NYT:

""If we wanted to offer personals before, we would have had a choice of one or two other people in the personals business," [Yahoo's CEO] Mr. Semel said. "We wouldn't be monetizing that. We would just move them to somebody else's business. Now we build our own business." Yahoo figures that it can make 10 to 20 times more revenue from operating its own listings services than from earning fees by referring Yahoo users to other sites."

So now Yahoo figures it'll get more money by doing it themselves instead of being a portal. Good luck catching up on Microsoft which is already among the leaders on most of the biggest money decisions people do: housing, cars, investment and travel.

01/15/02 update: Mr. Semel's Choice.