Yahoo Leaving Google in the Dust!
August 24, 2009
My newsreader delivered a morsel to me with the title “Where Yahoo Leaves Google in the Dust.” The author is Randall Stross. His analysis left me confused. Selecting one Yahoo service like News or Finance is a useful analytic method. I use it myself. What surprises me is the leap made that the success of a single service suggests that other successes will follow. I like to step back and look 01at the overall picture, not the exception. I admit exceptions at Yahoo are interesting.
I am tired as I write this (Saturday, midnight, August 22) but I had to capture my thoughts about how a couple of successes distinguish Yahoo. Is Yahoo is making the Google look silly or “leaving it in the dust”?
In my narrow view of the world, Yahoo has revenues that are smaller than Google’s. Yahoo has traffic but the Google is, according to some of the outfits who estimate traffic, has pulled ahead. Yahoo is a collection of services that I have a tough time keeping straight and sometimes finding. Mr. Stross writes:
It seems unlikely, however, that Google’s new tools — whose metrics include one called the Fast Stochastic Oscillator — will do as much for building traffic as a fluffy news story or a short video featuring talking heads. Yahoo understands that a free finance site prospers by drawing less from the world of mathematics and more from the world of entertainment, informing just enough to satisfy users without setting off an anxiety attack.
The business school professor, Mr. Stross, is talking about the popular Yahoo Finance service. That service is outperforming Google Finance when measured by the yardsticks of friendliness and traffic. I agree. Yahoo’s service does not cause me any stress. For me, Google’s service is useful. I quite like the link to the Relegence content on AOL.com for example. Also, Yahoo has a killer service with OMG. Few of my contacts know about OMG, a celebrity info service. Google does not have much of a product in this category but there is some celebrity info on Google News. Also, Yahoo has a deal with Microsoft. Google does not. Google is pretty much alone in its sail boat. For me, defining differences between Google and Yahoo that I note include:
- Google makes more revenue. Money is really important.
- Yahoo watched as Google aced the company in online advertising. Losing that original ad lead to Google remains important today.
- Yahoo has abandoned what may be the key function in online: search. Yahoo has withdrawn from search which is important. Search is no longer search. Search is the way to access information. Without that access, it is indeed tough to do certain types of knowledge work.
- Yahoo has sought refuge with Microsoft. Yahoo needs a care giver. That’s important to me. Care givers are often in the cat bird seat.
If anyone is left in the dust, it is Yahoo in my opinion. That is not a popular view. What is popular is making the Google look like a loser by selecting a narrow focus and setting up yardsticks that ignore the overall revenue capability of the organizations. Business school boils down to money. Seems like an omission of note in my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, August 24, 2009
Comments
6 Responses to “Yahoo Leaving Google in the Dust!”
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
[…] View original here: Yahoo Leaving Google in the Dust! : Beyond Search […]
Champs are champs. 2nd, 3rd, 4th .. just follow the champ, compare them with him but they still follow.
[…] and Information from ArnoldIT.com most Search and Content Processing. Here is the example post: Yahoo Leaving Google in the Dust! : Beyond Search Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: 10-year-deal, a-lengthy-gestation, combines-the-companies, […]
[…] See original here: Yahoo Leaving Google in the Dust! : Beyond Search […]
It is really good.
Thanks
Nice work
Thanks for sharing