Yahoo!'s Green Goal Gives Pause

And far from bolstering the bottom line, the idea may still present a significant drain. Indeed, Filo kicked off the campaign in New York to present the city -- "recently determined to [be producing] 1% of all U.S. greenhouse gasses," according to a Yahoo! press release -- with a fleet of hybrid Ford(F Quote) Escape SUV taxi cabs.

The company also promised another fleet of hybrid taxi cabs to the winner of its "Greenest City in America," challenge, which ranks cities based on their use of the new Yahoo! Web site.

Never mind that with 2.7% of the U.S. population, New York may actually be less damaging on a per capita basis than many other cities. Investors should have cause for concern for several other reasons: When did Yahoo! get in the business of giving away fleets of hybrid taxis, for starters? And even if the hybrid taxis cost Yahoo! less than market rates -- Ford is currently advertising the SUV on the Yahoo! site, suggesting some kind of quid pro quo could be possible -- is this really the best use of Yahoo! management's time?

Yahoo! has pinned its search hopes on Panama, a revamped version of the company's ad-serving technology that is supposed to recreate a method used by Google(GOOG Quote) from the get-go. And while the initial reports of Panama have been promising, the company will need all the help it can get to keep Google from pulling ahead even further.