Yahoo Mail now has cloud storage integration thanks to a recently announced partnership with Dropbox. The integration means that Yahoo has email storage offerings similar in scope to Microsoft's Outlook.com and Google's Gmail.

It's surprising that it took this long for Yahoo to bring a cloud storage offering to its web email client. Gmail has been offering integration with Google Drive for years and Microsoft brought Skydrive support to Outlook last year.

The late arrival speaks to Yahoo's current predicament. The former internet superpower has been forced to play catch up on a variety of its products over the last year. This is mainly due to the fact that Yahoo didn't really know what it wanted to be until last July.

Yahoo finally started to map out what it wanted to become when it anointed ex-Googler Marissa Mayer chief executive officer in July.

The company dabbled in half-baked plans during its carousel of leaders over the past few years. But it was only when Mayer took the reins that the company actually started to create a plan of action.

Former Yahoo executive Carol Bartz tried to put the firm's focus on ads and content. However, that plan was quickly dashed when she was let go after only two years of service. Never one to mince words, Bartz would later call the board of directors who fired her a bunch of "doofuses".

At least Bartz had a chance to implement a strategy. Her successor, Scott Thompson, was out the door before his candidacy even really began.

The former PayPal executive was dropped from the Yahoo stable in less than six month of joining the company. Thompson was fired following the discovery that he lied about his education on his CV.

His dismissal quickly led to Mayer taking over the empire of dirt known as Yahoo. She, unlike her predecessors, has a definitive plan of action and the support of her board of directors.

Mayer wants to bring the focus back to Yahoo products. That is why Yahoo has been updating things like its email client and homepage. She's also put a focus on small acquisitions that can offer Yahoo a solid staff of workers.

Her approach differs from that of Bartz and looks more like what Google does. It is perhaps fitting that Mayer is a former Google employee, then. By putting a focus on products Mayer hopes to turn around Yahoo's fortunes through well made user offerings.

So far it looks like it could be working. Revenue has been solid and Yahoo has been making headlines on purpose since she took over. Take for example her recent purchase of Summly. Yahoo paid $20m for the app made by a UK teenager.

Whether it was a PR stunt or because she actually likes the product is anyone's guess. But one thing is for sure, if it was a PR move it was a good one. Yahoo made headlines with the purchase and got people talking about the company for something other than a chief executive firing.

Moving passed news of Yahoo executives fighting with the board of directors is always a good thing. Mayer seems to be well liked by her board. She has even been able to bring people onto the board with her hire.

Former PayPal chief technology officer Max Levchin joined Yahoo's board late last year. Levchin said one of the reasons he joined Yahoo was because of Mayer. Having that sort of support could be huge for Mayer moving forward.

Whether the bet on Yahoo products works is currently unknown. However, at least it is a plan. It is a plan that gives the firm focus and positive attention. Mayer may end up like Bartz by year's end, but at least for now the firm is doing something productive.

It will take a lot for Yahoo to create products that can keep up with Google and Microsoft offerings. Over time, however, that could change. Yahoo is currently on a path and if it stays the course (like sticking with one chief executive for a while) then there's no telling what might happen to the thing once known as "David and Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web".

There are many in the IT industry deeply concerned about the rotten state of education in this country, especially when it comes to producing people with the IT skills that will be essential in tomorrow's economy.

But even while the government labours to produce an IT curriculum capable of inspiring – rather than boring – our schoolchildren, it's reassuring to see that we're still capable of creating role models.

For schoolchildren across the UK, the news that teenager Nick D'Aloisio sold his fledgling start-up Summly to Silicon Valley luminary Yahoo for something in the region of $30m, could be the kind of shot in the arm the industry needs. 

We urgently need more talented Brits to embrace IT, and other than D'Alosisio, role models have been pretty thin on the ground.

D'Alosisio is obviously a precocious talent: he taught himself to programme at the age of 12, had launched his first app by the age of 15, and looks to be a multi-millionaire even before he can legally buy a pint.

But while he is a shining example for would-be programmers, D'Alosisio's own experiences should sound a warning that we cannot be complacent: his success does not guarantee others will follow in his footsteps. 

Lest we forget, D'Alosisio had not learned programming skills at school. According to the Summly blog, D'Alosisio got the idea of creating Summly when studying for exams – but he had to undertake the necessary research into natural language processing and machine translation that underpin the app off his own back. 

Without better support for people interested in technology, we risk seeing the ambitions of other would tech entrepreneurs withering on the stalk of our out-dated education system. We need to open schoolchildren eyes to what they can create themselves through programming, not get them intimately acquainted with Word or Excel.

It may be that D'Alosiso provides a beacon of hope for other would-be UK tech stars. But it's chastening to note that should he opt to attend university at some point in the future, his preference is to read humanities not computer science, according to the Wall St Journal.

Two Silicon Valley executives are in competition with president Obama and Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi for Time Magazine's Person of 2012 award.

Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer and Apple chief executive Tim Cook will look to beat out the political leaders for the award. Mayer candidacy comes as she tries to bring Yahoo back to its glory days. While Cook attempts to move out of the shadow of Apple's founder Steve Jobs.

If the two executives win the award they will join the ranks of past winners like Mark Zuckerberg, who won the award in 2010. Other notable winners include Vladimir Putin, Jeff Bezos, and You.

If Mayer wins it will add to her rather eventful year. She was appointed chief executive of Yahoo last July.

For Cook, the win would be big news for the man who stepped into Steve Jobs shoes late last year. During his tenure as chief executive of Apple, Cook has overseen the release of the iPhone 5, iPad Mini, and the much maligned Apple Maps.

If V3 had a vote, and we don't, we'd give serious consideration to Mayer. Not only has she had one of the most eventful years in Silicon Valley but she's also put her fingerprints all over Yahoo during her brief tenure.

Fixing Yahoo is no easy task. However, Mayer has so far shown she has the vision and support to get it done. Plus, she'd be the first women to win the award since former president of the Philippines Corazon Aquino won it in 1986.

Microsoft may again be bidding for Yahoo, but this time for a minority stake in the company and in partnership with private investment firm Silver Lake Partners, according to reports.

AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong has said, meanwhile, that his firm does not plan to buy any Yahoo assets.

Yahoo has asked for bids to be submitted this week, according to Bloomberg. Other bids are expected to come from private investment firms Thomas H Lee Partners and TPG Capital, reports say.

Another report by DealBook has said that Microsoft will join forces with Silver Lake Partners and TPG Capital to secure 20 per cent of Yahoo.

All the firms involved in the bid have refused to give official statements, but the fact that Microsoft is making another offer for Yahoo would hardly come as a surprise.

Relationships between Microsoft and Yahoo have been far from stable in recent years but, even though Yahoo has fallen a long way from its status as an internet giant, Microsoft remains interested. Microsoft still basically wants Yahoo to compete better with Google.

Redmond attempted to buy Yahoo in 2008 for $44.6bn (£30bn) but was rebuffed. At that point Mcirosoft chief executive Steve Ballmer denied any chance of new acquisition talks and said that his firm had "moved on".

But Microsoft and Yahoo announced a 10-year search partnership in 2009 to allow them to compete with Google.

The deal was signed by Yahoo's new chief executive at the time, Carol Bartz, who was hired to turn Yahoo around after the firm's search market share had fallen sharply against Google's. Bartz was recently fired by Yahoo's board for failing to succeed with this strategy.

Bartz's priority was clearly to improve Yahoo's display advertising business, launching Rich Ads In Search, which let advertisers include images, video and location in adverts. However, problems with Bartz's strategy arose this year, as Yahoo's advertising business was not keeping pace with its rivals'.

Meanwhile, problems also arose with Bartz's 10-year search deal with Microsoft, and in April Yahoo attributed a 28 per cent profit slump to technical problems arising from the partnership.

Yahoo has hit back at claims from consumer group Which? that updated T&Cs on its new Mail service violate internet users' privacy and could lead to behavioural advertising by the back door.

The terms in question are Section c. of Yahoo Mail's Additional Terms Of Service which read: "By using the Services, you consent to allow Yahoo's automated systems to scan and analyse all incoming and outgoing communications content sent and received from your account (such as Mail and Messenger content including instant messages and SMS messages)."

Which? argued that "most consumers would be horrified to learn that their email can be read in order to open the door to targeted advertisers".

However, Yahoo contacted V3.co.uk on Monday to put its side of the story.

This seems to boil down to the fact that users are informed before they sign up via a pop-up notice that most of its competitors already have similar automated scanning in operation, and that the service will not lead to covert behavioural advertising but is primarily aimed at improving the user experience.

Such enhancements include recognising links to Flickr accounts in messages which will then automatically display photos in the body of the email, or directing automatically distributed mail such as newsletters into specific folders.

Undoubtedly customer information will be increasingly used by messaging providers to enhance their services and target relevant ads. The question is whether the benefits to the customer outweigh any lingering privacy concerns.

In most cases, as has already been proved most successfully by Google, they do. If you don't like the new Yahoo Mail, don't upgrade.