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Over the weekend, news broke that Yahoo's CEO, Marissa Mayer, has started initiatives to get Yahoo back into building its own search technology.
As you may remember, Yahoo did have their own search technology until they gave up a few years ago. It was a sad day for the industry when they handed over their keys to search to Microsoft. But now, Marissa, former Googler, is working on something to bring search back.
The report said that sources say Yahoo is looking to work on two projects "that could potentially get the company back into algorithmic search as well as search advertising." The projects are named Projects Fast Break and Curveball.
Danny Sullivan things it is too late for Yahoo to make a come back:
Yahoo can try, but it's too little too late. It's not going to recover in search. http://t.co/ECkaEZaDsR
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 31, 2014But Greg Sterling thinks there might be room in mobile and predictive search areas for Yahoo to compete.
If so, then Yahoo does have an angle. It would be incredibly costly, a ton of catch up, and can potentially make or break the company. But Marissa is a search person, Yahoo's origins was search (human based), so it is a good match.
I would love to see Yahoo return to search but will it break the company if they fail?
There is a lot of debate on this at WebmasterWorld. What do you think? Should Yahoo return to search?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Comments:
The-Brand-Man
02/04/2014 01:41 pm
The only way this is going to happen is if they throw all their money at advertising why they are better than Google. If they don´t do this, they have no chance. Why use brand B if there is no benefit to leaving brand A.
Mukesh kumar
02/04/2014 01:47 pm
But Google results are not good , they are more emphasizing on companies which pay to them... so there are chances .
Ben Heligman
02/04/2014 02:09 pm
Yahoo still does fantasy sports better then everyone! :) I think they should stick with that. Seriously though, i'd like to see Yahoo making a push in predictive search which is still up for grabs. And who knows, maybe Yahoo will gives us keywords!
Littleman
02/04/2014 02:19 pm
There is definately a space. Google results are polluted as they seem to have forgotten that sites with spammy links might be MORE relevant to the user than those without. Google only shows Google compliant results - which might not actually be what the searcher wants
G
02/04/2014 02:39 pm
Google has clever people and clever tech; but it's becoming ever more savant-like in it's behaviour - Google's way is the only way (aka it's our web)... and Google's not in the same league as Apple when it comes to understanding what people need before they do - they buy; they copy. And Yahoo imho was always a little cleverer from an engineering perspective - they achieved effectively the same results but with a fraction of the budget. Yes, I hope Yahoo come back... all they need to do is lose the ! and the clutter and they'll be viable.
Alexander Hemedinger
02/04/2014 02:40 pm
I think it's worth a shot for Yahoo to get back into finding a way for search. I feel just having SEO rely on one particular search is kind of boring. I would like to expand my energy and passion on other things to try. Plus having Marissa Mayer (former Google local employee) should do well. Let's see what happens. I do have to agree unfortunately with Danny Sullivan it is a little to late, but never let that stop you!
Craig Hamilton-Parker
02/04/2014 03:21 pm
Yahoo should team up with Apple or FaceBook.
Nicholas Chimonas
02/04/2014 04:10 pm
Finally, I'll be able to find AOL CDs through Yahoo again.
Shame
02/04/2014 04:16 pm
If only facebook would come out with a search engine... Will it ever happen?
Michael Martinez
02/04/2014 04:46 pm
Yes, Yahoo! should try to get back into search but if they make only a half-hearted attempt they will fail. They have never stopped crawling the Web. Slurp has remained active all these years. They may very well have the data they need. But they have to take on ALL of search. Anything less will be seen as timid by consumers. Marissa Mayer seems to be thinking she has a large enough captive audience to kickstart any new project. I don't think she's right.
01101101001001110111101010110
02/04/2014 05:35 pm
Allow me to create my personal list of the preferred websites to search from and most probably I'll leave Google Search.
Nicholas Chimonas
02/04/2014 06:19 pm
Also, this is what happened when I tried to use Yahoo search today.
ethalon
02/04/2014 07:05 pm
Why would you want to wall yourself into an information stream? I take extra steps just to ensure that I am not overly personalizing my results. Nothing is worse for learning, communication, and debate than the ever increasing reality of "because you have previously X...we thought you would like...X2"
ethalon
02/04/2014 07:12 pm
Yahoo has an audience that seems to stick with it... ...unfortunately, if the comment sections on their news articles are anything to go by, it is populated mostly by people who had their homepage changed through one of Yahoo's charming "extra options" in third part software and have never figured out how to change it. It is (once again from the viewpoint of their comment sections) an elderly-centric group of bigots. Yahoo needs to be an international brand, not just a place for angry old people to yell about how evil they think gay and Muslim people are.
homophobe-what-me-bigot-never
02/04/2014 08:15 pm
There´s a shock. I never had you down as a muslim or a gay. You just never know people.
ethalon
02/04/2014 08:43 pm
Wait, where did I say I was either?
Rick
02/04/2014 11:24 pm
I would love to see a competitor to Adsense that is worth looking at. I hope they do it.
Durant Imboden
02/05/2014 01:46 am
Maybe they should just back to serving Google search results (but without all the Google "Universal Search" baggage). Who knows? They might attract old-timers who like Google Search but prefer their SERPs uncluttered.
Jitendra Vaswani
02/05/2014 05:37 am
Yahooo Search is worst
Srikanth Gattu
02/05/2014 06:40 am
Yahoo or Bing but Google does needs some real competition.
Patti Paz
02/05/2014 12:34 pm
It's just a matter of time til all of Google's 'IMPROVEMENTS' begin to show in the search engines' market share. A company (even GOOGLE) can make so many changes so rapidly without some backlash, and that backlash will result in a continuing decline in Google's market share. I think Yahoo's timing is a couple of years late, but still it's not too late. Every dog has its day, and Google's day has come and gone. . . . . .
Gracious Store
02/06/2014 12:50 am
Yahoo should get to the search technology and challenge Google
Meh!
02/06/2014 04:09 am
OF COURSE! They should go back in search, and a lot of webmasters will be willing to help them to get back... Google SERPS are a monopoly mess right now, people need more diversity.