Last week, an obviously jet lagged (and badly dressed, as some troglodyte commenters on Yahoo pointed out, but it was snowing!) BoomTown visited Henry Blodget at Yahoo’s Tech Ticker studio in Times Square in Manhattan to talk about a range of digital topics.

The video interviews included: How well Apple (AAPL) will do without Steve Jobs on deck; whether blogging reporting and professionalism standards need to rise; when Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), Yahoo (YHOO) and Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL will stop dancing around various deals; and finally, how the recession is impacting Silicon Valley.

The short answers: Fine; yes; the anticipation is killing us; and badly, but tech will get through it with some pluck and baling wire!

But if you want a longer explanation, watch the videos.

Apple and Steve Jobs:

Blogging Standards:

A Deal for MicroHooGoogOl?:

The Recession’s Impact in Silicon Valley:

Oh, a nice tiny surprise from Yahoo, as it reported its fourth-quarter results, which came in at 17 cents a share in adjusted earnings, compared to the 12 to 13 cents Wall Street was expecting.

“Despite the challenging economic environment, Yahoo! delivered adjusted operating cash flow above the midpoint of guidance for the fourth quarter,” said new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz in the company’s official release. “The company also made important investments while aggressively managing costs, leaving us better positioned to weather the economic downturn and emerge stronger when advertiser spending improves. We have work to do, but I am excited by Yahoo!’s opportunities, and encouraged by the tremendous innovation and momentum I’ve seen since joining the company as CEO.”

But let’s experience Bartz Live and Unplugged at the fourth-quarter earnings conference call, including a Q&A in which–the company’s intro speaker noted at the top of the call–former Yahoo (YHOO) CEO and Co-Founder Jerry Yang might make an unexpected cameo appearance.

(He didn’t.)

2:08 p.m. PST:

It’s Carol’s show obviously, coming on first and foremost, with a little joke, after hearing all the typical caveats that must be uttered by Yahoo’s investor relations folks before the call begins.

“I should have understood all those risks before I took this job,” she chuckled.

Now that’s the understatement of the year!

Noting she has been on the job only eight days, meeting and greeting the folks of Yahoo, Bartz said she was impressed by the energy and “can-do” spirit of the company, noting that the product pipeline was fantastic.

Of course, products have never been the problem at Yahoo, as many have noted (including BoomTown many, many times). Execution has been the devil in the details!

Bartz obviously got this, but was not going to insult former management this time, as she did in her debut public conference with the press and analysts.

Right after she was hired in mid-January, Bartz noted that Yahoo and its assets, “frankly, could use a little management.”

But it is probably not a good idea to say that again with thus-far silent Jerry Yang sitting right next to her.

2:09 p.m. PST

A tiny bit of kissing up to Bartz by CFO Blake Jorgensen, who started to go over the numbers in great detail, putting the best face on a weakish performance overall, especially compared to previous years.

At the end, he said that Yahoo had performed well in 2008, considering the poor economy, and added guidance going forward was not great either, especially compared to a year ago.

Also, he warned Wall Street not to expect too much guidance for 2009, as Microsoft had also said last week in its own depressing earnings call.

2:20 p.m PST:

Back to can-do Carol Bartz, who began by pointing to all the various assets that Yahoo has–including its Build Your Own Search Service (BOSS) product and Yahoo News–all of which are strong products for advertisers, she said.

But Bartz also finally made the point that execution needs to improve, which she said was “addressable.”

Before the Q&A started, she answered some questions about the company she asked herself, before they could be asked by others. Apparently, now that Bartz is an “insider,” she knows better than anyone else!

Did she come to Yahoo to sell it? “No.”

Will she sell search? Bartz does not know yet, but noted “search is a very valuable part of [Yahoo's] business.”

She added that Yahoo search market share was three times the size of the third player, which Bartz curiously did not name, but which is–of course!–Microsoft–which wants very much to buy Yahoo’s search business.

Uh-oh, Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer might not get his way so quickly!

2:26 p.m. PST:

The first question was about selling the company.

“I did not come to Yahoo to sell the company,” said Bartz again. “It’s too early to say more than that.”

The second question was about reports–in this column too!–about talks with Microsoft and Time Warner (TWX) unit AOL recently.

Bartz said Yahoo does not comment on reports that “come from nowhere.”

Sorry to disagree, but they did come from somewhere and were very well-sourced–just like the absolutely on-target post this column did of Bartz’s pending CEOship at Yahoo, before it was officially announced. But let’s just try to ignore that slight and move on–unless, of course, Bartz keeps up with what has become regular blog-bashing, which means a testy war of words and copious leaked memos to come!

The third question was about the management. Bartz said she plans on getting the lines of communication clearer, which she said she was really good at.

Kissing up to herself was a nice touch.

2:33 p.m. PST:

Next came a question about international business–which is the least of Yahoo’s worries, no matter what its execs say about the great products.

The next question was about guidance. No guidance, folks!

Now, one on the display business, with questions about the pressure on prices and on premium online advertising, which is Yahoo’s top business.

Jorgensen said Yahoo is trying to help advertisers, but that there has been and will continue to be a slowdown in advertising, due to the recession.

More on outlook, cost-cutting, etc. Jorgensen: More caution. Hey, analysts, we’re in a recession and I am not so sure how many ways he can say that.

So far, no Jerry Yang, which was starting to seem odd, since that Yahoo minion said he might be chatting away too.

But, as I said, it seems to be Carol’s show, which has been highly entertaining so far in her tenure, although she’d probably scowl at me sternly for saying that and pull out that cheap trick of insulting the press again.

Next up was a question to about various foreign assets and investments. Bartz will look into it! Jorgensen got in a good joke about her priority not being foreign tax issues.

The following question was about product innovation aimed at a younger demographic.

Bartz was on top of that too, pointing out that she has kids in their 20s.

First, she noted children do grow up, and that they will start to use Yahoo products like its finance offerings, as they move into the workforce and have less time to post dopey pictures on Facebook and throw digital sheep.

Also, young people are finicky, she added. They jumped from MySpace to Facebook, after all!

“Who knows what’s going to come next?,” she said, sounding like a typically exasperated parent. In other words, Yahoo will grab them when they grow up and prefer to be more dull!

2:43 p.m. PST:

The next question was about the timing of changes to come, which prompted Bartz to make another joke about buying the New York Times tomorrow! She was kidding, because the analyst asking the question suggested the troubled Yahoo buy the troubled media company in a recent report.

But, seriously folks, Bartz reiterated: “Gimme some time.”

Next, someone asked about the advertising sales force at Yahoo, which is a good question. Bartz is headed to a sales force meeting in a few weeks, she said, wherein she plans to have a beer with them and find out (once they are drunk and presumably easy to get blabbing).

Still, no Jerry Yang! Sigh. I suddenly desperately miss him and his lower-case ways.

The next question was on shareholder value, which has not been very valuable of late. Bartz noted that everything is on the table related to Yahoo’s businesses, but underscored how valuable the property is as a whole.

“This is not a company that needs to be pulled apart and left for the chickens,” said Bartz.

Apparently, this folksy little saying is from her Wisconsin upbringing. Scary poultry metaphor alert!

Bartz is asked about top assets at Yahoo.

She once again noted that Yahoo’s great products will save the day, from customization to integration of assets. “If we have strong products, we will attract the audience that just beats everything,” said Bartz.

A question about search and display being together, which is a sneaky way to ask about Microsoft, since that’s the great debate within Yahoo over whether to do a deal to outsource it or not.

Bartz made a confusing house metaphor, with search being the house, but it is completely lost on me. Is search the house or a living room or what?

“Whether we keep it or sell it, it’s an important asset,” Bartz then said, which was a clever way of saying exactly nothing.

2:55 p.m. PST:

A question on Yahoo brand, which Bartz basically said is about being the place people come every day. But she admitted there was too much complexity to that brand, although products are strong!

Next, someone asked a question about relevancy of Yahoo. “Our users don’t need constant change,” noted Bartz, who has a decent point about the jumpy nature of Web 2.0’s change-for-change’s-sake mantra.

Still–let’s be honest–Yahoo’s missed a key trend or two in recent years.

Next up was a question about ad prices and another on cost cuts. Jorgensen said that it’ll be more about efficiencies and perhaps some more outsourcing.

Bartz thanked the group for not being “too pushy” in their questions, which was an odd end note, since pushy should be the main job of analysts.

In fact, after listening to the call, I hope that Wall Street keeps up the pushy factor, as investors deserve a lot more answers from Bartz and Yahoo going forward.

It is not, as Bartz insisted in the conference call, a case of inside and outside perceptions being different. Yahoo does have strong products, but it still has gotten itself into its current mess all by itself, much of which has little to do with the weak economy.

That’s why I plan on being very pushy, asking about everything from what structural changes Bartz plans to make to how she envisions Yahoo’s business going forward to improving morale on a sustained basis to what she thinks she can do to make Yahoo the strongest it can be when the economy comes out of the recession.

And, not to get pushy or anything, but what happened to some words from the promised Jerry Yang?

Perhaps he fell victim to the vicious chickens of Wisconsin.

[Dear Yahoos: To get on board the Can-Do Carol Bartz Express, you can buy the "Yes We Can" t-shirt at Zazzle.com for just $23.40!]

Today, Google, the Internet’s juggernaut in both power and profits, will release its third-quarter earnings results after the market closes.

Investors and Silicon Valley will be closely watching Google’s performance and also be listening carefully to the guidance its executives will be giving, hoping the Web’s most stellar performer of late does not stumble.

If it does, some think it is look-out-below time. And, if it does not, it will presumably be all sunshine and daisies for the sector.

Neither is exactly true.

Because, like a lot of healthy and growing companies in the economy, Google (GOOG) can’t help but get dinged by flying debris of the recent financial tornado and its impact on businesses that rely on advertising.

On the other hand, Google’s ad search business is certainly more recession-proof than others, such as the graphical ad offering that Yahoo (YHOO) depends on, which simply means…its ad search business is more recession-proof.

And, given Google’s dominant market share here, this actually means very little to any other digital player.

Still, it will be pins and needles before the third-quarter earnings announcement at 1:30 p.m., Pacific time. The consensus is that Google will have revenues of $4.76 billion for the period and $4.81 in earnings per share.

BoomTown is guessing Google is not likely to disappoint. And, of course, in their ever-quirky way, its leadership troika are certain to make all the right noises about the troubled economy.

Most think they will also outline some sensible cost cuts, which is a good idea, as the peppily profligate search giant has a lot of fat to trim.

That shiatsu-massages-and-lattes-for-all attitude is one of the many reasons (along with international concerns) that worries have mounted about Google’s ability to keep up its blazing past performance and why analysts have slashed forecasts for the company.

That, combined with the Wall Street meltdown, has caused once-soaring shares at Google to plummet, with its stock price cut neatly in half from a year ago.

Google’s stock closed yesterday at $339.17, down $23.54 or 6.5 percent.

“These are turbulent times for which no one has the perfect playbook,” said eBay (EBAY) CEO John Donahoe, after the auction giant predicted in its earnings call that it would be adversely impacted going forward. “There is a high degree of economic uncertainty and turmoil in the business market and that is impacting consumer spending.”

That’s stating the obvious.

Still, the same is true for Google and every other Web company.

Because, even if it’s chin-up for Google tomorrow–no one is going to escape the rocky journey to recovery.

And, if Google chokes a bit? Well, that’s okay too.

In fact, unless you actually think that tech is finished–which would make you not so smart–a hiccup seems entirely appropriate.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Just as there is a tendency to inanely cheerlead the tech sector valuations on the way up, there is inevitably the equally ridiculous overreaction to the downward slide going on right now for digital companies.

Thus, while by no means the weakest sector of the economy, a range of tech stocks got hammered today in the markets, getting dragged down with the market at large as investors continued to fret about a sustained worldwide recession that government bailouts could not prevent.

Consider, after a week of getting socked, even more blows:

Yahoo (YHOO) closed at $15.19, down about 5 percent or 81 cents.

Google (GOOG) closed at $369.37, down just under 5 percent or $17.54.

Microsoft (MSFT) closed at $24.91, down 5.4 percent or $1.41.

eBay (EBAY) closed at $17.89, down 5.5 percent or $1.05.

Interestingly, the company with the most consumer exposure, Apple (AAPL), fell below $90, before closing at $98.14, up 1.1 percent or $1.07.

Now, there’s no question some of this tech carnage was due to the sector riding higher than most and worries about future results. Analysts are cutting estimates across the industry, in anticipation of weaker advertising and international markets.

At this point, as much as BoomTown has warned about the impact of the financial crisis on Silicon Valley, the meltdown in tech shares is beginning to feel a little undeserved and overdone.

After all, does anyone doubt most advertising will move online? Or that tech will not continue to permeate all sectors of our society and economy in the decades ahead? Or that digital companies, for all their fattening up of late, are not the most adept at adapting themselves to leaner times?

After all, everyone in tech did learn a thing or two from the bursting of the last bubble, which was entirely appropriate.

This time, while the industry had begun to party like it was 1999, the more recent expansion–aside from the lofty valuations for start-ups–was done in a way that will make it much easier to cut back.

I kind of feel like I might be channeling Chip Diller, the annoying ROTC cadet in “Animal House” (played by Kevin Bacon), with his famous line, “All is well, remain calm,” even as all hell was breaking loose around him (see video below).

But with a little rejiggering, it’s still the right prescription for the months ahead. In the short term, all is not well.

Nonetheless: Remain calm.

To be fair, the whole market was dragged down today due to worries about a deepening recession. But Yahoo’s ever-decreasing share price has got to have the company and its investors mighty worried.

Hitting lows not seen since the dot-com doldrums of 2001 and 2002, Yahoo closed at $15.58–down $1.38 or 8.14 percent–giving the troubled Internet giant a market cap of just $22.08 billion.

That is almost exactly half of what Yahoo leadership could have gotten if the company had accepted a takeover offer made by Microsoft at the beginning of February.

Nonetheless, even at these bargain-basement prices, sources at the software giant said that Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer has declared repeatedly at internal gatherings recently that he is not going to make another offer for Yahoo (YHOO) no matter how low it goes.

This seems a little stubborn to BoomTown–a kind of taking-my-marbles-and-going-home attitude–especially given Yahoo still has one of the most highly trafficked sites on the Web and some of its best-known products and services, as well as being the No. 2 player in search.

And Ballmer might well be bluffing, of course. After all, a bargain is a bargain.

Nonetheless, it underscores the reality that Yahoo is probably truly on its own now and must sink or swim on the initiatives and leadership of CEO Jerry Yang and President Sue Decker.

As I have written repeatedly, the pair has increasingly less time to act and must show perceptible improvements in results.

As at most Web companies, most analysts agree the third quarter is probably not a disaster for Yahoo. Instead, all eyes are on the fourth quarter, which is going to be most definitely impacted by the current economic slowdown.

Yahoo has recently hired a former Microsoft exec–Joanne Bradford–to lead its advertising efforts in the key U.S. market. And, while she is well regarded on Madison Avenue, Bradford has her work cut out of her, especially in the hard-hit online display advertising business.

Yahoo also is on pins and needles to see if the Justice Department will try to put the kibosh on its search ad outsourcing deal with Google (GOOG).

Yahoo is hoping to get a big boost in revenue from the partnership, which has many critics. In the current economic environment, the government might be loath to slap down any sign of financial activity, but the uncertainty is not good for Yahoo.

Yahoo’s declining stock price is also sure to impact its talks with Time Warner (TWX) over acquiring its AOL unit. Yahoo does not want to pay anywhere near the $10 billion that the media giant had previously floated as its price for the once-mighty, now-beleaguered AOL.

But Yahoo’s declining market value means it is likely to be able to pony up less and less.

With continuing rumors of layoffs, which I posted about two weeks ago, doing more with less is going to be business as usual at Yahoo, it seems.

And, in fact, heads of various business units at Yahoo have been given marching orders to cut costs, which are quite substantial.

“We might not make all the cuts requested,” said one exec. “But it is going to hurt.”