Looking at the results for specific keywords, I have noticed google and Yahoo are miles apart. So how do there search engines determine ranking factor? Does anyone know the what Yahoo looks for in ranking a site? J
They use their own proprietary Algorithms (which are kept secret) 2 different Algorithms will mean 2 different results Although The Algos are different they both rank a site heavily based on inbound links (as well as several other factors). Yahoo favors lots and lots of inbound links from just about anywhere. Google puts emphasis on inbound links from relevant sites, (In other words... 1 relevant link can do more for your pagerank than 1000 random links)
Indeed.. a good example is having two people both preform brand new experiments based around the same data, in different parts of the world. Most likely, they'll both come up with different information, because they analyze and preform differently than the other. And the same applies to the programmers that built yahoo and google. They both programmed differently and had different ideals onto what is a better way to determine a "good" result. Thus you have different ones