Yahoo to drop Google, 1st Qtr 2004
 

January 14th, Yahoo announced in an interview with ZDnet that they would be swapping out Google for Inktomi as their primary provider of web search results.

Of course we've been hearing this for quite some time now but this is the first time that Yahoo has officially stated the obvious switch will actually take place sometime in the 1st quarter of 2004.

Pretty crazy. One assumes they have something up their sleeve, some way to improve on ink results.

I can't think of many ways to prepare. Buy ink pages? No, not yet. Conserve old free ink pages? Already doing that. Build a million script generated pages? Yeah, right.

The Search Wars are upon us.

It was supposed to happen over the summer, but they keep putting it off, maybe because it would be commercial suicide.

Inktomi search:
http://www.hotbot.com/default.asp?q...provKey=Inktomi

Google search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...webmaster+board

I've heard about this for a while and have to wonder what the fuck Yahoo is thinking?

seems absolutely rediculous to me. I totally dont get the point but..

SE wars firing up I guess. Not enough people are using yahoo now. Doubt many people will in the future.

I think most people who choose google choose it for non invasive advertising more than almost anything else. I sure know that's why it was my engine of choice at first.

Their results are better than inktomi's as well, when I search for my keywords on google i get... websites. When I do it on inktomi, all I get is spam.

hmmm
 

Seems like this is going to be Yahoo's move... if Google losses Yahoo their search reach drops phenomenally.... Inktomi which Yahoo owns is already serving MSN... Yahoo and MSN combined are 2 serious search providers and this is going to be an interesting year for search companies... guess Google better go public while it still has high numbers.

The way I understand it, google's numbers are from searches on google.com, not google results on partnered engines. I wouldn't think yahoo dropping google would effect their numbers at all, and if yahoo doesn't have a plan in mind to improve stinktomi results, then google will probably pick up a lot of dissatisfied searchers from yahoo.

Of course, if your talking about revenue, the yahoo well dried up a long time ago anyway.

Just my .5 cents (adjusted for inflation)

hmmmm
 

I was talking about the number of viewers and the advertising numbers that follow.. it is never about the search but its monetization...

People will stop searching on Yahoo slowly, once it stops bringing back what they want to find.

Maybe Yahoo has made its money and does not care anymore.

I don't think surfers really know anything about the differences in the major search engines? I figure mostly the ones who have been online for a few years and more web savvy would.

But I have a friend who is not an adult webmaster, and I swear yahoo is his home page.

EVERYTIME he wants to go to a different web site, he types the url into yahoo search and clicks through from there. Its really frustrating when I see him do this too heh

I mean, he literally types domain.com into the search box and goes from there. OH and I have even seen him at google, and fucking type in yahoo.com, click through to yahoo and then enter another url to get to that site! It drives me nuts. Like some sort of sick surfer SE abuse.

I figure this behavior is triggered by one too many incorrect url type-in's and pop up hell, so he goes search for the url in yahoo first.

Its really strange but I have also seen it said by other webmasters that they have seen other non-webmasters do this as well. I wonder how many surfers practice this same behavior though, I bet its a lot.

Google just won that "internet brand of the year" award.

Sounds real good when you say it that way.

"Yahoo.com drops "Brand of the year" results from their websites in favor of a sponsor paid for inclusion driven suckresults"

yay yahoo.com

But you have to remember, yahoo is sort of more than just a search engine, it has more community aspects to it.

No idea if this means it could turn into something better than google though.

I do know that I have seen more surfers clingy to yahoo services than google. Is there a search option integrated in yahoo messenger? Think of how many people use yahoo mail.

And although relevant results are important for any SE to keep people coming back, think of all the places yahoo could put a search box in your face. That is something google cannot compete with at this time.

It will be interesting to see whats up with all this in about a year!

hmmmm
 

The question is who owns AOL search? will it align with Google or MSN/Yahoo... I really see this as a watershed year for Google... okay a lot of people use Google but if they were doing it at MSN or Yahoo then they will slowly be branded to another engine as soon as that powered by Google logo is replaced by a consistent image.

yahoo is my home page too, but don't tell the cool kids. |thumb

hmmm
 

I load yahoo with explorer... I have mail going to a couple of accounts and it is a quick way to start check mail and off you go.

Hey now, my comment was not meant to be a derogatory one.. :P

My home page is google news.

|buddy|

hmmmm
 

If you are serious you should consider making one of your websites your home page that way it gets a little more traffic and your Alexa ranking will improve!