Google vs. Yahoo Web Browsers - Essay Example

Google vs. Yahoo Web Browsers The first word that comes in our minds when we hear the word Google is 'search-engine'. This is exactly how well Google has positioned itself that whenever a person wants to search anything online, www.google.com becomes the automatic choice. Nielsen NetRatings of 2006 showed that Google occupied almost 50% of all searchers while its closest competitor, www.yahoo.com, had only 23.8% share (Sullivan, 2006). Services But Yahoo and Google are not only about search engines. Both these web browsers have an enormous portfolio for their users. Lets compare some of the services offered by both these web giants. (Luke, 2005) Groups Yahoo groups are are more popular when compared to google groups mainly because yahoo has been in the market for a longer time. The groups are easily formed and mails are sent either as a digest or individually. Mail Google revolutionized the mailing procedures by introducing huge inbox size which is now upto more that 6 GBs. Yahoo offers a lower limit however news is circulating that an unlimited inbox size for the users is in the works. Searches As mentioned above, Google's point of differentiation is the complex algorithims used in their search engines for local searches, image searches and web searches. Yahoo doesn't have that much fire-power yet it still is a popular choice for some. Maps Yahoo provides street maps and driving directions for US cities only. The Google maps are extremely diverse as they are capable of providing business locations, contact information, and driving directions for big cities of the world. Social Networking Google's social networking site, Orkut is a popular choice for many Asians and users in Southern America. This popularity has been recently crushed by the vastness of Facebook which has conquered most of the continents. Yahoo's 360* was never popular and it still hasn't caught on as Orkut had. Others There is a list of other services such as online shopping, news, alerts, answers etc. that are available with both Google and Yahoo and not much differences are there in these services. Interface, Design, and Layout When comparing two important website browsers, it is important to compare their interface, design and layout from the evaluation point of view as well as user friendliness point of view. A good website must contain useful content that is simple to comprehend, flexible for use of multiple technologies and consistent with easy navigating capability. (Collins, 2006) Google has a very neat and simple user interface with the front page only containing the search bar and links on the top. On the other hand Yahoo!'s page is jumbled with information, links and lacks focus. Users generally like simple and easy to understand sites and Google's simplified interface means that people of any age and skill will be able to access their site. Advertisements Advertising is necessary for websites especially for websites like Google and Yahoo! that offer free services to their users. This is their main source of revenue. When the website opens up, Google presents only the services without any advertisements. Yahoo lines up its advertisements on the front page which is a nuisance value for the users. As such, it is important to avoid advertisements as much as possible. Advertisements are extremely unpopular with the users as they are completely useless for most people. Even though both Google and Yahoo! are text-based sites, Yahoo's advertisements are a source of user irritation. Consistency Another characteristic of a good web browser website is the consistency in the design. As mentioned above, there are a lot of similar services offered by both Yahoo! and Google. However the design of the services is remarkably different. Like the front page, Google is consistent with the minimum text on the page with just enough to help the user understand and comprehend it. This has the effect of uniformity and consistency, whereas Yahoo! keeps different layouts for each of its services page. Even though each service has a link to the main web site; however the lack of consistency within Yahoo! Web site leads the people to believe that they have navigated to a different website. Navigation and Usability Broken linkages, wrong linkages, slow response times, in-flexible views for different technologies make a website unprofessional. A website should be such that a user can find the way back to the main page from each internal page and can keep a track of where he/she is inside the website. Strings of text, headers or footers, and tabs should be these to make browsing within the website as easy as possible. Conclusion It can be generally seen from the above analysis that Google takes the lead in almost every comparison made thus far. Yahoo! has been there in the market for a long time now however it could not bank on the experience it had gained, rather it has continued to do what it had been doing previously without understanding what really the users want. Google, on the other hand, has made use of the analytics to understand its users and has built such a user friendly web browsing website that it has become a clear market leader by far. Works Cited 1. Collins, J. E. (2006). Web Site Appraisal:Google vs. Yahoo! Retrieved March 7, 2008, from BiblioTech: www.sir.arizona.edu/lso/bibliotech/2007jan_vol4_no2/Web_Site_Appraisal.pdf 2. Sullivan, D. (2006). Nielsen NetRatings Search Engine Ratings. Retrieved March 7, 2008, from Search Engine Watch: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.htmlpage=2156451 3. W, L. (2005). Google vs. Yahoo! Interface Design. 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