Yahoo’s recent announcement not to outsource its paid search comes after much scrutiny and many rumors about the company in general. Jerry Yang, who took over as CEO in June, stated that there would be no “sacred cows” at Yahoo as the company is reevaluated. With stock shares dropping and Yahoo’s offerings becoming more commoditized, it’s probably a smart decision to keep the search efforts in house. The recent launch of the Panama system has aligned Yahoo more with its rival. However, there is still a long way to go and some feel it would be in Yahoo’s (and Wall Street’s) best interest to outsource to Google. We’ll continue to monitor this and see how it unfolds over the next couple of months. Yahoo promised a 100 day focus on the new strategic direction of the company, which started in July. Results from that should be interesting.