Yahoo Chooses Google

• Oct. 11, 2002

After months of speculation that Yahoo would be dropping Google as its secondary results provider, they are now displaying google results as their default listings.  Prior to these changes, a search at Yahoo would display Overture paid listings in the Sponsored Matches sections, popular keyword queries would display Yahoo Paid Directory listings and the secondary Yahoo Web Pages results were from Google.  It was believed that Yahoo would opt for FAST (alltheweb.com) or Inktomi as its new Search provider.  The choice to stick with Google and give them more prominence comes as a surprise.

As of October 9th, 2002 there are a number of changes with Yahoo's presentation of Search Results:

1. The Yahoo Directory results are no longer seperated, they are mixed together with the Google powered results.  If you see "More Sites about" and a red arrow, that means the result is pulled from the Yahoo Directory (showing the title and description provided by the Yahoo! Directory).  The other inter-mingled listings are from Google (showing the title and description provided by the algorithms used by the Google spiders).

2. When you do a search the Directory Category Matches are categories that match the keyword you searched for.

3. Sponsor Matches are paid listings provided by Overture Services, Inc.

4. Yahoo states these new Web Matches "show a combination of relevant web pages and web sites provided by third-party search engine providers [Google.com] and the Yahoo! Directory. This is the default style in which results appear."
 
So does this decrease the importance of paying to be listed in Yahoo's Directory? Not necessarily.  Being listed in Yahoo contributes to higher Google PageRank, which in turn contributes to higher rankings in Yahoo's Web Search results.

Yahoo is working on the same principals as Google - providing the most relevant results.  Websites in the past that ranked high in Google, also had good prominence in Yahoo so there'll be no change there.  Queries that only had a couple results returned when you did a Yahoo search in the past, now show you blended results without the user having to make that extra click to see "Yahoo Web Pages" results.

We will be keeping on top of these big developments and keep you informed.

More Resources:

http://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/02/10-yahoo.html

Jason Lane