker (who did ascend to the role of President). All those changes were needed, although it's way too early to see if the new team will be able to rescue Yahoo! from the deep shadow of Google.

Yahoo! EVP Jeff Weiner has been cited in unofficial circles as one of the main people responsible for the slow rollout of Yahoo!'s potential savior, Project Panama. Created specifically to take on Google's auction-style keyword ad placement, Project Panama was launched in semi-glorious fashion late last year but exact details on its performance have been a bit hard to find so far. How is it performing beyond of the platitudes from management we continue to hear? How is the platform contributing to Yahoo!'s bottom line more than the previous Overture keyword system? Inquiring minds need to know.

Project Panama needs to show powerful results in the new quarter or a few more Yahoo! folks could be shown the door. Although Yahoo! is not making ground against Google's search-based advertising leadership, the least Project Panama could do is take the search viewership Yahoo! does have and maximize revenue in a measurable way that shareholders can plainly see. If not, Semel will need to be the first of several pushed out.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is an internet company that has more visitors and users across its combined properties than any other company. Is it realizing all the revenue it can from all those customers? Not really. In fact, competitor Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is sucking Yahoo!'s well of customers dry each month using roughly one revenue avenue -- text-based search advertising. Yahoo! was late to realize that advertising was the place to be, rather than trying to get customers to pay for premium services and content that they can get elsewhere for free. Result? Yahoo! is scrambling to catch up to the mover and shaker in the industry -- and it ain't Yahoo!.

Yahoo!'s search for a new CFO ended last week. The catch, one with deep financial market ties, speaks volumes about potential Yahoo! strategy in the months and years to come. Blake Jorgensen's appointment means that Yahoo! may be looking to shed non-core assets or even set itself up to be sold. Yahoo!'s lingering rumor that it join with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has been vanquished (again), which leaves Yahoo! standing in the dark corner with a lit match while Google runs all over town with a bonfire on its back.

Yahoo! is losing some key employees as the "grass is greener" attitude continues to infiltrate the company. It's been speculated that 2007 may see the end of Terry Semel as Yahoo!'s CEO after some nice moves in 2002 and 2003 did not pay off as planned and Google's furtive moves caught the Yahoo! guard off-guard. The recovery has not panned out at all either and still remains murky. If Semel can somehow manage to get Yahoo! back in the prominent spotlight (and making more money based on all the customer relationships it has), he may be safe. It is not, however, happening to the degree YHOO shareholders are needing at this point.