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I was looking for some information on a problem I was having with my iPAQ. I'm a fairly intelligent searcher - I know how to search quickly, and what to look for. I spent almost 15 minutes on Google looking this morning - couldn't find anything. Went to Yahoo!, boom. Second result, page one. Less than 10 seconds.
The problem? It's a new problem for new iPAQs dealing with new software. It was strictly a "we got it indexed faster than they did" type thing for Yahoo!.
But that's what I need a lot of times. So I've switched to Yahoo!.
I wish Google would add a usability check for directory sites -- if they aren't usable, they should lose SERP position.
Are we going to see a bunch of really clever, artful "I switched" commercials now like we get from Apple fans? I love those spots...
I mean to begin with the Yahoo results page is worse from a users point of view. The SPONSORED RESULTS links take up the complate centre section of my 17 inch monitor. Whereas as with Google the actual results are located at this spot on the screen.
Just little things like this show me where Yahoo's heart lays. MONEY
I wish Google would add a usability check for directory sites -- if they aren't usable, they should lose SERP position.
This isn't a search engines job, usability is in the eye of the beholder. We all know how Dmoz opinions change from editor to editor. Wouldn't like to see search engine editor's with this power.
I know you've been down on Yahoo! lately. With all due respect, for once, I'm not talking about real world users. I'm talking about myself. I'm not stupid - I know how to search around spam, and I know exactly what to look for when it comes to SERPs (I do something similiar for a living, or something).
I need current information quickly. The place for current information is forums (with blogs coming in second place). I don't track many forums besides this one because of time constraints, so I can't sit there and read forums all day.
I'm giving a thumbs up to Yahoo! for getting this information quickly. I'm talking about posts made less than 48 hours ago appearing in SERPs. I'm just not seeing that anymore with Google.
Plus I have a new site with high Google pr and fully ranked in Google, but Yahoo just won't seem to index it. Haven't a clue why, the site is 100% clean.
Even though Yahoo does well when searching for a brand name, because the top return is usually always the manufactuerers site. But the 2nd results etc is usually spam where the site has the brand name in it's main url.
My main worry is if Yahoo takes over Google as the main search engine. I just wouldn't trust them not to make it 100% commercial and ppc. Even though they are trying to beat Google at it's own game at the moment, if they beat them I am sure they would revert to type. Making money.
I'd been splitting searches for the past month but Yahoo's winning more and more so now I go to Yahoo first.
<Caveman gets back up off the floor.>
We must be looking in different places. G's current combo of:
1) spammy pages, and,
2) pages that are technically related to search terms without being truly relevant or useful...
makes them less useful overall they've ever been.
That, as opposed to Y, which also has spammy pages just like G, but actually combines them with many other pages that are related to the searches being performed.
Y's misleading statements and more commercially oriented approach may annoy me, but their SERP's in the hundreds of categories we participate in are, overall, slightly more useful right now.
Personally, I hope G figures this out. Professionally, I think that G has made *editorial* and *philosophical* decisions that will keep their SERP's weak for some time.
Me too, and I just switched. Yahoo results are as good, or even better since the Ides of March, so I finally did it.
And lets face it folks, Yahoo is buttering my bread these days so I'm going to promote them.
:-)
Remebering all of the conversations here about the new Yahoo results I bounced over there to give it a try. Found what I was looking for in less than 5 minutes. I like Google as a company and everyone I've ever met that works there has been great, but they've got some competition now from Yahoo and I hope they get this new algorithm straightened out before they lose their advantage.
I think generic web search will have to give way to niche engines. Ranking is just too variable when you have tens of thousands pages coming up for most searches.
Google is far easier to spam than Yahoo, as the results clearly show.
The reason why many of us are switching to Yahoo is that the Google results are currently sinking under the weight of affiliate 'review' sites and pseudo directories.
I'm still seeing >6-month old 301s that G has long since forgotten about.
New-to-the-new Yahoo sites that also seem to have been caught up in the slower Google crawling phenomena, still have way more pages indexed in Google than the typical (also manually submitted) index that just shows up in Y!
Minty fresh, no. Looking better than expected, sort of.
Additionally, Y! SERP pages continue (since the switch) to show single domains 4 times on a single SERP page (2 for www, 2 for root in some instances).
>>I don't dispute the 301 problem, in fact neither does Y!
As long as I can kill them before I die.
