Not an Yahoo moment for Yahoo as its millions of loyal fans are crying hoarse over its much speculated and much anticipated integration with Bing that is supposed to ring the death bell of a great search engine. This is pathetic reduction of a great search engine to an appendage of Bing. Yahoo which was once considered to be the arch rival of Google, has sold itself to Bing and it is no more a search engine. All its secrets that were developed painstakingly by some of the best developers of the world for years are in the hands of Bing, who is now revving up use this new arsenal to invade the territory of Google.

Yahoo Up For Sale
However, Yahoo is not going to acknowledge this fact. It still believes that it will be able to retain its position as a search engine in coming years. Shashi Seth, Senior Vice President, Yahoo! Search Products, in his latest post in YsearchBlog has proudly stated “Yahoo! Search will always be a Search Engine”. But the reality does not say so. It seems people are already shifting their attention from Yahoo search to Bing and we believe that Bing is relishing it.

Yahoo: The New Yes-man
The process of annihilation was started most probably on August 17, 2010 since in that day, Yahoo has posted three posts in its YSearchBlog for making people aware of the coming changes. As was to be expected, it tried its level best to convince the readers that this move is going to benefits the users by enhancing users experience but this is nothing more than just a façade. When the merger will be completed, we will like to have a new Yahoo, which will lack all its originality. It will just be a mere shadow of what it had once, it will be transformed into a yes-man of Bing.

Bing Is Better, Smarter
From now on, search listing on Yahoo! Search is likely to be powered by Bing. However, this change will come into effect in the US and Canada at the initial stage. It is likely to take 2 years more to complete the full transition in other parts of the world. Yahoo! Video, Image and Web search are now powered by Microsoft platform in Canadian and the US market.

Bing is visibly happy with the outcome. In its blog it has expressed its unbridled happiness for the successful completion of this task. Here are the excerpts:

Today I am happy to share that Bing is powering Yahoo!’s search results in the US and Canada (English only for now, the other languages will come in the weeks and months ahead).

What Should Webmasters Do?
Try to please Bing. This is all you can do since there is no need to please Yahoo anymore. If you can manage to get better ranking in Bing, we hope that you will be able to get better ranks in Yahoo as well. Try to keep a close eye on the latest developments and pray to God.

The long drama has finally ended and the climax has become evident at last. It takes more than four long months to seal an agreement between two former belligerent parties, Yahoo and Microsoft, to tie a knot of mutual understanding for ensuring better future and to give a tough competition to their main rival – the Big G. Rumor is abuzz that the hegemony of Google has come to end. Even some over enthusiastic people are crying in joy that this deal has put the first nail on the dominance of Google in search engine industry but what I think is just the opposite. The pack, which I believe has done in a hurry without caring a fig of its future implication, vindicates the sheer hapless condition of both Microsoft and Yahoo, who hitherto have become weary of building up futile resistance against the ubiquitous presence of Google.

The ground truth is that Microsoft has experienced an unbelievable setback even after launching its so-called decision search engine: The Bing, which failed miserably. On the other hand, Yahoo has virtually become invisible during this period when Google and Bing were engaged in blood curdling online battle. Ultimately Bing was humiliated in the hands of Google and Microsoft has got the worst shock when Google announced that it would offer Chrome based OS in coming year. Therefore, it is clear that this deal is just a continuation of this series of incidents. Now, lets us check out what the deal is all about:

In simple English, this revolutionary deal is aimed at improving the web search experience altogether for both the advertisers and the users. Yahoo Search will now be powered by Microsoft and Yahoo will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both Microsoft and Yahoo. Report has it that this deal will pave the way for new innovation and better web experience, as the developers of both Microsoft and Yahoo will work in collaboration. Users will be able to exploit the power and the strength of both search engines. Check out more form here.

Yahoo, MSN and obviously Google are the three major search engines, which have redefined online industry in multiple ways. As a matter of fact, we can not think of surfing in the web without them. When a user seek an information online, one needs to type related keywords in the search box. It has been observed that most of the major search engines present the search result by exploiting its complicated algorithm. A search engine usually presents the titles of websites in SERP either from the meta-title, meta-description, heading tag or from the entire body content. This is an well established fact and this rule is strictly followed by SEO executives for optimizing their websites.

Have you ever imagined what will happen if this rule is not followed accordingly? We have faced similar type of problem and this is what we are going to share. Yesterday (18/12/08) we tried to check the ranking of our website by typing the keyword “Web Design India” in some of the leading search engines. We have not find anything weird either in MSN or in Google.com. However, when we started checking the ranking of our website with this keyword in Yahoo.com, we found that our website (http://www.webguru-india.com)have grabbed 5th position but with a different title “Website Design Company”. Then we started searching that particular title in our webpage (http://www.webguru-india.com/webdesign.php) but it was not there. We have checked the meta title, meta description, meta keywords and even in the entire body content but failed to pinpoint the source of the title “Website Design Company”. This is really strange. We have tried our level best to find out the exact reason behind it. Some of us came up with the conclusion that Yahoo.com might have used some other source for displaying the website title in its SERP. If this assumption is taken for granted then the Yahoo’s effectiveness may come under the scanner. We have failed to come up with a conclusion or to fix this thing from happening. The only thing we can do is to hope for the best.

If you have the answer that can explain strange behavior of Yahoo then please let us know. We would be glad to get positive feedbacks from you.

(A comparative study of Google, Yahoo and Msn)

It’s very interesting and baffling too! A stiff competition exists among the three major search websites. Every now and then, websites rank among one another. Surveys are conducted from time to time in order to gauge the traffic flow and thereby evaluate the popularity of the websites.

Popularity of the three search engines

To mention, in 2004,a survey conducted by Forrester Research revealed that Yahoo increased its market search to 40% alongside Google, which also owned the same value of market search. MSN followed in with 23%. The same year, comScore Networks released a data evaluating the traffic flow to the three major search engines. Yahoo ranked first with more than 115 million unique visitors. MSN invited around 113 million visitors while Google ranked fourth with 63 million web users (Source- http://www.searchengineguide.com/jennifer-laycock/yahoo-gains-on-googleor-does-it.php).

Another study conducted by comScore demonstrating the growing trends of Internet search in 2006 revealed that Microsoft ranked first in the top ten hottest property destinations in the web world. Google and Yahoo followed Microsoft (Source- http://www.searchengineguide.com/jennifer-laycock/google-is-the-m.php).

However, a global search survey conducted by comScore last year demonstrates a different story. Google turned out be search engine leader garnering about 37 billion visitors. Yahoo followed next with 8.5 billion web users while Microsoft ranked fourth with 2.2 billion users (http://www.searchengineguide.com/jennifer-laycock/yahoo-gains-on-googleor-does-it.php).

Current market share

(Source-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engines)

In the fiscal year 2007, Google earned revenue of $16.593 billion. Yahoo gross revenue was $6.7 billion while Microsoft earned about $51.12 billion.
The big fight

There always exist a cold war among the three major websites. The growing popularity and strength of the search engine leader Google is increasing day by day. One can imagine of a time in future where Google emerges as a dominant entity in the cyber world.

However, a close observation reveals that there is continuous effort among the contemporaries to establish their supremacy in the web world. To mention, the much talked about Microsoft’s attempt to acquire Yahoo.

In 2005, 2006, 2007 many merger discussions took place between Yahoo and Microsoft but that never materialized. On February 1, 2008, Microsoft made a takeover proposal to acquire Yahoo for US$44.6 billion dollars. Following this event, Yahoo considered other options for a possible business deal with News Corp or union with Google. However, Yahoo turned down this unsolicited offer on February 11,2008 (Source – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo).

Microsoft is still in hot pursuit for Yahoo. It still sticks to its initial offer for Yahoo Inc. Sources have concluded that Microsoft devices to work out the deal single handedly whereas News Corp too carries on dealings with Yahoo without Microsoft’s participation. On April 5, 2008,Microsoft threatened to begin an intimidating bid for Yahoo. Microsoft held that if it fails to get the deal around April 26 then it would lower its offer. As of now, discussions are on of a possible business between Yahoo and Time Warner’s AOL (Source- http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20080411&id=8477817)

There seems to be no end of this ongoing trend in the web world. Some rank over others in the race while some get lost in the crowd. What remains true in all occasions is the quality of services, which determines the success of the business. More the flow of traffic to a website, more is the business.

Understanding the trends of the web industry is indeed an intricate task. To conclude which of the websites are exercising an overriding influence over others is very challenging. However, facts pinpoint certain basic reality about the web market.

Both, Yahoo and Microsoft are successfully doing business in the web market. The two search engines have world-class services for the global web users but Google, the Internet giant seems to stand tall in the crowd.

In addition to its existing services, Google’s attempt for the new approach i.e., App Engine is indeed a very welcoming effort in the web industry. Google’s increasing share of advertising, search coupled various web applications seems to signal its supremacy in providing topnotch infrastructure and emerging as a foremost operating system (Source- http://www.news.com/8301-13953_3-9915062-80.html? tag=nefd.pop).

Whether, Google will continue to exercise its prominence is a great question. Well, the answer lies only in times to come. As of now, considering the existing trends, it is apparent that the search engine king is racing ahead of its competitors.

(A comparative study of Google, Yahoo and Msn)
Websites are at loggerheads with one another in order to establish one’s omnipotence in the cyber world. Every now and then, huge products and services have been added up by the websites.

In the following lines, an attempt has been made to give you overall glimpse of the product and services of the three major websites namely Google, Yahoo and Msn.

Birth of Yahoo, Msn and Google

The last few years of the 20th century witnessed significant achievements in the cyber world. Google, Yahoo and Msn were born and started to exercise a great influence.

Founder and Year of Birth

• Jerry Yang and David Filo, Electrical Engineering students of Stanford University founded Yahoo, a universal Internet service company on 1st March 1995 at Santa Clara, California, USA.
• Msn, an Internet service provider was created by the Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995.
• Larry Page and Sergey Brin, students of Stanford University co-founded Google on September 7, 1998, at Menlo Park, California.

Services of Yahoo

• It is a web portal
• Search engine
• Yahoo! Directory
• Yahoo! Inc. provides search services like Yahoo! Video, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Shopping
• Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger.
• Yahoo! 360°, Yahoo! Personals, Flickr,
• It provides contents through services like Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Music, Yahoo! News, and Yahoo! Games and many more

Services of Msn

Msn primarily started as an Internet portal. Like other big websites, Msn has also a wide array of services. In 2006, it was reorganized and branded Windows Live. Many of the services were renamed under the new brand name.

• Windows Live Hotmail,
• Windows Live Messenger
• Live Search
• Windows Live Maps
• Windows Live Spaces
• Windows Live Alerts
• Search Engine and many more.

Services of Google

• Search Engine
• Gmail, web based mail service
• Google Images
• Google Maps
• Google Shopping
• Google Search
• Google video ,You Tube and many more.

Since the beginning, there exists a stiff competition among the websites. Every now and then, new services are added up in order to drive in more traffic to websites. Often websites come up with advanced services of the opponent’s services.

To speak of MSN (the Microsoft Network), the Internet service provider has added up huge services to its realm. Since its inception, MSN has been providing Windows operating systems, which are widely used than Mac, Unix etc.

Long back, Yahoo partnered with Internet service providers and telecommunications to expand its broadband services. It was taken to compete with a leading American global Internet services, AOL LLC. (Erstwhile America Online, Inc.). With the release of Google’s Gmail in 2004, Yahoo increased the storage of Yahoo Mail accounts from 4 MB to 1GB.

Last year, Yahoo made its storage unlimited. A more decisive move, Yahoo has recently extended its photo sharing, Flicker with videos in order to compete with its competitors You Tube.

Google has expanded its wings in almost all the online services. The search engine leader did come up with online Google Doc services. But, its limited storage facility has not proved to be user friendly than Windows operating system.

However, Google’s recent pronouncement of the introduction of App Engine has set fire in the web industry. A giant leap, Google seems to be emerging as the 21st century advertising tycoon and huge user data like Microsoft, which has been ruling in the cyber world with its productive software’s and user-friendly operating system. (Source- http://www.news.com/8301-13953_3-9915062-80.html? tag=nefd.pop)

(A comparative study of Google, Yahoo and Msn)

Today, our lives have become more simple and easy. The dot.com world has transformed the big world into a small global village. We feel more connected to each other than ever before.

Big websites like Google, Yahoo, MSN and others offer huge gamut of services. We can access any information, news of the world anytime, anywhere.

Advent of the World Wide Web is one of the significant achievements in the history of technological advancement. Web has become a platform of active participation wherein people across the world are closely associated with one another. The rise of social networking sites and web-based communities speak volumes of the new trend where the Web has transformed into “architecture of participation”.

Dawn of the Web

World Wide Web is the byproduct of modern man’s urge for universal information database. It is an Internet-based computer system, which helps the web users to view and access an array of information from various sources like global news, university and medical sites at a single point of time.

Computer scientist Timothy Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, Switzerland in 1989.The worldwide network soon greatly benefited the users and contributed in various software developments.

Growth of the World Wide Web

Since 1990, the World Wide Web started booming at a tremendous pace. The founder of the World Wide Web primarily designed this project to facilitate the work of physicists. The web would serve as platform of sharing data, documentation and news.

With the passage of time, many technological developments took place, which speeded up the performance of the Web. Simple static websites gave way to dynamic ones. Gradually, Web witnessed a new growth with the rise of e commerce websites, where online trade started taking place. Today, websites offer extensive services to invite more consumer loyalty.

Present scenario of the web industry

Over the last few years, the Web has undergone sea change. Following the burst of the Great Dot Com Bubble, a new trend has developed in the recent times.

Web 2.0 is an advanced form and encompasses all the elements of the Web 1.0 design. In the vocabulary of Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, “ Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform” (Source – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0).

Video Communication – the biggest trend on the Internet

Various social networking sites sprouted like MySpace, Facebook, Bebo.This new trend heralded the growth of video based website. In fact, the YouTube formed in 2005. Within a span of one year, this video website recorded as the fastest popular site in web history. The new technology gave the web users put in their own content through the method of feedback. It has been observed that many websites have been designed by using both Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 design.

Major websites

Google, Yahoo and Msn have established themselves as three major websites in the web world. Understanding the needs of the users, these websites have adopted new ways in order to ensure that web users can access information comfortably.

The three major websites have also set up themselves as important search engines. It is an observed fact that there is always a consistent web tussle among the three websites.

In the web world, a stiff competition persists among the websites in order to invite more traffic and retain customer loyalty. More and more services have been added up by the websites. Although born at a later date, Google has seemingly been successful in setting new challenges among its contemporaries in order to make its presence felt in the web industry.