Is Yahoo still the cornerstone of the net?

[Jonathan]

I was reading the description for the Yahoo forum on the main forum page.

Is Yahoo still the cornerstone of the net? I'd been a faithful Yahoo user, until Google came around. Now, I never use Yahoo's search engine. Although, I do use Yahoo Mail.

I'm just curious.. how many of the people here still use Yahoo for searching?

[Brad]

For day to day searching I use Google.

I will scroll down through the categories at Yahoo and ODP when doing deeper research on a topic and to check out my competitors. Although as a directory I prefer ODP over Yahoo.

Still A lot of traffic comes through Yahoo and Yahoo/Google so the general public uses it a lot.

[NFFC]

>cornerstone of the net

Depends what that means but to me as an SEO no, DMOZ is the one.

[2_much]

I still think so. We get a LOT of traffic from Yahoo for sites ranking well with the appropriate targeted keywords. If you're selling a product and can get a good listing, Yahoo's still the way to go.

[eljefe3]

>If you're selling a product and can get a good listing, Yahoo's still the way to go.

I agree with that. I have a listing that is right around #10 in yahoo and in the top 2 at google forthe same phrase and yahoo draws about 40% more traffic.

[chiyo]

Yahoo was the first comprehensive directory on the web. A lot of it's advantages are from being mentioned in all the early articles introducing the Web when people were just starting to get started. Their brand recognition and recall was (and still is) at the highest levels of any player in any industry.

That "first" position gave yahoo a competitive advantage that has "very slowly in net terms" but surely becoming eroded by competitive directories and later - portals. Y still retains much of the advantages of being first, despite its directory being not as good as the others. It has done some things well in the face of new competitors - especially the comitment to fast loading pages throughout the portal - but its hard to compete against such monoliths as MS,and even ODP, (which developed from NewHoo I think which was a yahoo initiative itself).

That "first kid on the block" status is why it still delivers good traffic to the ROW. (Rest of the Web). That meant they could be the first to charge for review, which enhanced their credibility and reputation. Again a first.

But Yahoo is becoming less of a cornerstone every month. New competitors like MSN are of course monied up. The Web just does not revolve around yahoo like it used to, especially now that intelligent Search Engines like Google are better at doing what Yahoo could - finding timely and quality information quickly.

Still if one was to ask "What websites do you know", Yahoo would probably still be top. Top of mind recall is strong, and that's an understatement!

[Liane]

chiyo is right ... I think. However, the web is rapidly changing and as users find other search engines which suit their needs better ... they change and the change is being made without any concern for loyalty.

Yahoo is loosing their market in a big way on a daily basis and they seem to be doing very little to stop the process.

[agerhart]

I will throw in my vote that Yahoo is still well worth the money. If you get a good listing, they will send you a decent amount of consistent targeted traffic.

>>>Dmoz.org

I am losing faith in ODP.