Yahoo and MSN gave up?

sniperhiga · 12-27-2006, 06:58 AM

It seems to me that Yahoo and MSN gave up this year. Their search engines became worse than it used to be.
My opinion, they worked more to became more like portals improving their music, videos, e-mail, news, weather, maps...................
They target more regular people who just want hot news and entertainment.

Hostnetric · 12-27-2006, 10:48 AM

This is pretty much the case. They are making the majority of their money from this method as is AOL now who is also improving in this area. Simply competing with Google head to head is not feasible for them. They have to offer more then just searches to keep their bottom line growing.

brahmchari · 12-27-2006, 03:45 PM

Their search quality may be decreasing but Yahoo's searchers are actually increasing and one would be able to see increase in the no. of MSN searchers pretty soon with the launch of Vista. I do not think anyone is willing to just give up this multi billion industry.

John Scott · 12-27-2006, 03:55 PM

They definitely don't seem to be making any advancements worth mentioning.

Hostnetric · 12-27-2006, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brahmchari

Their search quality may be decreasing but Yahoo's searchers are actually increasing and one would be able to see increase in the no. of MSN searchers pretty soon with the launch of Vista. I do not think anyone is willing to just give up this multi billion industry.

I agree with you that they will not simply give up, but they will not make search their main focus nor feature anymore. I believe that you will see phenomenal growth from them in respect to others areas while search will grow, but much slower than at Google and unless they come up with a much better approach to search they pretty much will not be able to move up to the level that Google has attained in the search business.

Forsh · 12-27-2006, 05:33 PM

Did anyone read this:

"The Wikia corporation plans to launch the search engine with financial backing from online retailer Amazon (some sites are erroneously reporting that Amazon is involved in the development process, but please note that they are just providing financial resources for Wikia at this point) and a handful of other technology companies, but Wales hopes to generate profit from the service with advertising. In an interview with the Times Online, Wales says that "the revenue model for search is advertising," a truism demonstrated by competitors Google and Yahoo."

Source: arstechnica dot com/news.ars/post/20061225-8492.html

Hostnetric · 12-27-2006, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forsh

Did anyone read this:

"The Wikia corporation plans to launch the search engine with financial backing from online retailer Amazon (some sites are erroneously reporting that Amazon is involved in the development process, but please note that they are just providing financial resources for Wikia at this point) and a handful of other technology companies, but Wales hopes to generate profit from the service with advertising. In an interview with the Times Online, Wales says that "the revenue model for search is advertising," a truism demonstrated by competitors Google and Yahoo."

Source: arstechnica dot com/news.ars/post/20061225-8492.html

Interesting bit of news there. I had heard about Amazon looking into search engine technology, but nothing concrete from them had really been found.

solidghost · 12-27-2006, 06:05 PM

Search Engine and information are very huge markets.
I doubt that MSN and Yahoo will give up anytime soon. I am pretty sure with the financial resources both have, they will still be concentrating on SE.

sniperhiga · 12-27-2006, 07:05 PM

I think they simply trying to attract people with all kind of interests and browsing music, news, videos people use their search engines...
That's why entertainment websites have way more traffic from Yahoo and MSN than SEO, Technology, Science etc. sites.

simple · 12-27-2006, 07:31 PM

I personally think Yahoo has something planed for 2007, and when i say something planed, i mean a big algorithm update that is going to improve search quality dramatically, not just a little tweak.. I must add that Yahoo is a much better search engine then before, but i can't say the same with Microsoft.

sniperhiga · 12-27-2006, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by simple

I personally think Yahoo has something planed for 2007, and when i say something planed, i mean a big algorithm update that is going to improve search quality dramatically, not just a little tweak.. I must add that Yahoo is a much better search engine then before, but i can't say the same with Microsoft.

MSN was planned the same one year ago... they even promissed that it will appear in september 2006 with the name Quaero. So.... where is it?
By the way, small company www.Quaero.com became one of the most popular website in the web for couple weeks after Microsoft press release. Quaero owners was really happy... I wish Microsoft, Apple, Google etc will promice Manhattan Service or Blog Upper (my sites) project one day.

brahmchari · 12-28-2006, 03:25 AM

MSN recently integrated msn search in their messenger and they are planning to intergrate it with other softwares in VISTA. People will use it if it is integrated with the software they use like Office 2007, Outlook 2007 etc.
Related Link

Angelus · 12-28-2006, 03:34 AM

Yahoo is still the best at one thing and that is checking your backlinks

But I agree that thier search is worse then google by far

p.l.u.r.

Hostnetric · 12-28-2006, 03:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brahmchari

MSN recently integrated msn search in their messenger and they are planning to intergrate it with other softwares in VISTA. People will use it if it is integrated with the software they use like Office 2007, Outlook 2007 etc.
Related Link

No one is argueing that people will not use it. However, the point is that you are seeing these large companies not giving up on search, but rather shifting the over all focus of their product to a more rounded approach which in the long run may just make them alot more powerful and profitable. Search will always be big, but Google is king until one of the others finds a way to create better search results then Google does. With Google starting to develop properties now outside of Search then this may be enough of a distraction for others to catch up a bit and then again maybe not. Only thing we can really do is sit back and watch and enjoy the benefits of a fight between them all.