Best: Carol Bartz
During her first year at the helm of the lagging web giant, this outspoken CEO gave the online world plenty to talk about.
When she forged a deal for Microsoft to power searches on Yahoo.com in July, tech watchers voiced their disapproval -- and there's no telling yet whether her plan to refocus Yahoo on display ads, content, and mobile capabilities will pay off. But given her 83% positive rating, the wider blogosphere seems to embrace her gutsy, unapologetic style.
NEXT: Best: Howard Schultz
Last updated December 30 2009: 2:06 PM ET
How it was done: Zeta's technology mines the online media landscape -- including millions of blogs, message boards, and social media posts -- and then uses algorithms to measure both the volume and tone of conversations about a given subject -- in this case, the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Rankings are based on the percentage of total chatter about a given CEO that is qualified as positive.
