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Please, for the love of God and all this right and good in this world, please revert back to Directory listings as your default listings. If I want Google results, I will click on the Web Search tab, but I would prefer your directory results at Yahoo. The internet needs diversity more than it needs Google listings as your primary results.
So please, please give us what we want, and watch your Business Express subscriptions go up and pay Google lower prices for their search results. Switch back to the directory. It keeps out the spam and blogs showing up as top 10 results. It keeps out the guest book spammers and 100 domain cross linkers from ranking #1, #2, and #3. Put humans back into the equation, not algos. Algos are good to a point, but humans can make it all work out better.
We don't want your Yahoogle default SERPS anymore. Put the directory back. Please.
Thank you for your time,
Zapatista
If any webmaster agrees with me, post a "ditto" on this thread. This is my grass roots level petition, "sign it" if you agree, hush if you don't. :-)
[edited by: Zapatista at 11:45 am (utc) on June 27, 2003]
shut up if you don't.
.......
Chris
Sorry Zapatista I'm getting loads of Traffic from Y with this current layout
Same here - I wouldn't want them to go back to directory listings at all.
You just wait until she doesn't like you, you will sing that new tune so fast!
Forget your serps, diversity is always a good thing for the internet. I've got sites that will never be in the Yahoo directory. It would be better if Google never switched back to the directory for those sites, but I have put that greed aside for diversity.
The name of your game should not be greed, but longevity. And longevity comes through diversity.
Directory Serps would hurt some of my sites, but that diversity would be better for me in the long run.
Yahoo is probably going to drop Google anyway. Get used to it and start plotting for a new Yahoo. You are going to lose your Yahoogle traffic no matter what.
Don't be stupid. You are going to lose it no matter what. Plan on it. Count on it. Start working on your diversity plan to counteract the affects myself and others are feeling now.
I agree with what your trying (although somewhat forcably ;)) to say. Diversity is key. That is why I make sure I rank high in all search engines and that I have enough traffic generating links in to my site so that, if the worst happens, I can still survive. However, I standby my statement. Y! Stay as you currently are.
Chris
If nothing else, the current drama will have demonstrated to many people how damaging a near monopoly can be when it bites you.
Google needs a challenger - it needs competition. If Yahoo, with its directory, or with Ink, or whatever, is to be that challenger.... so be it. Over the last few weeks I have begun to dream of the days of multiple SE traffic sources.... those were the days.
You just wait until she doesn't like you, you will sing that new tune so fast!
No doubt. :)
But I'd rather they go with Ink than a directory. As Napoleon says it would be good both for competition and for not putting all your eggs in the googlebasket the way most of us are forced to do now.
Chris
So many agree the internet needs diversity and Yahoo can supply that- but how is where many disagree with me. I prefer the directory results but I, too, am biased like many here. Why? I have an old site grandfathered in with a smartly invested $200 several years ago.
But would Yahoo be smart to offer a choice? Let's say a $500 or $600 one time payment, or $300 per year?
Now you got to admit, having that choice would make sense to Yahoo and webmasters. Why would an amateur webmaster like me come up with that option and that entire marketing department at Yahoo never think of it?
WOULD YOU PAY $500 to $600 for a one time submission fee, or prefer to pay $300/year - IF YAHOO SWITCHED TO ALL DIRECTORY RESULTS?
Let me throw that variable in my petition! Does that make the difference in many webmasters opinions?
Yahoo should offer webmasters a choice.
$600 for a lifetime Yahoo directory listing, or $300 per year.
I have no doubt their biz express department went to crud and lost respect everywhere.
But if they gave webmasters the option of $600 = lifetime or $300 per year, I feel positive in assuming many webmasters would take them up on that option. Yes? No?
Yahoo, if you use that idea I expect 1 free lifetime listing. $600 value for using my idea. Sticky me with the details.
Sincerely,
The Most Capitalistic and Opportunistic Zapatista in History
That said, I still would welcome the diversity that we would get if Yahoo! went with Inktomi. I would be happy to trade a small drop in traffic for greater diversity and protection from algo changes that might affect me.
I have no interest whatsoever in directories, people search for individual pages of my site, not for the site itself.
They're trying to grab eyeballs, people coming back and back so they can sell more services (they keep rolling new premium type services all the time).
Plus, eyeballs help them sell advertising, which has repeatedly comprised a large percent of their revenue and has been key in their ability to remain competitive. Good SERP's keep pple coming back so they can sell advertising. Stale directory results will make people find another search engine.
So although I don't like it, I think Yahoo will do what is most beneficial for them, and all I can do is react and work with what I've got.
Folks need to get their heads out of their niches. Some areas of the directory have not been updated in years, literally. Thinking Yahoo should switch all its search results to a mostly moribund directory for the sake of the few updated sections is not sensible at all. Also, in my area, you can pay $300 to be one of 1024 listings. Whoopdee-do.
Sometimes I think what I'd really like is to see those people agitating to have directory listings as search results to get their wish, and then be listed #283 for their $300. People who paid $300 and ended up #679 are not sitting around praying for directory listings to be search results.
(and I'm #2 in the directory... behind a site for a silent comedian)
But it's hard to argue with the need to diversify. And my opinion of inktomi isn't that great. They would have to do some serious renovations to ink to make it competitive with Google or ATW.
1024 sites in your category? Must be porn.
a big DITTO
nice Zapatista
directory default with Y!'s *own* cpc sponsors (hello 2005) ink becomes backup..
We definitely need to see diversification. Too much Google power (or any other SE) isn't good.
I personally think Ink results are good. The recent "independent" study seemed to agree, claiming they are a tad better than Google's.
ATW's are good also, but not enough people know about ATW.
I do not want the directory listings back for a second, well not if they use the same search algo as before. It caused to many moral dilemmas!
No, categories don't matter. Again, look outside your niche. Yahoo has lots of overlapping categories, and a directory search for widget will often call up over 1000 results for a term. "books" has 18,000. You wanna pay $300 to be one of those?
from a default standpoint, (which should be the central argument)the concept is right on target and is the reason why Y has no long term staying power with G as its default.
This is because the market of users will become smarter. Smarter like Zapatista who is saying 'if i want a G search, i will go to G'. If I want a Y, i will go to Y, and if Y and G are the same, and I want an alternative opinion, I will go to another search property - Y! can't afford that to happen. Search data suggests that users are doing just that-actually leave a property and go to another engine if they do not like what they find, instead of revising their keyword parameters. (they just don't realize that their searching G in 75% of the cases anyway;) ~they will. ~they will learn to use keywords better and therefor stay on a particular engine longer. When they seek another option, they will then do just that - and if the alternative isn't different they will seek one out.
Zapatista's thinking is really sound because what he then suggests is that human editors have a place in the market for a consumer quality choice standpoint. YES! he is right. this doesnt need to be a G algo world only. There is room for other alternatives, that provide alternative means to generate their ranking. And if Y were to use its directory as its default, it would spike their revenues dramatically, while providing an alternative and quality option to G. Overture has proved that an editorial model can work from a financial operating model standpoint.
Many here loudly protest Yahoo returning to directory default listings. But over in the GOogle forum, there are many more webmasters protesting Google's algo. They are louder and more passionate about it.
We need to grow up and realize that no matter how default listings are supplied, neither Y! or Google can satisfy everyone all of the time.
I have sites in Yahoogle Serps that are in the top 5 and would disappear completely if Yahoo dropped Google and reverted back to directory default listings. Most of my sites would be negatively affected but some might be positively affected. Lose some, gain some.
Chicago hit my main points more eloquently than I did. Algo's are not the answer to everything - the end all and be all. Human edited results are not perfect either, but they do have their place on the web. IMHO, Y! should return those human edited results to default listings because they have an important role to play for the benefit of searchers.
The internet, webmasters and searchers should be offered more diversity in SERPS than what is currently available. Although it would probably be worse for me, in the long run this unselfish choice would give me diversity and a higher sense of peace for my longevity.
