I haven't been keeping up on my search engine optimization techniques recently, but does anyone know if Yahoo and other search engines use factors such as inbound links and text link wording to factor results in their own search engine? I know Google was the first one to start this phenomenon that has taken over the web, and I was wondering if the other search engines have caught up and use these ranking factors (or does Google own the patent for this and other SE's aren't allowed to use this in their algorithms?). The reason I ask this is because I have noticed that Yahoo has been buying text links on very influential and prominent websites with generic "text" as the link. For example, the text link "Internet Directory" to it's URL http://dir.yahoo.com. (Disclaimer: That was just an example. I didn't want to give the exact URL and search term). My reasoning comes to say that if no other SE can rank based on the factors stated above then the only reason Yahoo has bought these links is to rank high in Google. Which is pretty ironic! They are basically saying, "Yes, your business is run better than ours!", because it means they are trying to rank high in Google. This just shows how powerful and dominant Google has become on the Internet. I have been a fan of Google way back when, and the two things I have always loved about them is 1) their continually forwarding thinking business model and 2) the way they always keep everything open-source and not geared towards making a profit. Everytime they come out with a new gadget or technology on the Internet that analysts criticize it's pretty funny. Most of the time it just shows that the analysts aren't tech savy enough to see the potential of something Google has just released, most of the time saying that it won't create profits for Google's bottom line. Another thing great about Google is how their business is not really run on making a profit, but to actually better the world! Almost everything they have ever releases was open source and offered API's so that other developers can build upon the newly created technology! I believe this is a main reason why Google has completed dominated the competition! (This reminds me of that saying "Build it and they will come!") Which is exactly what happened, techies and webmasters love "The Google", the term coined by George Bush. Competitors on the other hand always had a different view when creating products and new technology. Actually hindering technology and advancement by proprietizing, copyrighting, or locking up their code! Thanks to Google things are changing though, I think these other companies are learning that they need to harness the power of their technology through others by allowing others to be able to build on their products and technology. You see more and more companies starting to offer API's and open source software/code to the general public. One example is the Google Maps Satellite technology. Back in the day it was almost guaranteed that if a product like that came out other companies like Yahoo, MSN, or other software companies would have been charging to use the technology, but today it is all offered free because of the influence and dominance of Google! There are many countless other situtations that I can think of; the list is too huge actually to write about here. Anyway, I just thought I'd put some thoughts out that I have been thinking about for quite some time now. And here's another disclaimer: I didn't proofread or recheck spelling. Everything was typed as it came straight out of my thinking head so sorry for any grammatical errors. I also know the flow of the post isn't as smooth, there are a few things I could have added and discussed but I'm getting hungry.
Sometimes though, I think its the people who made Google so big. Just like any trend that comes and disappears. Anything could happen and we certainly can't tell what would happen.
Agreed, I read a post about Yahoo doing this about a year ago, but just thought I'd write about it when I came across a Yahoo link.
For your first question, yes, SE use links to rank sites. Every major SE uses linkage data as their primary source of ranking. Yahoo buys links, whoopdi do. If they are doing that to rank in Google, so what? It doesn't mean that they are inferior to Google. It makes sense to try to get as much traffic as you can from as many sources as possible as well as to steal traffic from your competitors. Furthermore, all the major search engines buy links and do thinks to try to screw with each others' rankings.
Nice post, you make some good points and observations. But: I think maybe back in the day this was the case, but this is certainly not the case today, and hasn't been for quite some time. Google is all about making a profit and growing their marketshare, and not only in search.
They probably doing this to cover all methods of getting traffic to their desired sites. Whether they like it or not, google is the one of the best ways to get traffic to a site. By doing this, they are not necesariily admitting defeat but rather utilising the power of google, which, yes, happens to be a direct competitior.
I think qwest has the right idea here ... the amount of money yahoo needs to spend is probably small to get the additional exposure.