- Posts tagged Yahoo
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BP buys Google, Yahoo search words to keep people away from real news on Gulf oil spill disaster
BP spokesman Toby Odone confirmed to ABC News that the oil giant had in fact bought internet search terms. So now when someone searches the words ‘oil spill’, on the internet, the top link will re-direct them to BP’s official company website.
via examiner.com
Yet another reason to use Bing. Do no evil, my ass. The article didn't mention Bing, but I tried it and, in the US at least, all three search engines bring up BP's link first for "oil spill".
Apple's page about the new MobileMe Mail, now in beta.
via apple.com
Read about it at the above link.
I am, by far, most interested in the speed improvements. MobileMe Mail is slower than Yahoo! and Windows Live. Much slower. Embarrassingly so. Other features look nice, but if they don't get the performance right they'll never pull in any non-Mac users.
This is not a sign of anything: iPhone OS 4 Search branding removed in Safari
iLounge has pointed out that the "Google" branded search button in mobile Safari has been renamed "Search" in iPhone OS 4. Is this a sign that Apple is about to dump Google from mobile search?
via tuaw.com
No, it's not.
Geez, the conspiracy kooks are out in force because Safari's search button no longer says "Google" in iPhone OS 4.0, but rather just "Search".
Gads! Apple hates Google. It's a bitter, no-holds-barred war. Apple must be ready to introduce their own search engine. Quick, what other knee-jerk response can we get in before reality settles in?!!
The truth is the search button is only labeled Google if Google is the chosen search engine. I use Yahoo! as default on my iPhone; I'll give you three guesses what the button's labeled.
Bottom line is calling it Search makes a ton of sense. No conspiracy, no corporate smack down, no overriding new strategy. Get a grip, people.
Microsoft Doesn't Need Yahoo Search, But Wouldn't Mind Yahoo Talent
Interesting story from Mary Jo Foley on Microsoft picking up more Yahoo! executive talent. It's interesting because of this comment:
I’ve seen a few industry watchers refer to these moves as Microsoft “poaching” Yahoo’s talent. But I wonder whether this is a case of Microsoft poaching or Yahoos jumping ship (or maybe a little bit of both)I think she has a point; it's almost certainly a little of both. One thing is for sure, and I alluded to this in my review of Bing, I don't think Microsoft needs to mess with caring (or even pretending to care) about Yahoo's search business so much. Bing is a nice service, and just may pick up Yahoo's business without even the hint of a buyout. Heck, Bing even got Google to sit up and take notice.
Microsoft Bing: There's a Lot Here to Like
Microsoft's new (well, newly labeled, anyway) search engine, Bing, went live last week. I've been playing with it a few days and find it to be a very respectable search offering. This thing won't be toppling Google anytime soon, but there are things about it worth noting that should push Google to begin improving their own offering.
I've found Google to have more overall results, but it includes more "garbage" than Bing in general. For example, see above that the very first link is for the Canon SD870. That's not even the model I was searching for, yet Google lists it first.
Google also makes no attempt to categorize results for you; it's just a (seemingly) never-ending list of links. By contrast, Bing's sidebar on the left can come in handy. For example, it lists the sd870 as a "related search".
Bing can take this sidebar approach to very helpful levels. For example, see the searches below for "Prius":
Bing's sidebar lists quick links for finding Problems, Reviews, Dealers, Videos, etc. Further, the scrolling list of results is categorized in the same manner as the links. You'll get a few of one category, then a few for the next, and so on. The idea being that most people find what they want in the first few links anyway. Compared to Bing's presentation of results, Google's Lord of the Flies approach is ungainly by comparison.
Further, Bing provides a nice popup that tells you more about the site when you hover over the left edge of the link. You get details without having to load it, which should cut down on "bad" links. Here's the popup when hovering over the Prius Edmonds link:
Some will argue that Google still "wins" the search because it returned 17.5M results to Bing's 2M, but I'm not buying it. This can't be a simple numbers game when the numbers get this high. You can't possibly go through so many links, especially since Google doesn't even attempt to break them down. At some point one has to question whether 2M results with convenient subsets of the data and site popups is better than 17.5M you're essentially left to sift through on your own. The more you get used to it, the more you'll want the former.
Note that the sidebar gives you more choices of image options than Google's top options. Also note that the thumbnails can be one of three sizes (shown is the smallest) to see more at a time.
I also like the fact that the images are presented cleanly, with no distracting text, etc. which I don't need for an initial review of the images. However, once I see an image I like, I need only hover the cursor over it and up pops the relevant information:
Further, if I want the display to be more Google-like, there is a forth image size option that does so, shown here:
Finally, Bing does not have you go back and forth through pages as Google does. Rather, you simply scroll through them, and it ads more as you scroll down. I like this a lot.
Comparison - Results
There's a great web site that runs Bing and Google side by side. It's called Bingle, and it makes for quick results comparisons between the two. You enter the search term once, and it opens a split panel screen with both engines available for scrolling:
Comparison - Image Search
I also like the way Bing presents images better than Google:
