Google is going to die -- A discussion on Y! and MSN Beta.

I keep seeing this argument in various contexts and it is totally bogus.

The Google guys are not idiots. Their ability to sell ad space depends on the number of regular search users. Their first priority is to DELIVER RELEVANT RESULTS FOR REGULAR SEARCHES. I don't claim they are perfect at doing this but this is and always has been their number one priority. If they start to slip on that one, regular searchers will decline and in turn their advertisers will start to go elsewhere.

Let me say it one more time: Google is NOT trying to make their searches less relevant or helpful in order to drive people to their paid ads. The only way this would make any sense whatsoever would be if you could demonstrate that the people running Google are either stupid or insane, and I think their record shows very clearly that they arfe neither.

 

It is not all that far fetched Minstrel, Google can and will do whatever they have to do to benefit the bottom line.

They have mixed the algos up above the tree lines before and they can do it anytime they will. Who is going to stop them?

 

It's not that anyone is going to stop them. It's that it would be a dumb business move. And Google didn't get to number one by making dumb business moves.

 

I have traveled this road before Minstrel and so have you, it is time to let others fight it out

 

Yeah, but, we all thought that of Yahoo until Google came along... (not that Yahoo is dead -- faaaaaaaar from that, but as a search engine, it might as well be)

 

Who thought that of Yahoo? I never liked Yahoo and they made a LOT of dumb business decisions. They're still doing that -- the one really good decision they've made recently was to add customizable RSS feeds to their MyYahoo portal.

 

ha ha ha, Thatz cool and everyone thinks like that

 

I did...:-D

No, seriously. I thought Yahoo would be around forever, (i especially liked their commericals: Do you YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?) granted, they made some business -- errors, but, all major companies do, think about Microsoft, every third move they make is probably an error, but they still WORK.

That's all I have to say for now, because I can see where this is going and I don't want for it to go the way it's going

 

Thread title is very misleading. And no, I don't think Google is going to die.

 

I have news for you all, don't count Yahoo out of the search game.

Google is the company with a lot to lose, Yahoo has no where to go but up and is still in the game contrary to popular belief.

I have seen more referrals from Yahoo recently, not less, Google still provides the lions share, but little by little, Yahoo is providing more.

That means more folks are using Yahoo again.

 

What business errors did yahoo make?

I think yahoo's search pages can be slighly easier to understand when browsing a specific topic... but google wins it over msn anyday...Microsoft have enough money as it is, i'd rather put it in googles pocket.

 

Personally, I have never noticed Google surpressing any results.. Most of my referrals are from Google, although I tend to rank better in Yahoo and MSN...but I'm talking Niches here.

Who will win the search wars ? I would guess MSN eventually...

I figure the winner will be the engine ingrained the deepest into the operating sytem (it has to provide good enough results too).
With dashboards, widgets, desktop search and the rest, the idea of going to a web page to find something will just seem alien. I don't really see how Google can challenge this in the long term...other than to turn into some kind of operating system itself. Also, Microsoft is spending alot on Mobile OS I think they will build their search straight in to Pdas etc.. as well.

I think the holy grail is local search, The amount of ad revenue generated when millions of local businesses competing locally. We are talking money that even Bill can't imagine. So this is why MSN will have to win.

The majority of people I know are barely internet literate, They use hotmail + might have bought something from ebay, I am guessing they will just follow whatever is put infront of them.

Still, I think Anthony could well be right, IBM + Google would do well and if they could perfect voice search they may stand a good chance..

Then again, maybe another couple of Stanford students turn up and everything changes again...

 

I think one non business error was the heavy investment in Google

 

Or how about believing cluttered portals were more important to surfers than an efficient relevant search engine service?

 

I could not agree more.. I still wonder into Yahoo whenever I need to map something, or check a stock, etc.. Call me lazy.. I suppose I could just type mapquest.com, but yahoo just seems so much easier

 

They sold listings, and they went overboard on the advertising, "underboard" on the actual quality of results.

 

It'll quite likely happen a few times from now 'til the Death of The Internet 1.0 (tm, www.Refrozen.com )

Of course... maybe not. Maybe TDoTI1.0 will happen sooner than I expect?

 

I just don't think there's going to be a clear winner for a long time. Google's going to give the web API after API, and they've almost moved search technology into every corner of it already. It seems obvious to everyone that Microsoft is going to use their software: Windows, IE, WMP, Office to drive users to their search. A few years ago it seemed unthinkable that anybody could put up a decent fight against Microsoft. But now, the Web is a better platform than Windows. Just because somebody uses Excel, it doesn't mean that they're going to be satisfied with Microsoft's version of the Web. Of course, if you could right click on your spreadsheet column and the popup menu offers you a chance to 'Compare conversion rate vs. publicly available conversion rate statistics' for your category and keywords, that might change things up a little. But, who do you think is going to do a better job with that depth and level of indexing, Microsoft or Google?

 

I'd put my money on Bill.

 

Google won't last if MSN decides to take over. All they have to do is integrate more tightly in to the OS, and Google loses.