They’re an opinion piece from the Marc and Angel Blog which compares Yahoo & Google and appears to be making it to the Digg homepage quite shortly.
Google handles all of my daily web searching, email, chat, RSS feeds, blog monetization, etc. In my opinion, it blows Yahoo (and most other Internet companies) clear out of the water. However, there are a select few services that I regularly turn to Yahoo for. Why? Its either because Yahoo does it better, or because Google doesnt offer it.
I found the post interesting because it addresses the underlying split loyalty in the Internet industry to different companies due to their different features and niche dominance.
For example, most Internet users in the US prefer Google Search to Yahoo Search, but still may use Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports or Yahoo Finance on a loyal & daily basis.
I had posted a while back how Yahoo’s MyYahoo startpage now lets its users check their GMail accounts via Yahoo, which was a smartm ove on their parts because it helps curb user attrition to Google via GMail dependence.
Google uses similar aggregation tactics, with its video search for example; it’s more efficient to search for MySpace or iFilm videos on Google than on the sites themselves. And with the new Google SocialStream project, Google looks to be the centralized network for keeping track of various social network friends and interfaces, since many of us have multiple MyBlogLog, MySpace, Facebook and other social accounts.
So, what does Yahoo still do better than Google? Here’s a roundup (but for all of the info check out the original blog):
1. Yahoo Finance
2. Yahoo Answers : Q&A
3. Backlink Reporting via Yahoo Site Explorer
4. Flickr : Photo Uploading & Sharing
5. Local Search : Nuff Said
6. Entertainment
7. Privacy
Can you think of any others?
Yahoo sites don’t su*k?
I agree with most of them. Listing them down by it self proves Google is superior overall. I think Yahoo Web Chat could be better than Google Talk in some ways. It’s much more colorful and friendly. However Google Talk is better in that it can be resized and runs transient of your Gmail browsing, it doesn’t have to take the full screen.
email
games
weather
jobs search
travel
directory
flickr :)
flickr for sure. the only yahoo service i use regularly…
Flickr and Privaçy for sure…
Site explorer rocks! It’s a lifeline for all SEOs and As the one and only engine in the industry tat offers the service, we got to thank yahoo for keeping the service alive and trying to make it better.
Google is better in providing contextual ads as it contains a huge number of advertisers. And also the YPN is limited to around UK and US.
smallbusiness :D
I heard that Yahoo uses 3rd party search engine. Could someone please tell me what search engine they use?
I still think that Google is better.
this is very interesting site where i can grab more information for my carrier
why i not believe google is better
Google thrashes Yahoo when it comes to searching. Why would you want to use Yahoo when you’ve got Google? Google is the best, and that is why almost everyone prefers it. Google makes Yahoo look like a site for 2 year olds.
‘Long live Google’
I still use google a lot, but I’m starting to use yahoo and searchme a bit more. goog lists a lot when you search, but I find it shows me so many unrelated sites it’s ridiculous. I think the web should just be for me and the stuff i want to see. Everyone else should use something else like catalogs or something.
I also think some of yahoo’s services is better than google. But yahoo websites load slower than google. If only yahoo can make their websites faster.
Yahoo = Fail! Google is good, but a better comparison would be between windowslive and google. Any email service that wants you to pay for pop and imap is a cult. They some how dupe people into paying more for less. Which seems to work on consumers today. While Gmail is not perfect i think that it completely blows yahoo out of the water. I wish that google would learn from windows live and make the ultimate everything. Or vica-versa.
yahoo all the way
Have you all gone mad?
Yahoo failed as a search engine and email domain. Now its just some crappy mix of the 2.
Why couldn’t they just get hotmail like any normal person would?
Or search using google?
Or use a decent q&a site like expertvillage?
Or getting proper news from the BBC?
Or using a decent IM service, such as msn messenger?
Instead of actually being good at something to attract visitors to the site, they are just crap at alot of things. They keep adding new half-assed ideas that just get beat-down by proper companies in the end. I don;t understand how this site still exists. I’d pay to see it gotten rid of. YAHOO SUCKS!
Privacy, eh? Not necessarily. One example of where Yahoo fails in the privacy department is on Yahoo Answers: Once you mark (or someone else marks) your question as ‘resolved’, your question/answer is now the property of Yahoo – you cannot delete it, or change its privacy settings. It will even persist even if you delete your Yahoo account; it’s all out of your control.
But that’s just me being picky, really. But I believe that is a solid example.
And as far as Google’s privacy, I think some people might need to read the privacy policy. It’s very thorough, yet to-the-point, and describes everything perfectly, leaving you satisfied that your data is in good hands, and that you have very fine-grained control over your data.
People must get over the “Google has poor privacy” stigma, and stop associating Google Search with account-specific privacy details, as they are not in the same domain.
That all said, I’m generally happy with both Google and Yahoo’s privacy policies, and am not a zealot to either company.
Yahoo Calendar > Google Calendar
– It allows inexact matching search (EX. “mail” matches “mailed”, “email”, etc. Google fails.
– It finds all events. Google inexplicably only shows you the most recent n matches where n seems to be a random function of their choosing
flickr > picasa
Yahoo Messenger Web > Google Chat/Talk
– Google’s offering is unstable, looks bad
Yahoo Mail > GMail
– Too many reasons to list
Yahoo supports real products, Google rolls out awesome half-baked ideas, then either lets them languish in shitty town or lets them die. Google SMS, for example.
I think so too. My websites are up-to-date in yahoo’s search engine. In google, I’m all over the place. Some pages don’t work. I’m all different ages. I’m still associated with companies that I don’t deal with anymore. It’s a mess. I’ve been trying to get them to remove or at least update the web description for the websites but I keep getting denied. It’s very frustrating.
Yahoo! = Fail.
Bing = Fail.
Aol= Fail.
Google = Win.
Google has the most simple interface. It’s just better.