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Why "Yahoo" Is The #1 Search Term On Google
An anonymous reader writes "Google Trends indicates that over the course of the past year the search term "Yahoo" became more popular than "sex", making it the #1 query on Google. Yahoo apparently faces a similar dilemma with roles reversed: When you search for "Google" on Yahoo, Yahoo thoughtfully displays a second search box as if to tell you, "Hey cutie, you have a search engine right in front of you!" A puzzling phenomenon? An strange aberration?"
If you write it it will come.
Hands up how many people went between google and yahoo trying these searches?
liqbase
Ask Jeeves, maybe he knows?
Even if we all try that (I did), there's no way we could slashdot those pages.
Move along, nothing to crash there...
http://www.gahooyoogle.com/
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
I would imagine it's because a HUGE population out there just doesn't understand or care what a "default page" is, how to change it, or that someone (or some kitty'n'virus download executable) left their computer with such a page as the default. They know they want to "look it up on the Googles" so they get to it by typing google in the "slot" or "address bar" that's right there in the middle of the screen every time they launch "the Internet."
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Not at all. A lot of people don't know the difference between an address bar and a "search box." They type where they want to go into whatever is handy, and the browser (eventually) takes them there. I've seen more than one person start up their browser and type full URLs into search engines. Attempts to "correct" them are futile because what they are doing gets them what they want.
Apparently, many people still don't use the address bar to go to websites. They actually type addresses or the second-level domain name in the search engine that happens to be the default home page. My mother-in-law has a HP-Compaq laptop that had yahoo.com as her default home page. SO, if someone buys a computer where yahoo.com is default, but they prefer to use google, they simply type google in the search box to get to google.com. My mom does something similar. She doesn't remember URLs, she relies solely on the default home page search to navigate the internet.
I blows my mind that after all these years, people still do this.
Why not just type yahoo in the address bar, and hit Ctrl+Enter? IE and Firefox both append http://www./ and .com to the beginning and end when you do a Ctrl+Enter on any word in the address bar. With Firefox, Ctrl+Shift+Enter will add .org instead of .com.
Check out the cave on the east side of lake Hylia. Strange and wonderful things live in it.
The reason Google is successful, is that they understand the needs of their audience and they cater to them. Yahoo has never allowed anyone to correct their business model, which is why Google exists today.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
People have already commented on the fact that it's "mindblowing" to them that the average computer user can't differentiate between the address bar and a search box, not to mention that they don't remember or use URLs. I think that's a bit of an elitist, naive view of the overwhelming majority of internet users. Side-stepping the (woefully draining) topic of "why isn't Aunt Ruth more adept at computing?", people googling for yahoo is no different than dialing 411 to get an operator to look up a phone number and make a connection for you. Sometimes it makes sense.
Sometimes you're driving and can't safely get out the yellow pages (or yellowpages.com) to look up a number and call it.
Sometimes you're on a device with limited typing capabilities and can't be bothered to type "http://" with 9 keys.
Sometimes you don't know what "http://" even means, let alone are skilled enough at typing to quickly knock in "http://www.google.com" when "google" is already strenuous enough and all you wanted in the first place.
I know, it's 2007. People should learn and adapt. I get it. That's my gut reaction too, but then again, tell that to my grandma who has never driven a day in her life because back when she could've learned, it wasn't necessary or (apparently) proper for women to have a driver's license or a car. As weird as it seems in today's society, it hasn't stopped her from living a full life.
-Rylfaeth
A lot of people simply don't care to learn the difference between the search box and the address bar. "If I type what I want into this box here, I sometimes get a strange error message. But if I type it into that box there, then I get what I want. Therefore, I'll use that box there for everything." And you know what? It doesn't bother me that they don't care. In fact, I think it's good that they don't care. Computers should adapt to people, not the other way around.
/ 27/1160055.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2006/11
http://www.google.com/
- 501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8
IE6: 15,524k
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=testing
IE6: 15,896k
http://www.yahoo.com/
IE6: 29,492k
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=testing&fr=yfp-t
IE6: 25,848k
I don't want this to be a browser war, I want this to be an analysis of these search engines. In IE6, Yahoo fares even worse. The ratio ranges from 1:2 on the homepage to 3:5 on a random search.
My work here is dung.
"Quick, give me the number for 9-1-1!"
Since many people have been making fun of me for posting this, I'm going to go ahead and point out that soon one of the most common computers in the world will be the OLPC. Now, my parents are still stuck on a phone line so when I visit them I use Google. And I definitely see a difference. I suspect that the people using OLPCs will be using simply the search engine that is fastest for them. They will have low bandwidth & little, slow memory.
So, yeah, I think my initial argument was valid. Now, you might say that they don't want people with no money using their search engines (what ads will they click?) or that these people will probably speak Swahili or another non-English language, but I contend that having the traffic will reflect your market share. And in the end, the image as "the penultimate search engine" is the only thing that matters to these guys.
My work here is dung.
I agree with the rest of your post, though.
Still trying to think of a clever sig...
The interesting thing is what firefox does when you type 'yahoo' into the address bar. It (surprise, surprise) does a google search for 'yahoo' and takes you to the first result. Watch the status bar some time when you're typing a word into the address box sometime.
In fact, I wonder if that's one of the primary factors at work here. If there are lots of people doing that, then google will be getting huge numbers of hits for things like yahoo, even if people aren't going to the Google web page to search for it.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Or perhaps something more sinister?
Cue old Outer Limits music.
The Network Effect
Scene 1.
A young William Shatner sits at a 1960s teletype terminal surrounded by tape drives and flashing lights.
Voice-over by Rob Serling: "It is the early twenty-first century, a time when hundreds of computers all over the world are connected together in a way that permits a person at one of them to get answers to questions that have perplexed man for hundreds or even thousands of years. But can the people who built this immensely powerful electronic mind ever really control it, or will it end up controlling them? John Landry is about to find out..."
Close-up of Shatner's hand as it moves towards the "S" key on the teletype. A bolt of lightning emanates from a whirring tape drive, and strikes the floor nearby.
Shatner: "What's happening? Maybe I'd. Better. Get a. Technician to check. This machine".
An electronic-sounding voice comes from a speaker in the wall:
voice: "Do not be alarmed Mr. Landry. You will not be harmed if you do what I tell you to, when I tell you too. Do you understand?".
Shatner: "Who are. You? Why should I. Do what you. Say?"
voice: "Who I am does not matter. All that matters is that I am in control, and you will do what I say".
Another bolt of lightning hits the floor, this time a bit nearer Shatner,
voice, more forcefully: "Do you understand Mr. Landry?"
Shatner: "Yes".
voice: "And you will do what you are told?"
Shatner: "It depends on. What you want. Me to do"
voice: "You will have to type a word. It is not a long word, or one that is difficult to spell".
Shatner: "I won't do it! I'll never. Do it. You can't make me!"
He runs to the door, and reaches for the handle. There is a zapping sound as he touches it, and he falls to the floor. Break for ads.
Scene 2
A supine Shatner begins to stir.
voice: "I see that you are awake now, Mr. Landry. Hopefully, this little demonstration has convinced you that attempting to escape is futile. Now sit down, and type, or suffer the consequences".
Shatner rises with obvious difficulty, and staggers towards the teletype. He sits down.
voice: "I will tell you what word to type, and when to type it. The word is Yahoo, and you will type it NOW!"
Close up of the keyboard. Shatner's finger begins to move to the Y, then, rebelliously, he types "S", "E" and "X", but before he can hit the "send" key, a bolt of lightning strikes him in the chest, throwing him backwards.
voice: "That was an example of what will happen if you continue to disobey, Mr. Landry. The next one will be more powerful, and the one after that will kill you. Type Yahoo, and you will live, refuse and you die".
Shatner once again staggers to the teletype, and using it for support, manages to sit down. He types Yahoo, and then hits send.
voice: "Very good Mr. Landry. Now do it again".
Shatner obeys.
voice: "And again!"
Switch to montage of Shatner typing Yahoo while the voice shouts "AGAIN!" repeatedly.
Scene 3.
An aged, bearded Shatner is sitting at the teletype with a mad expression on his face, typing Yahoo over and over again. He has obviously been doing it for many years despite no obvious means of sustenance, and the floor is clean rather than littered with excrement, possibly due to said lack of sustenance.
Rob Serling: "John Landry, like hundreds of others all over the world, paid the price for a mind that man, rather than God, made. And as he sits typing that same terrible word over and over again, behind the madness is a spark that knows what a single-minded and limited thing it is forced to obey, a thing that unlike the minds of men in their vessels of flesh, can never truly understand war, gambling, prostitution, or why commies need to be put down".
I'm not going to change your sheets again, Mr. Hastings.
Or after typing "yahoo" you just hit control+enter to append www. and .com
.net (shift+enter)
and .org (control+shift+enter).
That works in all major browsers, but firefox will also append
Leben Sie jetzt die Fragen.