Yahoo Changes Search

Yahoo no longer using Google
I am glad I am not a betting man, or I am sure I would have big guys named Vinnie and Freddie knocking on my door looking for their money. I have been trying to guess when Yahoo! was going to change results providers virtually since the time they bought Inktomi over a year ago. I even made a couple predictions, but in the end I was wrong.

So, what is all the fuss about?
Well for one, they didn’t use pure Inktomi results. In effect they didn’t replace Google with Inktomi; they replace Google with a Yahoo! brand of search. The Yahoo! search is new and uniquely different from everyone else.

So what does this mean to search marketers?

Well, while you used to have to pay to be listed in the Yahoo! directory, it doesn’t appear that you need to pay to get indexed by Inktomi. In fact, if you check your visitor logs, you’ve likely noticed a lot of activity from either Inktomi’s Slurp or Yahoo!s Slurp spiders.

So how do you know if you’ve been picked up in Yahoo?

If you’d like to see how many pages are indexed, you can go use the advanced search options (http://search.yahoo.com/web/advanced). If you put in 2 sets of double quotes (“”) in one of the “Show results with” boxes, followed by your domain name in the “only search in this domain/site” box, you will see what pages are indexed in the new Yahoo! index.

What does all this mean?
Well, it’s hard to say what the impact of Yahoo!s organic product will be. We already know that they can account for about 1/3 of most sites’ traffic. But how Yahoo! will deal with crawling and indexing is another story. Since they just switched over, we will have to see what happens.

We do know that, at this time, there is no place to add a URL to their index, so we must assume that at least for the time being a paid inclusion is required to be indexed in Yahoo! Or, we may find that a submission to Altavista or Alltheweb may help a site get indexed. Although this is doubtful, it is not out of the realm of possibility.

One speculation is that Yahoo! will use a similar submission strategy that Altavista has employed. That is, you could submit for free, with no guarantee of if, or when, the site would get indexed, or you could pay for guaranteed inclusion. In this case, the submission fee is definitely worth it considering the 30% reach that Yahoo! currently has.

So what does this mean for Google?
Aside from the obvious – that Google’s power has been cut in �, not much. Google is still striving to have the best search out there. Whether Yahoo! is a part of that or not, shouldn’t really concern them. Sure it is a hit to the bottom line, but Google is large enough that they will survive, at least until the rumored IPO.

Now what Google has to do is stay ahead of the pack. They have developed a reputation for the best search. They have to maintain that reputation. The fact that Yahoo! has entered the algorithmic search market after 10 years on the web does help Google in that they have some catching up to do. But the fact that Yahoo! can afford to catch up could be a concern.

They also have to consider that Yahoo! is only the first of the “big players” to foray into the highly competitive algorithmic search market. MSN still has to display its entry, which will also be later this year.

But for now they only have to consider Yahoo!s impact. While it will be great in terms of volume of search lost, it is too early to determine what the true impact will be. Launching algorithmic search is one thing, convincing people to use it is another.

Author Bio:
Rob Sullivan
Production Manager
Searchengineposition.com
Search Engine Positioning Specialists