Comment by Readmore | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Readmore | Hacker News Reader

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I think he has taken this a little too far. I don't see Yahoo destroying their market value with this 'test', they are just trying to stave off MS.

I've actually switched to Yahoo search in the last 3 months and find it better than Google, it definitely seems to be updated more frequently and the results are always as good, and sometimes better, than what I get at Google. There ads aren't as well targeted apparently but I never click on Google ads either so I don't really notice.

I think more than anything Yahoo needs a brand refresh. Like Ask did with the 'its the algorithm' commercials. I tried Ask based on those commercials, the problem is Ask doesn't have the quality results that Yahoo does.

With the new open search platform and support for microformats I think Yahoo is in a good technological position to take on Google, they just need better marketing.

> I don't see Yahoo destroying their market value with this 'test', they are just trying to stave off MS.

1. AOL is a giant, worthless pile of crap. Does anyone really think merging with them is going to do anything positive for Yahoo?

2. Yahoo has two sources of value. First, it's an incredibly successful content brand, with sites like Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance, and a boatload of others. Second, it's the #2 player and only remotely plausible competitor to Google in search and internet advertising.

Even if Yahoo keeps it's own search team, it won't matter, because Google will really be the only source of keyword advertising on the internet. Even if Yahoo were to own Google in search, Google would still get a lot of the money.

This move would effectively lock in Google's monopoly over keyword advertising for good, and it would mean that Yahoo is giving up on being a technology company to become a content company and embrace the slow, painful decline that befell Netscape, Lycos, AOL, and other companies that lost the source of the value they added to the internet.

AOL has a lot of very popular sites and brands, like Engadget and TMZ. The AOL-branded sites are pretty much worthless, but there is a lot of value there otherwise.

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