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Yahoo Edges out Google in Customer Satisfaction
athloi writes "The University of Michigan's American Consumer Satisfaction Index shows some significant shifts this year in consumer satisfaction among several major online players: Google, Yahoo, Ask, and AOL. For one, Google no longer holds first place. 'The ACSI report notes that Yahoo's jump into first place was a 4 percent increase over its score from last year, while Google saw a 4 percent decrease during the same time period. ACSI says that to the untrained eye, Google's home page today looks almost identical to the way it looked years ago. This is where Google's simplicity is apparently hurting it in the long-term, as new users just aren't seeing Google's new offerings--such as increased storage options, additions to Google Maps, and tweaks to Google Image Search--right in front of their faces like they do with other sites.'"
Google seems to be the best with developers and coming up with new technologies. I still think they rule.
Plus they don't blow money on advertising spots.
Has anyone ever seen an ad for Google?
Shameless plug alert: Game server control panel
I like the wild stab at blaming Google's "simplistic" homepage as being the cause of their lack of customer satisfaction. The quick-to-load, non-headache inducing simple Google homepage is one of the reasons that drew me in to Google, and is one of the reasons that keeps me coming back. But maybe I'm just a geek that way and other people want their homepages to look like a neon strip mall.
The simplicity of their site and the fact that Google *hasn't* changed their front page to include the usual bloat is exactly what keeps some of us using it. I know that more users equals more money and maybe the masses want more crap on the main page (maybe they don't) but sometimes it may be better to worry about quality more than quantity. That's one of the things that has made Google so strong over the years. They haven't (yet) sacrificed their quality just to be mainstream and I think that has worked very well for them so far. The day that Google loses their simplicity on the main search page is the day I find an alternative.
has anyone ever seen Google advertise its arsenal of products? except for this spoof commercial. Google's USP is that they have these details sneak in via various news items, and rest is left to the hype, and over zealous fans keep digging for minuscule details. Irony is that one of the largest ad agencies doesn't resort to (or believe in?) advertising (except for some adsense keywords)
who immediately opened a new tab and brought up yahoo.com to see a cluttered page (although less so than it used to be) and a Flash advertisement and sat there scratching my head with a "Huh?" look on my face?
Only speak when it improves the silence.
That's sort of exactly what I was going to say. I think Google is getting kind of a bad reputation for being "too good" for their customers. Especially when it comes to adwords/adsense. Take a look at sites like http://forums.digitalpoint.com/ and you can find literally thousands of people who were dumped by Google with nothing more then a lockout of their account and an ambiguous email. That kind of customer service will get you nowhere. Also, they have a brutal history with some of their apps when it comes to just dumping existing users. Their recent fiasco Google video subscribers (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/11/12532 37) is a prime example of that.
What Google needs is not to change its clean search engine, but just provide a new service, maybe text linked to from the search engine place... Called something like "Google Center" which is more of a portal, or at least news page. I know their blogs announcing stuff like Google Earth updates or whatever, but I don't think a blog is efficient enough in format. The page could collate news from different major areas (search, Google Earth, Gmail, ...) along with having a "Misc" section where you have links to stories announcing other more minor things.
Just some one stop place where people can actually get an overview of not just their services, but the news on their services.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
It's done, in unbearably slow Flash. I can't use Yahoo maps at all, it's a PITArse! Agreed that Google should spend more time on finishing/maintaining products than creating new ones, but Yahoo's binary-cruft-o-maps are not a shining example the rest of the world should follow!
It's difficult to believe the article's weird supposition that Google's ultra-clean home page is somehow hurting them, that was one of the main reasons I--and many people I know--switched away from Yahoo! (that and Yahoo!'s paid search results), and I thought people hated change?!
I'm going to transform myself into a mighty hawk. Either that or I'll just go and work at Dixons, haven't decided yet.
You got modded Funny, undeservedly so. That's a good question, and (with Sargeant Pepper above) I agree: how reliable are these surveys? Who actually answers them anymore? Not younger people, who have an unlisted cell phone for VoIP. (Thanks, earlier telecom/telemarketing practices!) Not people with a life, who view it as a mark of shame to be suckered into taking a survey. Not people an office number you random-dialed, who will leap on any excuse not to talk. ("Oh, sorry, can't do that on company time" *reload Slashdot*) So who's left? A REALLY ****in' skewed sample!
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Not only that, who are their customers? Users might be more appropriate wording. It's not like many (any) people actually pay money to these companies for their services.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Seriously, Yahoo Maps is rubbish. And I'm not even talking about the ugly and unfriendly interface.
;)
since I said not so flattering things about google in my last post, I'll even it up by speaking in their favor.
I block flash and just don't ever install that software. flash tends to be mostly ads and I can easily live without the other bits that aren't ads.
given that I block flash, I didn't even SEE yahoo's maps. I got some 'you must upgrade flash' page, instead.
otoh, the google map you linked to (boadilla del monte) came up quickly and displayed well.
so at this point, unless I'm willing to install flash - I can't even RUN yahoo's maps on my browser (latest firefox on freebsd; and I just refuse to install any flash libs on my system. I'm just that way.)
ok, google wins on the map issue - for me, at least. I'll give the devil its due
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
I'm ready to switch search engines now. It's getting harder every day to actually use Google's search to find useful results. People are continuously attempting to SEO their ebusinesses onto the front page of Google. So rather than returning useful resources I basically get advertisements in the search results. Add on the side ads and sometimes the ads that appear at the top and I begin to wonder why I even tried it in the first place. Unfortunately I haven't seen a compelling alternative and I think even if one did show up, Google would just buy them out.