Ah, finally, a new sense of purpose, at Yahoo. Jeff Weiner's the Sunnyvale internet company's golden boy, has taken time off from his losing battle with Google, and penned a mission statement. Amid the dreadful corporate verbiage, there's a new goal for the languishing 12-year-old internet company, according to the Yahoo product boss: "To connect people to their passions, communities, and the world's knowledge." Fresh! Except not. Two years ago, too, Jeff Weiner was telling journalists about Yahoo's new vision. "To enable people to find, use, share and expand all human knowledge." Sounds eerily familiar. The only significant change, as far as I can see: Yahoo, embarrassed by Google's growing lead in search, has muted its aspirations to "find" information.

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