Which search engine do you use when searching for information on the Internet ? A search engine is a system that collects and stores information on the Internet so that we can find it.
Japan’s representative search services are ” Google ” and ” Yahoo! (Yahoo! Japan) “, but not many people can clearly explain the difference between the two. There are not only differences in appearance such as design and function, but also characteristics depending on the corporate philosophy and user base. This time, I will explain the features and differences between Google and Yahoo!
What is Google
Google is a company that mainly provides and operates online services such as search engines .
Founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The origin of Google is “googol” which stands for 10 to the 100th power. The idea is to organize the vast amount of information on the Internet .
In addition to search engines , we provide various services such as Internet advertising ” Google AdSense” and ” Google AdWords”, free email “Gmail”, etc., and the scope of coverage is expanding rapidly.
Google was originally established in January 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. Its feature was to propose a method of evaluating the value of a web page by backlinks (how many external links are there to the page).
Google was founded in 1998 with funding, and in 2000 was adopted by Yahoo! as its search engine. Yahoo!’s search engine contract ended in 2004, but during that time, search sites such as Infoseek and Excite continued to adopt Google as their search engine.
Yahoo! has developed and uses its own search technology based on the technology of Inktomi and Overture, which it later acquired. In addition, Yahoo! has decided to adopt a search engine called Bing in the future through a partnership with Microsoft.
Google Founded
Looking at it now, it’s hard to believe that Google’s development wasn’t smooth in the beginning. However, around the year 2000, Google seemed to have suffered considerably because it could not find a steady source of income.
In this regard, Google is revolutionary in that it introduced a method called page ranking, which uses the number of links from other pages (backlinks) to the page as an evaluation scale rather than the evaluation based on the characteristics of the web page itself. It was a target.
In addition, this method is based on the principle that an important page has many links from other pages, and the page that links to it is also of high importance. It is a system that does not increase the evaluation just by matching. In other words, it is difficult for web page creators to mislead search engines.
In October 2000, we launched “Adwords”, a service that applied Overture’s search results-linked advertising method, and the high accuracy of search results, which has been a feature of Google since the beginning, was utilized, resulting in a rapid increase in business performance. was expanded.
What is Yahoo!
Yahoo! is a company that provides and operates a portal site based on the web directory that pioneered search services .
Founded in 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo. It is said that the origin of Yahoo! is that the two founders were attached to the beast “Rakumono (Yahoo!)” that appears in Gulliver’s Travels.
Yahoo! is currently a portal site that provides various functions and information, and besides the search function, it also has a wide range of functions such as auctions, blogs , and SNS. Yahoo! Japan, which is familiar in Japan, was established in 1996 by Yahoo Japan Corporation, which was jointly established by the SoftBank Group.
Difference between Google and Yahoo!
This time, I will explain the difference from two points of view, functional and user.
Differences between Google and Yahoo!: Features
Search Results
Although the same search engine is used, different search results may be displayed even if the same search keyword is entered on Google and Yahoo!. This difference is not created by each search service.
There are two types of search methods: *”standard search” and “personalized search”*. Unless you change your settings, we collect information through “personalized searches.”
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Standard Search
A standard search is a search performed by the Google search engine according to the standard rules.
Personalized Search
Personalized Search is a search that customizes search results according to the user’s attributes such as gender, age, and action history . When we collect information on the Internet , Google records the process and keywords.
For example, when searching for “Hokkaido”, famous restaurants and specialties in Hokkaido are displayed preferentially for users who usually like to eat and are searching for restaurants. Users who love to travel will be prioritized for tourist destinations and cheap ticket websites.
If you use simple Google search on weekdays to get information quickly at work, and use Yahoo! where various information is gathered on weekends, search results may be different even for the same user.
Display Content
When we search for keywords, we display images and information outside of the search results . Google calls this “universal search” and Yahoo! calls it “blended search”. In addition to pure search results , various contents such as images, videos, news, maps, and local information are displayed in a composite manner.
We must always remember that we need to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of information presented by search engines through various other media.
The map displayed in the search results of Google search is ” Google Map”, and the map displayed in the search result of Yahoo! search is “Yahoo!
What is Google? Differences and features from Yahoo!
Differences between Google and Yahoo!: Users
Number of users from PCs and smartphones
The reason why the number of users from PCs is decreasing in almost all services is that smartphones are becoming more popular in recent years. The number of service users of Google and Yahoo! is reversed for personal computers and smartphones.
Differences by age group and gender
As mentioned above, Google has a large number of users from smartphones, so it has a high share among young people who have a high smartphone ownership rate . For those 55 and over, Yahoo! has won the share . Yahoo! began to expand in Japan earlier than Google , so it can be expected that they will continue to use familiar services from that time.
The greatest features of Yahoo! is that it provides an organized list of sites categorized. This type of presentation is called the directory method. When a site is registered, it will be screened based on Yahoo!’s publication standards, and sites that do not pass the screening will not be posted. So you end up with a very curated list of sites.
Also, by gender, Google ‘s share is high for both. Although it is a little, it seems that women tend to use Yahoo!
Using different search engines for more efficient information gathering
Search services are indispensable in our lives now that the Internet has become widespread. Search services other than Google and Yahoo!, which we have covered in this article, also contribute to users with different features.
If you can understand the characteristics and use them according to the purpose, you will be able to collect information more efficiently.
Also, when taking SEO measures, depending on the extracted keywords, it is effective to give priority to one of the services. For example, when developing a service for the elderly, conversion may increase by prioritizing Yahoo!
Let’s take into consideration the compatibility with your own service and connect it to more effective measures.
