All Things Digital

OK, now we’re cooking with gas at Yahoo’s annual meeting in San Jose, as various shareholders–mostly small ones–come to the microphones to give Yahoo a piece of their mind.

The room has filled up more, about one-third to one-half full, with the top Yahoo (YHOO) leadership arrayed at a table up front like an Italian wedding.

First up, longtime Yahoo activist shareholder Eric Jackson asked Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock to step down, noted that Yahoo had overplayed its hand with the Microsoft bid, wondered about Yahoo President Sue Decker’s time problems (too many outside boards) and questioned the worth of Yahoo’s deal to sell an asset in Japan.

Yahoo, of course, did not agree with Jackson! At all!

“No,” said Bostock about stepping down, also noting that he was woefully underpaid for his board service, given all the activity over the last year related to Microsoft (MSFT).

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Here is a BoomTown video rant on online advertising, which I spewed at a Web 2.0 Expo Web2Open event I did Wednesday.

I am talking quickly since it was a “speed-Q&A” session, where five of us moved from table to table and quickly answered questions shot at us from the people gathered at each.

They were split into like-minded groups–developers, designers, business types.

This video was shot on a Flip camera, the kind BoomTown uses for our own riveting videos, by tech writer David Spark.

Excuse the mysterious Ray-Ban look–the shades are prescription and I left my regular glasses at home. (Also, I was trying to avoid intimacy in this speed Q&A thing!)

Here Spark is asking me about my bête noire in the Web 2.0 space–lack of specifics about monetization.

I always get annoyed by the same stock explanation from entrepreneurs when I ask about it: “Advertising, of course.” But when I then ask for more detail and actual results, that’s where things always get a little fuzzy.

I also talk about the need for Web 2.0 wunderkinds to be scrutinized just the same as any business leader, rather than worshipped by a slavish press.

Hence, my rant: