bill - 12:21 am on May 19, 2004 (gmt 0)

The loss of Yahoo for Google Japan would be a bit more dramatic than it was in the West. The Yahoo name and branding in Japan are still a lot stronger than Google from the consumer point of view. Everyone knows who Yahoo is in Japan. They've got prime time commercials for their broadband service. They've got girls in small plastic mini skirts on all the main street corners hawking their wares. I know they're selling the ADSL service, but that gets the name out in front of the consumers. We geeks know about Google, but I still see a lot of people using Yahoo. The brand name is very strong here, and if you know Japan you know that a good brand goes a long way.

Yes, Google Japan has become the Inktomi of yesteryear. They power a lot of portal searches in addition to Yahoo. At the time of that interview they may have had an overwhelming market-share of searches. However, if they lose Yahoo I wonder what portion of the market they'd be left with.