Yahoo and MSN Catching Google?

Posted on March 31, 2005

Yahoo and MSN have both entered the blogosphere with blogging and social networking tools. They also both offer online RSS support and have expanded their search offerings to compete with Google.

And to compete with Google's Picasa photo sharing software Yahoo just purchased the very popular Flickr service. Bean Hammersly reports in the Guardian about how Yahoo is also challenging Google's API services.

Google's Labs and API were held up as exemplars of a modern internet business, while Yahoo was seen as floundering in a sea of accountants, pop-up ads, and Britney Spears. But Yahoo has learned its lesson. Research.yahoo.com, launched last month, is the same idea as labs.google.com - a showcase for new and interesting projects - but it's better. Unlike Google, Yahoo publishes its papers, names its researchers and says what it is up to. One-nil to Yahoo.

Part of the race seems to be who can win over the hearts and minds of the webmasters. Which tools will the webmaster want to use on their blogs or websites? Google had the early lead but their reluctance to provide more details about how their contextual ad service works and their persistence with Auto Links has hurt them.

Hammersly says, "Yahoo isn't just back in the game -- it's winning. How weird is that?" You shouldn't count Microsoft out either. They are catching up quickly and still dominate the browser market.

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