Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz echoed the turnaround promises of her predecessors as she presided by the first shareholder meeting since her hiring, yet she left little doubt the slumping World Wide Web company’s new boss isn’t the same as the old bosses.

Like Terry Semel did in 2007 and Jerry Yang again last year, Bartz assured shareholders Thursday that she will polish Yahoo’s tarnished grade and end a three-year financial funk that has depressed the Sunnyvale-based company’s stock.

But her notice resonated with more flair and spunk than the more circumspect styles of Semel and Yang.

And Bartz made it clear she didn’t want to assemble out any questions about Microsoft Corp., whose convoluted courtship of Yahoo began while Semel was still CEO in 2007 and intensified while company co-founder Yang was in charge last year.

Bartz, a Silicon Valley veteran who joined Yahoo six months ago, left little doubt who is calling the shots now as she seized the podium Thursday to set the meeting agenda instead of Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock. At last year’s meeting, Yang deferred to Bostock, who didn’t even talk at that year’s meeting.

During the question-and-answer session, she often gave blunt responses. She dissed “crappy” ads and concurred with a shareholder who complained about Yahoo posting too many entertainment stories on the front page of its Web site.

“If I see another Britney Spears thing, I am going to throw up,” she said. As part of a makeover of Yahoo’s home page that fall, Bartz indicated the company might include a “fluff-o-meter” to let Web surfers signal whether they wanted more hard-hitting news.

Bartz didn’t mince words when two shareholders wondered why Yahoo isn’t doing more to protect human rights and free speech in China, where the company has previously faced harsh criticism for turning by e-mails that help convict government critics.

“Yahoo was…

[Source] dhiram