Yahoo has flipped the switch and is no longer using Google for their search. (Some technical details.) The question on everybody’s mind: Is Yahoo’s search better than Google’s? Yes. Why do I think so?
- Results are given as an ordered list, or
<ol>, which is a good thing. - It shows 20 results instead of just 10.
- You have an option by each result to open it in a new window.
- They are somehow detecting RSS feeds for sites that have them, and linking to them directly and also allowing you to add them to My Yahoo. They seem to have gotten my RDF file instead of my RSS 2.0 file, which is prefered, but no worries. I’ve been meaning to replace that with a
301redirect lately anway. - It is much better designed.
- But the best reason to use Yahoo? I’m the #2 hit for “Matt”. Yes, even ahead of that Drudge clown.
What? Were you expecting me to check for any other search terms?
A quick trip to MyCroft and you can make Yahoo your default search engine for Firefox. Easy as pie.
Re: You have an option by each result to open it in a new window
I’ve had this option available to me in almost every browser I’ve used for the past 4 years or so. 😉
Using Mozilla on Mac OS X I simply hit the command key before I click a link. The key to press might vary between browsers and platforms, but most modern browsers support this. (Oh, and for browsers with tabs, you can open the links in a new tab instead of a new window.)
On Windows IE it’s shift+click. I know that, you know that, but I bet tha vast majority of Internet Explorer’s users don’t. New windows are annoying anyway, tabs keep things clean.
It shows 20 results instead of just 10.
I’m not saying that the new Yahoo! isn’t cool, but thought I’d add that Google gives the option of 10, 20, 30, 50, or 100 results, if you hit the Preferences link. It requires cookies, though, and I’m not sure they offered that via the Yahoo! interface.
Today is the first time I checked out Yahoo since ditching Google, and I have to say its lookin pretty good..
people are ditching google? how come?
people are ditching google? how come?
No one said that! Yahoo ditched Google for it’s search results (well, they do own altavista, fast/ATW, overture and Inktomi); whether people ‘follow’ has yet to play out.
i’m #2 for “waterlily” and #37 for “Kathy.” the interface is a little nicer than Google’s… Yahoo is my homepage while i’m at work, but i use the Google toolbar for searches… i shall play with this when i’m not doing anything at work.
Matt: Yahoo probably caught the RDF-Feed because its the first
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(hrm, a preview-function would’ve been good)
last comment cont’d:
link-Element with the application/rss+xml-MIME-Type on your site. If there are several RSS-Alternatives given like on your site, Yahoo has to decide on one of them. Simply taking the first one seems a reasonable choice for me.
I couldn’t even find myself when I did a search for Ryan… yet I am #2 if you search for Nicole Ritchie (and #4 and #14, probably more but I didn’t check past the first page). And while it’s nice that it defaults to 20 results, I’m perfectly happy with 10. If I wanted more, I would change my preferences in Google (and yes, Yahoo offers the same option to change the # of results returned)
I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised at the Yahoo! SERPs. Definitely better than I expected, and of course, I also can’t complain that I’m number 21 on Yahoo for “Adam” (though I used to be equally high on Google {sigh}).
Though I’m still a huge fan of Google and its search engine, I’m really pleased to see some competition. Competition is a good thing and there IS certainly room for more than one player in this space. 🙂
Adam, what’s a SERP?
I’ve noticed that Yahoo’s search returns duplicated results on some searches, which to me is a sign of a poorly-maintained database and/or a bad or dupe-deletion algorithm. It also culls results from the Yahoo directory, which can be woefully out of date.
A search on my full name turned up a link to my original home page as result number 2. It still exists because I now work at the same school where I went to college, but the summary text is still what I submitted to Yahoo for their directory almost eight years ago. That description is no longer remotely representative of the site’s present contents. To be competitive, a search engine’s results must be fresher than this.
That said, how do I get it to add a link to my RSS feed to it’s hit for my blog? That’s a very cool feature. 🙂
I am still the #1 Geof.
I rule.
I’m still the number 1 Christine! Whoo hoo! Go me! (I know, it’s the simple things.) That’s pretty impressive that you’re the number 2 Matt, by the way! Rock on!
Nothing like a good vanity search to start the day off right.