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

I know everyone assumes this and I don't doubt that MSN could give Google their first real competition (certainly there's no way Yahoo's gonna do that!) but I wouldn't count Google out. They have an awfully large lead on anyone and they are still THE search engine, regardless of what certain webmasters may think or say about it being "broken".

Can Google be knocked out of the pole position? Of course. But it's far from inevitable. Microsoft bundled Money with everything under the sun, as well as offering it as free OEM software on new systems. They still haven't knocked Quicken out of the water and I don't think they will.

I don't believe the claim that Netscape was beaten because IE was integrated with the operating system. IE beat Netscape because at the time it was a better browser and continuing to get better and Netscape was falling further behind as time passed.

 

Well, I am not going to say that Google is going to die, but Yahoo! has been sending us a boatload more traffic over the past 2-3 weeks. I poked around Yahoo! search today and it is pretty funny...their search pages look nearly identical to Google's now....down to the search options (web, images, etc).

With the increased throttle on MSN beta, we are receiving a bunch more traffic from them as well. All the while, Google is doing crazy stuff. It is going to be interesting to see what happens over the next few months.

 

google the next netscape? i dunno, maybe

 

I was just saying the other day google isnt as reliable as it use to be, and if i am searching the net for myself I am starting to check yahoos results more and more, especially if im searching for something really specific.

 

I agree with this statement

Y! results are much more relevant

I really can't find anything on google these days

 

Minstrel, Microsoft did not even create the flawed IE browser, they acquired it from Spyglass to run Netscape out of business.

It is flawed technology and is one in the same with the flawed Windows OS, Firefox is a better browser and anyone using IE is subject to attacks by hackers daily unless they have the best AV and spyware protection enabled.

 

Firefox has its own problems but I wasn't trying to claim that IE doesn't need upgrading by now -- what I said was that Netscape was displaced because it had become a clunky buggy dinosaur and by the time IE was integrated with the OS it was in contrast fast and sleek.

And I do have "the best AV and spyware protection enabled". So should everyone else. There are excellent freeware versions of both available so the only excuse now is obstinacy or ignorance.

 

I agree, Google is losing relevancy, however, I disagree, Yahoo is even less relevant.

 

I say we welcome the newcomer (MSN) and others. Diversification means more stability for all of us. Like mentioned early in this thread, if Google drops one of us in their rankings, it could really hurt you if your traffic is 60% Google referred. But if you got 3-4 main search players, your traffic will most likely be more evenly divided. Each engine would have less power to hurt our bottom line.

 

Agreed, more good search enginesm where they have even amounts of traffic, or near even, or at least no one has over 50%, is a good thing for us.

 

True, but only if their algos are different enough.