Yahoo Search Using Google Again?

[digitalpoint]

The reason this caught my eye, is because overnight, it appeared Yahoo fixed many of it's technical problems. For example URLs are now complete (http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/000143.html), and redirects work properly.

Doing a couple searches though, I realized that Yahoo appears to be using Google results again (they are removing the 2nd listing on domains which have 2 listings, but other than that, I have not seen any differences.

I really doubt that Yahoo fixed their technical problems and came up with an algorithm that matches Google so exactly. ;)

You can see an example by searching for search engine forum on Yahoo (http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=search+engine+forum) and on Google (http://www.google.com/search?q=search+engine+forum), but seems to be the same for every search I try.

Maybe they realized that their results aren't as relevant and have technical problems. :)

[nohaber]

Shawn,
for my keywords, yahoo is showing its own results. For "search engine optimization forum" the results are also different.

[digitalpoint]

Hmmm... search engine optimization forum is identical on both Google and Yahoo for me.

[T0PS3O]

Similar but certainly not identical on the .coms on this side of the Atlantic.

Maybe they are finally personalizing it Shawn and they know you like Google better :D

I read that G can serve up different pages (as they did just before the layout makeover) according to your Google ID stored somewhere so maybe Yahoo is testing G technology again, accessing this ID of yours thus seeing the exact same results :S

Would be silly to go back though after all the pooha about firing up their competitiveness..

[digitalpoint]

Well Google always serves different results based on your country. Maybe Yahoo simply isn't doing any geotargetting.

What if you use http://www.webmasterbrain.com/prog/ ? Since that will give you Google US results always (since it's their server making the request to Google), does that look at all like the Yahoo results you see?

[Old Welsh Guy]

Thank God, I thought I was going nuts, Yahoo! is delivering different results for a world search from www.yahoo.co.uk than www.yahoo.com. they 'should be the same' should't they? go try

[anthonycea]

Shawn, this has been discussed on many forums since Yahoo dropped Google, it seems that it was a Cookie issue.

I had the same problem going back 2 months ago, when I erased all of my temp internet files, erased all the cookies and sites visited history the Google results on Yahoo went away.

If you need to look at threads on this I can get you the links from many forums. I know there was one on SEOchat 2 months ago.

[T0PS3O]

Same differences with Prog here compared with Y.com though indeed from the UK but with advanced settings all countries, all languages etc.

[digitalpoint]

Hmmm... definitely bizarre if you ask me, but you are right... clearing cookies did revert it to Yahoo results. Wonder why it changed overnight for me.

Obviously Yahoo still has some affiliation with Google results if they are serving them to some users.

[Help Desk]

Has Yahoo's contract with Google run out yet? If not then they might be able to offload some of the search results if their system can't handle it.

Yahoo has spent WAY too much money on their search technology to go back to Google this soon. In a couple of years, who knows?

[anthonycea]

spyware lurking on your machines in the form of cookies Shawn?

got ya this time, I want a raise to Compar's pay level! :)

[anthonycea]

These cookie eraser programs are very popular now, manage cookies, delete cookies.

Really they are a danger to the computer user.

What if you are looking a pages two months old and base your business decisions upon that data.

Who is being taken for a fool, you or the cookie installer?

[schlottke]

I think its the cookie monster anthony...

[anthonycea]

Yeah, they sound very nice, but in fact can do some real spying and controling of your box and your surfing.

Why do you think sofware producers are making programs to manage cookies

I have a good one and I think it is called CookieMonster, do a search on Download.com or ZDnet.com it is a free download.

Those cookies can be built to do a lot of S H I T. A lot of it is not all that great.

In addition to that I think the Cookie Monster ate Shawn cus he ain't ben back since he erased dos cookies :cool:

[anthonycea]

http://www.ampsoft.net/


Above is the link to the COOKIEMONSTER freeware

Great Program

Shawn send me a fruitcake for helping you, remember you are what you eat :rolleyes:

[anthonycea]

Hmmm... definitely bizarre if you ask me, but you are right... clearing cookies did revert it to Yahoo results. Wonder why it changed overnight for me.

Obviously Yahoo still has some affiliation with Google results if they are serving them to some users.


No, No, No, I don't smoke it no mo, we determined on those other threads Shawn, that they were holding these pages in memory and bringing them back through those cookies.

Now you know that most of this is speculation, but most of what we all say on forums is speculation.

So no Google Results are being used, PERIOD, TB why are you always jumping to conclusions that are biased toward Google and (Yahoo can't handle the load of search results or email) against Yahoo, that is a joke. Yahoo is a bigger company than Google last time I looked, GET REAL MAN.

[digitalpoint]

No they aren't. They aren't cached pages. I restored my cookies because I like the Google results better on Yahoo. The stuff that IS showing on Yahoo are all brand new stuff (pages that never existed before Yahoo "switched" from Google... check attachment).

Yahoo is a bigger company than Google but that doesn't mean that they are a bigger search engine.

[anthonycea]

Shawn, we had a thread going and were fighting about this on SEOchat, ask SEOguy about this issue. He had very strong feelings about it.

Look at the threads over there, do an investigation, see if you can get a statement from Yahoo, good luck getting that.

[digitalpoint]

I'm smarter than SEO Guy any day. That guy can't even code a piece of HTML if it has an <a href> in it (Hi Morgan! heh).

Bottom line is Yahoo is serving me up to date Google results, I'm not opposed to it (nor do I really even care why), just stating a fact.

[anthonycea]

Why don't you invite him to comment right here in this thread about this important issue, it seems that it has never really been resolved as of yet.

Just cus the guy can code don't mean he is a dummy, I can't do any code and you KNOW how smart I am, RIGHT?

That is not a joke, is it? :eek:

[digitalpoint]

Well, if he wants to, he can... but for me, it's really not an important issue. I would be perfectly at ease if I never knew why Yahoo was serving Google results. Knowing why ultimately does not affect my life, and I have more important things to think about.

Now if it was the other way around, and Google started serving Yahoo results, then I would worry about it, since Google gives more relevant/better results than Yahoo for things I search on.

[anthonycea]

Shawn, you started the thread on your forum, so yes I think you should email him and ask him to comment.

It is important for the members to know :eek:

[digitalpoint]

Do you really think he knows why?

[anthonycea]

He may have some contact with Yahoo on the issue, he had very strong views on it in the threads at SEO, go look at those threads. :)

[schlottke]

I wonder why they are serving the same ads and I wonder how many people are seeing this because Ive seen an increase in searches that yahoo didn';t have me for before.

[Joel Naten]

I imagine it will take sometime for Yahoo to be completely on its own, but it is definitely a step they need to take. Becoming very dependent on your competitor is dangerous. Yahoo draws a ton of traffic, and they can use that to their advantage over Google. Also, the search wars are far from over. It turns out that AskJeeves is actually gaining more of an audience. Any search engine that delivers better results will gain popularity, just a Google did in the beginning.

[hurricane_sh]

Much different for my search, try "vocabulary builder"

[uca]

I wish Yahoo was using Google's results because I would be ranking higher on Google.
Instead I'm hi on Yah lower on Goo (and I optimized for Goo!)
I'm Hi also on MSN but low on the beta version! :mad:

[Smyrl]

Wow, what I am seeing on Yahoo looks much like what I was seeing on Googles English sites this weekend when they were showing different results. Wonder if those updates could have been in preparation as results for Yahoo?

Shannon

[reppy]

Heh, I wish. ;)

[aspcoder]

For me, there is a big difference in results of yahoo and google. Yahoo is easy to play with then google.

[schlottke]

Smyrl-

The Yahoo! results are *very* similar to that of those six datacenter from the weekend.

[anthonycea]

Hate to break the old news to you, Yahoo does not use Google results anymore, read the thread again and erase your cookies.

[beginner]

errrr...But the funny thing is...yahoo was on the net earlier than google..and now they r using google's technology.. lol

[anthonycea]

Yahoo WAS using Google search results and they were also going to MSN in the past through Yahoo, but no more.

Google was also using Overture technology so it goes both ways, Google paid Yahoo for the ADWORDS interface software when they settled a lawsuit with Overture which is owned by Yahoo.