A couple of days ago on Monday, June 18, 2012, Silverback Marketing reported about the continued dominance of Google in the search landscape. The same report detailed the ongoing decline of Yahoo, a trend that has been an unfortunate consistency for the search engine that at one time was one of the most popular search choices. The same day that Silverback released that report Yahoo made a move in an effort to regain some of its lost popularity and increase revenue.

The Monday announcement that Yahoo named former Google employee Michael Barrett chief revenue officer could be a step in the right direction. Mr. Barrett was in charge of the integration of AdTech, the company Barrett ran as the CEO when Google purchased the firm December 2011.

The advertising department for Yahoo has been struggling in recent months. The first quarter 2012 report indicated that Yahoo’s display revenue declined for the second straight quarter. The decline was a 2% drop year-over-year, a figure that clearly indicated to Yahoo that a change was needed.

Back on Monday, May 14 Silverback Marketing reported that the CEO of Yahoo Scott Thompson had stepped down amid a flurry of controversy due to false information on his resume. The interim CEO for Yahoo is Ross Levinsohn, more than likely a key factor in the hiring of Michael Barrett. Barrett and Levinsohn used to work together at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, a company where both gentlemen were top internet executives. Barrett will report directly to Levinsohn once he starts with Yahoo in early July.

Yahoo obviously is banking on the theory that reuniting two executives that successfully worked together in the past will help the company turn things around. Yahoo has a lot of work to do to recapture advertising revenue that Google and Facebook currently possess. Time will tell how the latest maneuver by Yahoo pays off down the road.