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Yahoo Passes Google in Total Items Searched

Posted by timothy on from the it-depends-what-you're-looking-for dept.

tonyquan writes "Yahoo announced today that its search engine passed Google's for overall capacity, with 20 billion documents and images indexed versus 11.3 billion for Google. Observers had previously pegged Yahoo's index at just 8 billion items. The growth is due to a recent expansion effort. More info can be found on the Yahoo! Search blog and at CNet."

13 of 434 comments (clear)

  1. Great by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now all Yahoo has to do is create a real search engine that can actually spew out relevant results amongst those 20 billion entries...

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  2. Great... by Lewisham · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...now it'll be even harder to find anything on Yahoo! Google keeps and holds its users because searches *work*. When I search for something, Google has a very high chance of giving me what I want in 4 pages or so. Yahoo! isn't as good at getting me the information I want. The problem might even be made *worse* with all these pages. Yahoo! has never said, AFAIK, how it ranks pages, but Google does it better. With this wealth of data, the ranking system is going to be under much more scrutiny at picking the right pages.

    1. Re:Great... by bedroll · · Score: 5, Funny
      http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=crap&btnG=Goo gle+Search

      had to do it, sorry..

  3. Googlebot is not very aggressive on internal links by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    We recently launched a mobile search engine. The domain was registered, pages created, etc, so I'm observing it go from zero page rank, to having a page rank and getting crawled. Yahoo's bot definitely crawls more frequently, and Googlebot doesn't seem to crawl any links unless they are linked to from external pages. I assume that as the pagerank increases, Googlebot will get more aggressive, but from what I can see in the logs it's clear that Googlebot takes a "wait and see" approach to crawling.

    That's not a bad thing. There are a lot of useless pages out there, and having twice as many pages in the index certainly does not mean twice as many useful pages.

    I am glad to see the search engine wars are on and competitive.

  4. More important by Chairboy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    A newsflash that's more important to me is how, years ago, Google passed Yahoo's abillity to display relevant results.

    Why isn't programmer efficiency measured in KLOCs? Because quality is more important than quantity when used as the only metric.

  5. Quantity versus quality by IamGarageGuy+2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't believe that volume of pages is really a relevant metric to be used in the case of search results. With an infinite number of pages the real metric comes down to relevance.

    --
    Stay tuned for new sig...
  6. 20 billion documents, I wonder... by baylanger · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are those 20 billion documents, the actual SPAMs I received at my yahoo mail account since 1994?

  7. 95% of which is crap by darkCanuck · · Score: 5, Interesting
    • useless blogs and geocities "websites": 12 billion
    • clipart, midi and hideous backgrounds for above websites: 6 billion
    • links to outdated or expired user sessions: 1 billion
    • real content: 1 billion, if lucky
    The only thing I ever use Yahoo for is if and when my internet connection seems slow or dead I ping yahoo.com. It's just been a habit since the 90's.
  8. Big Increase - Simple Explanation by ndansmith · · Score: 5, Funny

    The increase can be explained by Yahoo adding Slashdot dupes to their index.

  9. My own - albeit anecdotal - experience... by mosel-saar-ruwer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've spent the last few days doing some very important searching - we're thinking about launching a new product in a rather arcane field, and I wanted to be absolutely certain who the potential competition might be - hence I decided to search both Google & Yahoo!.

    Guess what? Yahoo! search beats Google search, hands down. Not even close.

    Two thoughts:

    1) While everybody was oohing and ahhing about Google's IPO, Yahoo! very quietly went about purchasing some excellent search engine/caching outfits, like Inktomi and AllTheWeb, and, owing to the great dot-com bust, paid only pennies on the dollar in acquiring some outstanding talent and intellectual property.

    2) I think Google's been reading too many of their own press releases, and has been resting on their laurels for a few years now. And it doesn't help matters that their CEO, Eric Schmidt, is the same fella who damn near drove Novell to bankruptcy.

    1. Re:My own - albeit anecdotal - experience... by coflow · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I do think this is interesting to note, but I have to ask you as a business man, what matters more to you, the quality of the search or the number of people using the search engine. From anecdotal evidence, I can tell you that I maybe know of 3 or 4 people who use yahoo to search, and pretty much everybody else uses google or has firefox search toolbar set to google.

      I can make a better hamburger than McDonald's can, but you're probably better off investing in them than you are in me.

  10. I've got Results as to why I prefer Google: by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 5, Interesting
    OK: I did a brain fart search on both engines. The word? Kyzyl. It's the capital of Tuva. Tuva is an obscure little suburb of Mongolia. Yep. When you think your stupid relatives who bought a place in Indiana live in the middle of Nowhere, you're wrong. Tuva Is The Middle Of Nowhere.

    So, In Firefox tab A, I have Google and tab B is Yahoo. Both searched on Kyzyl.

    Results (pleae pay attention because htmling this was a pain...):

    Yahoo's first 5 entries:

    * All Russia Hotels All Russian Hotels - We offer discount hotel reservation services online in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Russia, Ukraine, CIS and Baltic. www.allrussiahotels.com

    * Tuva Travel Kyzyl city is the capital of Tuva Republic (Russia) Kyzyl city is positioned right in the center of Asia, which is proudly claimed by a local monument specifically dedicated to this fact. www.sokoltours.com

    WEB RESULTS

    1. Wikipedia: Kyzyl
    Open this result in new window
    Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia's article on 'Kyzyl' en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyzyl

    - More from this site - Save - Block

    2. Weather Underground: Kyzyl, Russia Forecast
    Open this result in new window Find the Weather for any City, State or ZIP Code, or Airport Code or Country. Email. Password. Maps. United States. International. Information. Refinance Rates. GoTo Meeting. Kyzyl Singles. Hosting Companies. Online deals! Vitamins. Internet Mall ... Updated: 8:00 AM KRAST on August 02, 2005. Observed at Kyzyl, Russia (History) Elevation: 2064 ft / 629 m ... Coming soon: Flash Stickers. Kyzyl, 63 F / 17 C ...
    www.wunderground.com/global/stations/36096.html
    - 64k - Cached - More from this site - Save - Block

    3. AllRefer.com - Kyzyl (CIS And Baltic Political Geography) - Encyclopedia
    Open this result in new window

    3. AllRefer.com reference and encyclopedia resource provides complete information on Kyzyl, CIS And Baltic Political Geography. Includes related research links. ... By Alphabet : Encyclopedia A-Z - K. Kyzyl, CIS And Baltic Political Geography ... Kyzyl or Kizil[both: kizil'] Pronunciation Key, city (1989 pop ...
    reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/K/Kyzyl
    More from this site - Save - Block

    Now, for the first five Google Results on Kyzyl:

    Kyzyl'-administrative center of Republic of Tuva, Russia Kyzyl' Republic of Tuva,
    |Central-Chernozemny| ... Republic Capital:, Kyzyl. Capital Population:, 91000( at 01/01/94) ...
    members.tripod.com/~argun/kyzyl.htm
    - 5k - Cached - Similar pages

    Kyzyl on Encyclopedia.com
    Kyzyl or Kizilboth: kzl, city (1989 pop. 85000), capital of Tuva Republic, S Siberian Russia, on the Yenisei River. It services motor transport and has ...
    www.encyclopedia.com/html/K/Kyzyl.asp
    - 47k - Cached - Similar pages

    Kyzyl Travel Information. Photos, Stories and Diaries about Kyzyl
    Sustainable Tourism for independent travellers (travelers) and backpackers. www.worldsurface.com/browse/location.asp?locationi d=5654
    - 59k - Cached - Similar pages

    Kyzyl, Tuva, Russia current local time
    Kyzyl, Tuva, Russia - before placing a telephone call or making travel plans for a flight or hotel, get the current local time provided by ...
    www.worldtimeserver.com/current_time_in_RU-TY.aspx ?city=Kyzyl
    - 17k - C

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
  11. Re:fantastic by xs650 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If over 1/2 the restaurants in big cities were fake restaurants built to look like the restaurant you were looking for, yes it would be.