Yahoo Dumps Google

January 7, 2004 / Search Engines / Comments (3)

"Yahoo is poised to end its long-time relationship with search-results provider Google," reports Keith Regan in today's E-Commerce Times. "The breakup has been expected for a while, as Google has become more of an all-around threat to Yahoo by offering paid search listings and news and shopping searches." Indeed. While the move will be a financial blow to Google, Yahoo's reputation as a search engine may well deteriorate, as Inktomi's (who will supplant Google as Yahoo's search provider) results are generally considered less accurate/relevant than Google's. It will be interesting to see if a reduction in quality of Yahoo's search results lead to a migration of traffic to Google. In the short term, this is unlikely, as Yahoo's users are probably loyal to its brand. But brand loyalty on the internet tends to be short-lived. Ultimately, ongoing improvement in Inktomi's results will be needed to maintain Yahoo's reputation as a major search engine.

Comments

3 comments

cheri / January 24, 2004 4:37 AM / #

hi michael.
can't figure out how inktomi is going to replace google for yahoo??

i've noticed that google searches are changing hour to hour right now. is something going on?

love your site..cheri

Michael Heraghty / January 26, 2004 12:18 PM / #

Hi Cheri,

Actually, it's Yahoo that's replacing Google with Inktomi. Basically, Yahoo now sees Google as a competitor, so it doesn't like the idea of having its search fuctionality provided by a competitor.

To complicate things further, Yahoo also owns a significant chunk of Google.

By the way Cheri, I notice that your site has increased in PageRank. Well done! I hope that's resulting in better traffic for you?

-- Michael

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