Yahoo Prepares for Battle With Google

[Faithless]

What is happening to our little virtual world?

Yahoo Prepares for Battle With Google (http://www.thewhir.com/find/articlecentral/story.asp?recordid=716&page=1)
Date: 1/8/2004


(Article Central) According to reports from this week, Internet portal Yahoo is preparing to challenge Google for its dominating position in the Web search business.
The company reportedly decided to drop Google as the primary provider of search listings on its site in the next few months, which could coincide with Google's long-awaited initial public offering. Yahoo is expected to replace the Google listings with its own search technology.

Yahoo also intends to compete using a combination of personalization and customization features designed to extend the usefulness of searches, as well as paid-inclusion advertising technology.

Observers say Yahoo's tactics aren't just to Match Google's current offering, but to add functions that it will be difficult for Google to match.

Yahoo has been building up its search department through acquisitions, spending more than $2 billion last year to buy Overture Services Inc. and Inktomi Corp.

[Faithless]

Man, remains to be seen. Ever since google came on the seen, yahoo took a back seat for me.

[Faithless]

From Market can't get enough Yahoo (http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040106.wmathfront0106/BNStory/Front/)
Yahoo has spent $2-billion (U.S.) in the past six months acquiring companies that it hopes will boost its profile in the search market and allow it to go head-to-head with Google, but the jury is still out on whether it can gain significant ground on its rival over the longer term.
...
According to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo plans to stop using Google as the engine for its various websites -— something many people may not even be aware that Yahoo does —- and intends to roll out its own built-in search services over the next few months. The on-line portal said it also plans to add features Google can't offer, such as personalization and customization.

The main attraction for Yahoo is the boom that has occurred in the "paid search" category, which was the driving force behind the $1.8-billion purchase of Overture last year. Overture pioneered the use of ads based on the search terms a user types into a site such as Google -— which brings up the ads, or sponsored search links, in small text boxes to the right of the search results. As the Wall Street Journal put it, these links are a "fat and loudly mooing cash cow."

There's no question that paid search is growing. In the third quarter, Yahoo reported a net profit of 10 cents a share, a penny better than analysts were expecting and double what it made the previous year. The company also boosted its profit and revenue guidance for all of 2003, based in large part on the purchase of Overture. One analyst estimates that paid search fees could account for more than half of Yahoo's projected revenue this year of about $2.8-billion.
...

[kitty]

i like google better personally.

[ism]

Yeah. MSN's search puts paid placements up top. While Overture and Inktomi would eventually index your site, if you want to be included in a reasonable (less than 3 months) amount of time, you have to pay. I'm curious to see if the sites I paid for will be dropped when the 1-year period paid for expires. In the end, this results in skewed results for users. Google indexes the whole web within a month, clearly separates ads that doesn't require scrolling, and has the most relevant results. Still, leveraging that into dollars will be difficult with Yahoo's acquisitions.

Google is the research leader, having indexed images (okay, done before, but not as well), Usenet (okay, also done before), market prices for goods (http://google.com/froogle), news, and supposedly IRC. This makes me a little nervous since the pioneer is first-to-market but not neccessarily the leader. I think their main strength will be in building up a patent portfolio and licensing it.

Really interesting to see what Yahoo! will offer. If they can integrate it deeply with their other services then maybe they can get back to their roots. Kinda funny, isn't it? Original a search engine, then portal, then when portals failed, spreading out to hosting (Geocities acquisition), games, groupware, etc. And now trying to be a search engine again.

[mr. x]

maybe i dont use advanced features or something but i dont see the big difference, i usually get the same searches from both, though i spose google has more features (i like using images.google.com, yahoo doesnt have squat)

and i duno, maybe its simple is the point but i like having all that useless info on the yahoo main page as opposed to googles just plain toolbar but thats just me

[ism]

Yahoo uses Google's results when a search term doesn't match anything in their categorized directory. So... you should be getting the same search results from both.

[golden_buns]

Yeah google is the best so far. Though I wouldn't mind if something better would come.
I wonder who still uses altavista, hotbot, etc

[Faithless]

Yeah google is the best so far. Though I wouldn't mind if something better would come.
I wonder who still uses altavista, hotbot, etc

Are you kidding me, alta-whatsta?

Incidentally, Overture bought Altavista.

And according to this article:

http://www.isedb.com/news/index.php?t=reviews&id=628
Yahoo! now controls (if combined) the largest search database, two of the most innovative search tools and the second largest paid-placement and contextual advertising firm.

[bluemonq]

Yeah google is the best so far. Though I wouldn't mind if something better would come.
I wonder who still uses altavista, hotbot, etc
www.teoma.com
im using it all the time now. no image search (i just use google toolbar) but only one(!) sponsored link per page. plus, it has refinements on the side. it reminds me of original google actually. very clean.

[golden_buns]

www.teoma.com
im using it all the time now. no image search (i just use google toolbar) but only one(!) sponsored link per page. plus, it has refinements on the side. it reminds me of original google actually. very clean.

Not bad, but it lacks the cache feature, which is pretty helpful for research

[moJo]

gosh, i can't remember the last time i used yahoo search. i've been using google for like...4 yrs...if it ain't on google, it doesn't exist. the site is just a whole lot simpler, less cluttered than other search pages.

[TB4000]

Yahoo's basic use as of late is to just have the most racist message boards in cyberspace.

[yoMAMA]

google rules!

[mr. x]

Yahoo's basic use as of late is to just have the most racist message boards in cyberspace.

any large unmoderated board will have racist crap.

hell if yw wasnt moderated it'd be chock full of it.

[yoMAMA]

Yahoo's basic use as of late is to just have the most racist message boards in cyberspace.

That happens to people when they are middle aged, with a big belly, being a loser and no job-they bitch about other people.