Why has No Other SE been as Successful as Yahoo?

[jadakiss2]

I mean with all this advanced technology and skilled people - why haven't any of the new SE's, other than google - been able to become king like yahoo has. You can't tell that these two college guys that created it are the only ones with the know how. What have they done that no one else can seem to do?

[Chris_R]

I have no idea. Not to pick on anyone that uses it, but I always kind of snicker when I hear people using it to search.

I do use yahoo for some stuff like yellow pages and tv listings, but the aren't really a search engine and never have been.

Before google there was Altavista. I don't believe I have used yahoo more than 10 times for searches as a user.

For some reason people like it. I think this is maily ignorance as to the real search engines out there, but there could be something about its design people like.

[Grumpus]

Q: Why does Budweiser outsell Pete's Wicked Ale?

If you can answer that question, you'll know why Yahoo is more successful than the others.

G.

[agerhart]

I can answer those questions. ;)

[rogerd]

Yahoo's search volume has a lot more to do with it being a successful portal than anything related to search quality. Yahoo, though not wildly profitable, seems to be what everyone else wanted to be - a one-stop site that offers mail, investment tracking, shopping, and a host of other services, most of which are free. To their credit, they have tweaked their search characteristics to improve them, e.g., bringing Google on board in the first place, and now using their results more prominently.

Being the first major directory/search tool helped, to be sure, but they have managed things much better than others. Names like Webcrawler, Excite and Altavista had huge market share in the early days of web searching, but failed to maintain their position in the long run.

[edited by: rogerd at 1:05 pm (utc) on Oct. 23, 2002]

[seofan]

Yahoo was out of the gate first. People don't like change. (just ask the people that still have a Netscape 2.0 browser.........) Yahoo isn't a search engine, it's a directory. There isn't a real comparison - except people like to go home because it is familiar and it is "theirs". Yahoo has enough free services for people to feel like it is customized to their needs.

[agerhart]

Yahoo has been in front of people's faces for a long time, absolutely. They have also done a great deal of advertising and marketing that has contributed to their branding and increased user base.

Why does Budweiser have such an incredible amount of loyal customers? For one, they have been in the business for a long, long time. They also have continued to drive their product home with some very innovative and successful marketing and advertising.

[rogerd]

Whoops, added my comment about being first just as seofan and agerhart were commenting on the same thing... sorry, wasn't trying to get my comment above yours! :)

[indigojo]

Well from an Australian point of view the have been the only SE I have ever seen thats been able to afford mainstream TV advertising during prime time large TV events, Olympics etc. I'd say that has a large part to do with it.

[Brad]

A lot of Yahoo's following was formed around the directory, years ago, when search engines really did not do a very good job. The search engines fed up a lot of irrelevent spam while Yahoo's human reviewed directory had listings that actually matched the subject. Pure gold.

Search engines are a bit better now, or the spam got better. Choose one. ;)

[razinkane]

Location, Location, Location, by getting in first and keeping people happy for awhile, they got a customer base.
People keep going back to them so they are in business. That say's it in a nut shell.

[cjtripnewton]

It was the Yodeler.

[chiyo]

one word

BRANDING

OK maybe 3 others...

first-mover competitive advantage

[2_much]

Can Google overtake Yahoo?

[ScottM]

Can Google overtake Yahoo?

No, not without some traditional advertising.

I have been battling with a website for users for a long time. They have very loyal users. The only time I pick up some of their users is during their server downtime.

Look how many of us are loyal to Google. Sure, there are other search engines, but we tend to gravitate towards what serves us.

If Google were to be 'down' for say, two days, what search engine would you employ?

And would you stick with that search engine if it gave you the results you were looking for?

If Yahoo 'went down' for a few days (at a time)...then yes, I think Google could overtake Yah00.

Sidenote:
...Yah00's bill paying service is sooooosweetT!

[bird]

There was a thread earlier this year with the actual figures. Turns out (as far as I remember, anyway) that the search traffic on Yahoo is *much* lower than on Google.

Yahoo has stopped to seriously compete in the search arena long ago. Yahoo is about e-mail, discussion groups, chat, stock trading, news, free web pages, and lots of other popular and less popular gimmicks.

[powerstar]

How about MSN?