Google Search Engine Versus Yahoo's

[Parsad]

Yahoo has a special offer with Airmiles in Canada, where if you install their search/toolbar you can rack up airmiles every month.  So I installed it and I've been using it for a couple of months.  I have to say, and this is very much a non-techie sort of assessment, but Yahoo's search engines alogorithms are far inferior to Google's.  So many times I've searched for a website and Yahoo cannot hit it, yet Google catches it probably 99.99% of the time in the top two hits.

 

I'm not entirely sure why Microsoft is willing to spend billions to try and buy Yahoo.  Unless they can improve on the search engine, it would always be inferior to Google.  It's very much like Pepsi trying to buy Cadbury Schweppes to take on Coke.  Just not going to happen!  I understand that Yahoo has a market in-place and considerable brand recognition, but it seems to be an expensive proposition to compete with Google.  They would be better off going into other areas like Twitter, Facebook, etc and building moats there...akin to Pepsi buying Frito Lay, rather than compete head-on with Coke.  Cheers!

[DCG]

I agree. I think Yahoo should drop their search business entirely and focus on content. Their content has resulted in them spending a lot of money to maintain it over the years, but they have to try to focus on things they can do differently than Google. And its not like their content gives them much of a competitive advantage over anyone..as lots of companies can produce the same content. Yahoo is still the 2nd most frequently visited site on the internet, so there's obviously potential there for them to continue to make money, but it's tough to say what they can do to grow in the future.

[snailslug]

Microsoft if they bought Yahoo would throw away Yahoo search and replace it with MSN search.

 

What they really covet is the traffic so that they can achieve scale in selling ads.  That is Ballmer's logic.

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120966628366460063.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo

[Guest kawikaho]

Microsoft if they bought Yahoo would throw away Yahoo search and replace it with MSN search.

 

What they really covet is the traffic so that they can achieve scale in selling ads.  That is Ballmer's logic.

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120966628366460063.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo

 

Yup, exactly.  Regardless of how well the search engine performs, Yahoo is still the largest portal on the Internet.  More people use My Yahoo, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo mail, the Yahoo start page, etc..., than any other website in the world--and that's including Google.  Google has been trying to expand their reach into other markets, like finance, mail, docs, etc, but it has done so with very little success (except Gmail).  And there's been negative press circulating about Google's adwords.  I think advertisers are starting to realize that Google's Adwords are not that effective in follow through.  Although, if Microsoft buys Yahoo, i'm inclined to believe they will screw up Yahoo and could lose a substantial amount of followers.  I hope they don't buy Yahoo.