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Google Vs. Yahoo: When We Last Met...
I-R-Baboon writes "The New York Times has this article
on the battle between the once #1 Yahoo and the current champion and #1 Google. Yahoo wants it's throne back and is ready to throw the gloves off and mix it up with Google. But can the uncluttering of their page, toning down the ads, and using some features not currently offered on Google give them their title back?" Of course, Yahoo! will have to get in line behind Microsoft as well.
Answer: NO.
At this point they not only need to match, they need to do better. And I don't see Yahoo to be the ones to do that.
Personally, I'm on a windows system fairly often and I find google is appropriate for about 90% of the web searching I do. But checking results against other engines comes in handy sometimes.
I like to use the Lookerup search tool. It makes life a lot easier than the google toolbar and the tonnes of horrible software Yahoo installs to give you a better, "yahoo experience".
Also, lookerup comes with a bunch of utilities I use a lot - but mostly it just makes web searching faster when I'm working on documents etc, and it allows you to pick between search engines you can specify really quickly. So when yahoo does beat out google (lol, yeah right) I'll just setup lookerup to query yahoo first.
-john
Yahoo owns Inktomi, but, according to the NY Times article, still uses Google's index at present.
All search engines/technologies have their own purpose.
/.'ed.
If I am looking for a companies website and it isn't companywebsite.com, I would use yahoo and enter the company name. Once in a while It works for topic searches.
If I am doing a general search, I used to use Excite or Lycos. I have moved to google as my search engine of choice for a few reasons.
1. Google searches embedded formats (PDF, MSWord, Etc.)
2. Google is fast and clean
3. Free
4. Google has cached versions of pages for when a site has been
5. Google's rankings are not based on keywords but rather who links to the site.
6. Picture search
7. News search
8. Usenet search
9. Preferences for setting # of results p/page
Yahoo! has a long way to go despite the extra services they offer (chat, games, auctions).
I've just visited yahoo's site for the first time in a couple of years (no, I'm not kidding) and quite frankly their site does not seem uncluttered to me. There are still hundreds of links and adds on the main page.
If it used to be worse, then I guess they made a step in the right direction, but they're still not even close to Google in terms of a clean, functional site. If I wanted news, I'd go to BBC. For shopping, ebay, amazon, etc. But Yahoo is still bunching everything together on the main page.
But most importantly, I doubt that any other company will be able to beat Google. That engine just works. I've been able to find useable info on anything that I searched for, from drivers for my antique hardware to parts for my motorcycle. Other engines did not have anything on those searches, at least nothing that was helpfull.
And do you think that yahoo has not thought about it ?
check out http://search.yahoo.com. It's a look and feel copied from Google, but just that the tabs are on the side, and not at the top of the search box.
and a little register hack which allows me to type
........
....... on google. :P
= UTF-8&q=%s"
.reg
G
in my IE search bar to search for
REGEDIT4 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\g] @="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe
just copy and paste that into a notepad doc, and save as a
Just remember, google is now a noun and a verb, not just a number.
Sure, "google" is now a noun and a verb, but it was never a number - "googol" is.
Open the Search pane.
Click Customize.
Click Autosearch settings.
Choose Google Sites.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
According to the article, Inktomi provides search results that are "every bit as good as those of Google". I tried a comparison, and got a strange result when searching for "bling bling" on HotBot, using the Inktomi index. Try it for yourself, and see if you can explain the #1 result.
Not Found
The requested URL
I haven't been to yahoo in AGES, but I just stopped by. The front screen is so cluttered with "news" and "contests" and advertisements that I actually had to look all over the page to find where the search engine part was. Bam! That's all it takes for me to know that yahoo is always going to be a "walking commercial" and not a professional utility.
Wrong, wrong, wrong:
- 3383 characters
- 180 words
- 13 lines
Basic wc usage:ls -l google.html -rw-r--r-- 1 gallir gallir 3338 2003-04-07 15:35 google.html
$ wc google.html
13 180 3338 google.html
sgis ddo ekil t'nod i
If you look in their Opposing Views of Scientology section, you will find no mention of Operation Clambake, the most important web site devoted to revealing the truth about the cult.
Why?
Google's HTML is stripped down, but the HTTP response headers on the main page are the bare minimum.
Using livehttpheaders on the Google logo shows these HTTP headers in the 200 OK:
Last-Modified: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 02:32:25 GMT
Expires: Sun, 17 Jan 2038 19:14:07 GMT
(The Expires header is probably a round number in the UNIX date format.) What this does is instructs every proxy server, squid and browser cache between you and Google not to bother re-downloading the image until 2038. Of course, you can probably make the browser override that.
Without even considering end-user benefits, the extreme space-saving efforts still make sense. Sure, google might serve 9k of data to each user. But if they were serving 10k instead, and they got 200 million hits a day, that's 200GB of bandwidth saved daily. And, whoever you get your connection from, that's a few bucks . . .
what immediatly comes to mind is Jonathan Swift's descriptions of Yahoos in Gulliver's Travels, namely:
... and that feeling is not pleasant and certainly does not endear me to their site.
"A yahoo is a vile and savage creature, filthy and with unpleasant habits..." (from Wikipedia)
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
Yahoo lost - plain an simple. There is no way they can even regain credibility wit hthe people who have watched them grow over the years.
I have had a yahoo mail account since about '96 and in the begining it was a great amil service.
but now they are riddled with ads - they attemtpt to reset your preferences without notifiying you that changes have been made etc..
Their tactics have gotten downright scummy.
for example - I have had DSL at home for about 3 or 4 years now. The whole time I have also used my yahoo account extensively. Recently SBC and Yahoo went into a deal to promote their cobranded DSL service.. now when I log into Yahoo Mail from home - it sees that I am coming from an SBC DSL IP or host - and redirects me to a full page ad for their SBC Yahoo service before letting me into my account.
Now this wouldnt be so bad if I had signed up for DSL on the cobranded package and GOTTEN THE SPECIAL RATE$ - but I have not - I have had DSL since before the deal that they went into, and as far as I am concerned - I should be given the special rate if they are going to force me to watch these ads...
so far my calls to SBC have gotten nowhere.
too bad for yahoo I could care less if they go out of business or not. I sure as hell wont support them.