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Google can’t find search results for Yahoo

Sam — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:39:57 +0000

I use my Google search bar to find even the most obvious URLs, it’s a lazy practice i know. So instead of typing in the full URL into the browser bar, i search one inch below for it then click. It actually probably takes longer.

Anyway this morning I did this for “Yahoo” – lo and behold Google couldn’t find any results for this search term.

It didn’t work on several colleagues machines, but did on others. Well it amused me. Is it to do with the Ajax results?

However, when you search on UK results it gives you millions of answers. Is this to do with the Google Geo search? Or Yahoo’s new localised redirect? Or just a glitch?

Yahoo seems to have implemented a redirect to http://m.uk.yahoo.com/ – which is new, and has only got a PageRank of 4. Google obviously doesn’t rate this page.

This needs more digging.

UPdate:
Whilst doing a search on Bing for Yahoo, all seems fine. However my Stumbleupon toolbar gives it a category it probably shouldn’t be in. See below. Poor old Yahoo, what’s it done to annoy the other search engines?

Which site do people spend most time on? – Facebook

Sam — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:52:57 +0000

Is there any record Facebook isn’t breaking at the moment? (Facebook doubles audience) Beating the mighty Google, Yahoo and Myspace… Facebook is now the website Americans spend most time on according to compete.com.

Believe it or not this week Mark Zuckerburg was told by Forbes Magazine that he is no longer valued as a billionaire. Yes, I know. Apparently the value of him (and his behemoth) website has gone down in value because there aren’t enough billionaires (600 less than last year) to go around to buy it. Huh? Though surely his site is worth more than a billion dollars – several times over?

Well Mr Forbes – look at these latest stats – and for that matter anyone who owns a big Advertising company or Media company should pay attention too. This site is phenominal, yes maybe the boys on Wall Street have lost a few bucks, but this guy is still attracting the big figures and the time spent on site. Imagine if people watched single TV channels this long.

Monthly Attention – Facebook, Yahoo, Google, MySpace

(The total time spent on a domain as a percentage of the total time spent online by all U.S. Internet users, February ’07 – February ’09) from compete.com

This is pretty interesting stuff. But what we can see from this data is the sharp fall of Myspace in June 07 and another cliff-like drop exactly a year later in June 08. Myspace however has had more support in the US and therefore longevity. Though time spent drastically reduced. After you have spent time building the look and feel of your page, there wasn’t a hell of a lot more to spend your time on. So was this drop due to the relatively unfriendly usability of the site, or the comparatively single dimension experience?

Saying this however, search data has been strong for Myspace over the last 12 months, Facebook only overtaking them in the first month of this year. As you will see from the trends graph (US only. A worldwide chart shows Facebook dominating MS many months before)

Trends - Facebook takes Myspace at the Last

So search has no affect on the length of time the audience stay on the site.

We’ve all got our own opinions about the qualities of Myspace and Facebook, usability issues and the types of people and behaviour related to each. These ultimately are the reasons why one is succeeding and the other has seen better days. Why one was bought for record amounts by a media mogul and why the other surely will be, and will definitely make the owner a billionaire.

As for Google’s position in this data… well Yahoo has all the web-mail time spent on it, but Google (a few seconds for each search) is fast catching. This time next year, it will be the big G out in front.

Author Sam

Yahoo! appoint new CEO Carol Bartz

Andy — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:24:34 +0000

Yahoo! have appointed Carol Bartz, formerly of software company Autodesk, as their new CEO. Bartz will replace Jerry Yang who stated in November 2008 that he would be stepping down from his role. Yang co founded Yahoo! with David Filo in 1994.

Due to the nature of Bartz’s background, some cynics have questioned the motives of appointing her in such a role. Many believe that her appointment could rekindle the interest of Microsoft, however the software giants have stated they aren’t interested in an outright acquisition anymore.

Bartz has an uphill task on her hands with kickstarting the World’s second favourite search engine fortunes as Google continues to grow.