• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 27, 2009

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz had a busy week. After an on-stage interview at the D: All Things Digital conference and another for CNBC's "The Kudlow Report" that's expected to air Thursday in excerpts throughout the business day, she could be forgiven for being tired.

"We are not a search company," she told CNBC's Jim Goldman, suggesting Yahoo is no different than any other software company competing against Microsoft, though it doesn't sell operating systems. "Just because we are on the Internet does not mean we are a search company."

Bartz told Goldman Yahoo is much broader than a search company. When Goldman suggested that Yahoo tries to compete with Google, Bartz said Yahoo is positioned completely different. She says people don't go to Google to research what's happening in the financial world, connect with similar interest groups, or get the headline news of the moment (Really, Ms. Bartz?). She attempted to make the argument that Yahoo is very different than Google, yet just as special.

When asked how Bartz intends to unlock the power of Yahoo to continue the company's turnaround, she confronted Goldman. "There's no turnaround at Yahoo," she said. "Yahoo is only down 13% year over year. Far less than most people in the advertising business, far less if you look at a lot of advertising-related companies, they are down 30 to 40%. In this market down 15% is the new flat."

Bartz said the turnaround is more mental than physical. It's about continuing to grow and expanding the company's reach. Yahoo has the No. 1 finance Web site, news site, sports site and email service in the world, and "all this business of turnaround is just crazy," she said.