SEO 2.0 rankings for SEO 2.0 in the last 12 weeks, Raven SEO Tools chart.
Just recently Yahoo updated their Index to offer “more relevant results” which allegedly are “more like Google“. I was amazed to find out that the contrary is the case. Yahoo Search results are total crap now.
Usually I don’t use such strong language but to be sure that it’s just Yahoo I conducted a little test. I manually tested my rankings in the search results for the keyphrases that my SEO 2.0 blog is undoubtedly or at least very likely most relevant: SEO 2.0, Tadeusz Szewczyk, Tad Chef and onreact.
What did I find? On Yahoo, almost nothing, MSN/Windows Live is almost as bad but Yahoo manages to be even worse.
The test yielded one more surprise, Google is not the single most relevant search engine out there. Check out the results:
*onreact.com homepage
I used the proxy server service to mimic a US citizen and not to get personalized or localized results from Germany where I live.
Conclusion: Yahoo and MSN/Windows Live sucked. Ask and Cuil did not. Sadly both have given up by now.
Last updated November 17th, 2010.
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This thing has 10 Comments
Hi,
It does not really affect some of my sites the Yahoo! Changes.
I would like to thank you a lot for the Ucloak link. It is really useful for me as I live in another country as well and I have been looking for something like that in a while.
Many Thanks
Hi,
small mistake in your conclusion – the link that is supposed to bring you to ask.com brings you to cuil.com ;)
Thanks Pascal! Fixed.
The problem with this post is that it suggests that people are actually using Yahoo and MSN :) (sorry forgot about the no smiley face rule :P)
Andrew, in the US some people still do.
I wish there were a search engine out there that would at least give Google a run for it’s money. Competition adds at least some balance and choice. It keeps Google on their toes and in check.
I agree with Stephan about there being another SE that would challenge Google. It would be nice to see. Yahoo! doesn’t seem to know which way to go right now. They’re in the best place to challenge Google though.
I am not a big fan of Cuil. Doing a vanity search on it brings up a lot of dated blog links. I really don’t like the layout of it either, nor do I like the huge clip of text.
Ask seems to be improving lately. I never use MSN. Yahoo is a little more on my radar, but barely.
Sad to say, Google generally gives the best results. Competition would be a good thing. Maybe MSN and Yahoo! joining forces would be a good thing after all. Did I just say that?? hehe
That’s why i don’t use yahoo..
But sometimes my website has a better place on yahoo… but there are no big diferences
MSN is the one that throws me off. The seem to place way too much weight on the domain name. I always find these long keyword rich domains with like 4 dashes ranking on top.
I’m not saying this in any way to be argumentative, but perhaps Yahoo is doing a better job detecting that you are manipulating the search results and treating your site accordingly. Even if your site should “naturally” rank high on those terms. Perhaps it’s like the Google -30 that I’ve heard about.