Gawker: valleywag, apex

Report: Yahoo's company-saving ad platform still on schedule

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:40:00 EDT

Despite losing its lead engineer and complaints that it's been underfunded, Yahoo's dashboard for brand advertising buyers — first called Apex, then AMP and now goes nameless — is ready to roll out this September, the New York Post reports. The story's source is Yahoo exec Mike Walrath, who will move to San Francisco around the time AMP launches this fall. "We understand there is a fair amount of skepticism outside of the company," Walrath told the Post. "Inside of the company, the reason the confidence level is so high is we're not just building a piece of software to be innovative. We are potentially the biggest customer of this software." Nothing personal, but we'll believe it when we see it, Mike.

Ad platform Apex becomes AMP, Yahoo promises release in Q3

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang today promised the world 500 to 700 engineers will complete Yahoo's brand advertising platform by the third quarter. The announcement was Yahoo's second public response today to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer threat to lower Microsoft's bid for Yahoo over the weekend. According to the clip above, the platform — once called Project Apex, now dubbed AMP — is supposed to provide the technology for publishers to sell their own display, search, mobile and video ads through a Yahoo marketplace. Problem is Apex/AMP is not near completion, commenters on our post "Employee: Yahoo is a mess inside," tell us.

"Apex is indeed a mess," writes commenter DeanMartin. "The release timelines are ridiculously optimistic for a system of its magnitude/complexity." Another commenter blames management: "Apex is being run by the very same morons in Burbank who claim Panama is a huge success."Commenter Groovy Gnome blames the MBAs, too:

The number one cause of the mess: No project management skills to be seen all around. No accountability. I think all the managers there need to go back to school and really learn what it takes to lead a project of this scale.

Decker and Yang announce plans to solve Yahoo's problems later

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:00:15 EST

Yahoo's long-missing Sue Decker has, at last, surfaced at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's conference in Phoenix, where she and CEO Jerry Yang told the crowd that everything is fine. Yahoo just needs a little more time. Remember Panama? Decker's hoping you don't.

This time, Decker said, investors and employees should hold their breath for Apex. It's an advertising platform that allows agencies to build one campaign encompassing search, display, mobile and more. Decker said the plan is to launch in the second half of 2008. Which, according Microsoft's Kevin Johnson, means it'll be called Apex Live.