I am such a Google addict that I hadn’t done a Yahoo search in at least two years. So when I heard that Yahoo was trying to compete again by unveiling a new search interface and a bold new way to search, I was intrigued. I did some testing and have some thoughts.
First, some background. As you know, Yahoo ruled the roost for years until Google became the most popular search engine. While Yahoo became an ever-larger portal — offering everything from shopping to Web hosting to maps to e-mail services, Google kept it simple: nothing but search. “Stickiness” — the amount of time a user stayed on your site — had been the most important measure until Google came along. So instead of forcing (some would say fooling) users into sticking around trying different services, Google tried another tack. Give people what they are looking for, send them away and they will come back because they know you are the best. This formula was so successful that Yahoo signed a deal with the upstart, using Google results in its backend operations.
Now Yahoo is back, trying to beat Google at its own game.
It’s still evolving, but I definitely see some strong benefits to the new Yahoo. The very features that caused it to downplay its search business — maps, yellow pages, shopping — are now being used in interesting new ways and have the made searches stronger.
When you visit search.yahoo.com, it’s a delightfully uncluttered interface (you can also do the searches off the main Yahoo page). Type in your query and you get results that, for now, are similar to Google’s (in most cases ARE Google’s). But what’s different is the way it uses maps and yellow pages to help you find information faster and better than before. For example, when I typed in “10027 Starbucks” for the zipcode of my office, I first get a set of yellow pages listings of the nearest Starbucks, with maps. That’s pretty useful. However, if I just type in “Starbucks,” a bunch of sponsor listings push down Starbucks.com a full scroll, which is unfortunate (I would also prefer the sponsor listings to be offset and obviously different from the regular listings, the way Google does it).
The site also uses the Yahoo personalization features well. If you have a Yahoo ID and are logged in, when you search weather, the first result you get should be the weather in your city (you can get the same result by typing in, say, “New York weather”).
For the week I have used it, the Yahoo search does better with commerce-oriented searches than with general interest topics.
Yahoo has always been known for using human editors to work on the listings, which means that its results are often better edited and more understandable than other search engines that use only automated systems. This continues to be the case.
There’s also a new product search that competes with Google’s excellent Froogle service — you can try it out at products.yahoo.com.
I am not a fan yet of the news search function (not as broad as Google News).
There are several other features that are going to be rolled out in the weeks and months ahead. So I will revisit this as the site changes.
The bottom line: I will continue to use Google as my default search engine for now, but suddenly, it’s a two-horse race.
For those of you interested in a three-horse race, check out my partner Jon Dube’s 2002 review of Hotbot.com.
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