It is no secret
that Google and Yahoo are on a continuous battle to
win our hearts and get everyone to convert, but is converting
someone really a matter of the quantity or the quality?
Let's take a look at some top key searches and compare
them with some search engines online. I will outline
a few things for each search result:
1) Search Engine
2) Number of results found
3) Quality & content of the top 10 sites
4) What you find going beyond the first 10 pages
Each section will get ranked out of 10 points for quality
(information taken on August 26,2005).
=
Starting with my all-time favorite search term: "INTERNET
MARKETING"
=
Google.com
- 99,000,000 results
- 10/10 on quality
- 10/10 Past 10 pages still delivers top quality results
Yahoo.com
- 281,000,000 results
- 7/10 on quality. There's no reason to list a "Hotel
Marketing Firm" & "Building websites". The #1 spot
was reserved for Yahoo marketing.
- 9/10 Past 10 pages, it is very generic for business,
not specific.
MSN.com
- 93,661,176 results
- 10/10 on quality
- 10/10 Past 10 pages still delivers high quality results.
I am surprised and give MSN two thumbs up for their
attention to detail.
=
Moving onto the search term for "BUSINESS NEWS"
=
Google.com
- 627,000,000 results
- 10/10 on quality
- 10/10 Beyond 10 pages delivers high quality &
local news centers.
Yahoo.com
- 1,260,000,000 results (wow)
- 10/10 on quality
- 9/10 Beyond 10 pages. There are still some sites that
should never be there.
MSN.com
- 381,631,054 results
- 8/10 on quality - Some aren't related at all and brand
new sites as well.
- 10/10 beyond 10 pages. Their results seem to tighten
up and get better.
Let's now take some more "local" search results to see
deeper and more targeted results...
=
Moving on to the search term for "WASHINGTON UNIVERSITIES".
I hope to find the "University of Washington" come up
#1 or thereabouts.
=
Google.com
- 22,700,000
- 10/10 on quality (http://www.washington.edu/ is #1)
- 10/10 beyond 10 pages. The results still deliver "university"
topics.
Yahoo.com
- 143,000,000 results
- 9/10 on quality - The top spot is reserved for Yahoo
on Washington University in St. Louis. There seems to
be a strong battle going on here on which university
to list.
- 10/10 beyond 10 pages. Content is specific and relevant.
MSN.com
- 34,442,536 results
- 9/10 on quality - Again another battle going on and
washington.edu is #10 tilting on the verge of page 2.
- 10/10 beyond 10 pages. All related to Washington &
University living
Let's now get even more specific than that... For this
search term I will be using something very local that
I can relate to and give a better analysis.
=
Moving on to the search term for "HAMILTON ONTARIO CANADA".
=
Google.com
- 3,700,000 results
- 10/10 on quality - Great job
- 10/10 beyond 10 pages - Anything goes but is directly
related to Hamilton.
Yahoo.com
- 14,900,000 results
- 10/10 on quality - Almost the same as Google but a
couple of different choices.
- 9/10 on quality - Some results are found by keyword
stuffing their pages.
MSN Local *New (http://search.msn.com/local/)
- 1,280,405 results
- 9/10 on quality - Getting some random placements &
keyword stuffing
- 10/10+ beyond 10 pages - Many local companies well
listed in the results.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Let's now take a look at these results as a total. Out
of a possible score of 80 points, here are the total
scores for each:
Google - 80 points
MSN - 76 points
Yahoo - 73 points
Total search results delivered:
Google - 752,400,000
Yahoo - 1,698,900,000
MSN - 511,015,171
And people wonder why Google is the king of searching?!
But wait, without even noticing the results, as I totaled
the final point standings, MSN came up in second place!
In my study, I tried to be as neutral as possible.
How is it that Msn & Google have 50% the amount
of results shown in Yahoo, but outrank Yahoo in quality?
In conclusion:
Even though Yahoo delivered a report stating that it
has over 19 billion search items, what does it matter
when you're still trying to figure out how to deliver
all that content? MSN & Google seem to know exactly
what to do with their results. They don't seem "off
the wall" at all. If Yahoo is to step up and be crowned
the search king, I really think that they need to refine
the amount of search terms they have, to match the quality
of search results as well.
Yahoo has major potential to outreach Google but they
still have a lot of work ahead of them and by the time
they figure things out, Google may even step up their
game even further and wow us all on some other search
plateau.
About
The Author:
Martin Lemieux is the president of the Smartads Advertising
Network. Smartads is dedicated to helping you expose
your business online and offline. International: http://www.smartads.info/ Article Submission
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