Are people using Google instead of Yahoo?

Now that Y is full of annoying commercial listings,have people abandoned it

[litmania]

Up until recently, when I used a computer in a cybercafe, library or college, I noticed that people (when not in chatrooms) were either using Hotmail or Yahoo's directory. I wonder if there is any statistical or anecdotal evidence that, with Yahoo's increasingly commercial nature, people have abandoned it and go direct to Google?

I personally have noticed more and more people using Google, but I don't know if that is what the rest of you have seen.

Just wondering because, since the introduction of their PPCSE and sponsored listings, plus the annoying pop-unders, I have stopped using Yahoo and prefer to go straight to Google.

[Brett_Tabke]

That's an interesting question. I have not used Yahoo as a primary "search engine" since probably 97. It's a search engine of convience. I think most people are the same way. They now go to Yahoo, not to search, but to do other things like the clubs, email, or their start page at my.yahoo.

My.yahoo itself is huge. It's where most of Yahoo's traffic is generated. (side bar: it's hands down the best at what is does world wide. If yahoo is the standard bearer of anything on the net, it is the pim/start page setup at my.yahoo).

[diddlydazz]

I have to agree with you I haven't used Yahoo to search for nearly 2 years. I think people are definately going straight to Google ( people I get to speak to anyway :) ). Yahoo now is just full of adverts and can be annoying, I'm just glad they have a POP server for my mail, so I never have to go there anymore.

I just hope Google never goes down the same avenue.

Darran

[nicebloke]

In the UK there are a lot of people still searching with Yahoo, and drilling down through categories. It way out performs Google and all others across all our sites.

[click watcher]

It way out performs Google and all others across all our sites.

i agree, on one site where btgog i have a great yahoo listing and no1 placement on yahoo (not yagoogle) for my main keyword, the uniques from yahoo far outnumber all other referals from all other search engines combined.

[skipper]

I have an equal ranking for certain keywords on both Yahoo and Google (#1) on both. When people buy from me, I ask in the automated email reply I get, for them to tell me how they found me. Not all do, obviously, but now, more and more report Google. Yahoo is still high, and my logs show Yahoo and MSN still the leaders with Google and AOL following. The evidence from these responses is ancedotal, and not scientific by any means, but the increase in mention of Google as the source for finding me is certainly evident and significant.

[gethan]

> In the UK there are a lot of people still searching with Yahoo, and drilling down through categories. It way out performs Google and all others across all our sites.

A site that is #1 in Yahoo, Google, Ink and MSN. For the same set of UK targeted keywords.

I get 50% of my new visitors from Google, 20% Yahoo, 20% MSN, the rest take the remaining 10%. (roughly)

Just to contradict ppl.

[shewhoguards]

They now go to Yahoo, not to search, but to do other things like the clubs, email, or their start page at my.yahoo.

Heh. And both of thoe are in trouble.
YahooClubs is at the minute in hell. People are complaining of it not working for their Clubs at ALL for the last week. This is all supposedly for the merge with yahoogroups (formerly egroups)

Except that merger has been on hold for the last YEAR. And during that time two rather major engineers have left (Mike! Brandon! Return to us! We miss you!) I KNOW there was a time when Yahoo just could NOT sell adspace for ygroups at all - we had messages which were adfree. Right now YGroups is PACKED with ads.. but they're all for other parts of the yahoo site. Having seen them dump Webrings, I have my contingency plans ready should ygroups go down completely.. They're cutting back.. and cutting ack. They've recently started deleting busy groups archives with only a weeks notice due to bandwidth..

As to the mail.. well, it's not terrible I guess, but its not up there and standing out. Getting a username now is near impossible.. and this is a service which has been known to regularly BLOCK yahoogroups mail which doesn't really speak of the whole system fitting seamlessly together.

In short, if Yahoo is resting on YGroups and Mail.. we best start digging 'em a nice grave.

[2_much]

Hi shewhoguards, welcome to WmW, thanks for that perspective on Yahoo, it's nice to see the larger picture of Yahoo and its services.

[chiyo]

We have a few nice yahoogroups having been bundled there from One List, with a couple of thousand members. The short text ad is no great inconvenience and the service IS good.

TOO good actually.

We are gearing up to use our own mailing list perl or PHP software. We are convinced that Yahoo will start charging somehow for this service in the not too distant future.

[2_much]

I totally agree chiyo, I feel it coming...so unfortunate, that's a great service.