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Yahoo Introduces Its Own Search Engine
by Jim Hedger, SEO Manager, StepForth.com ©Copyright 2004

Yahoo unleashed the biggest surprise of the year today with the 
formal introduction of their own search engine. While the vast 
majority of search engine analysts were expecting Yahoo to simply 
adopt results from the powerful Inktomi database, Yahoo has been 
quietly and apparently quite effectively developing their own 
spider, database and ranking algorithms. Last month, Yahoo CEO 
Terry Semel announced that Yahoo would be moving away from 
results licensed from Google's database by the end of this 
quarter. The move to produce in-house search results is part of 
the growing competition in the search engine industry. The sector 
is currently dominated by three big players, Yahoo, MSN and 
Google. Until recently, Google was considered the most important 
search engine to be ranked on, however, the changes made by Yahoo 
and the anticipated arrival of MSN's own, proprietary search 
engine have changed the perceptions of many webmasters and search 
engine analysts. Where there was once only one, there are now 
three, opening the doors to more competition, better pricing and 
hopefully better results from all three.

We are very excited about the "new" Yahoo. The listings returned 
look highly relevant to keywords entered and we don't see much 
SP@M in the listings, based on the limited number of keyword 
phrases we have tested. We may still see Google results filtering 
in and out of Yahoo for a few weeks yet as the techs at Yahoo 
work out any bugs or problems associated with their new search 
engine. There are a few features of the "new" Yahoo that 
webmasters and SEOs should be aware of.

* Yahoo seems to be looking at similar page elements as Inktomi, 
  though the results displayed are somewhat different from those 
  shown on HotBot which runs nearly pure Inktomi results. 
  Elements such as keyword densities, keyword enriched titles 
  and keyword arrangement seem to be important factors in Yahoo's 
  current algorithm. We have also seen Google results popping up 
  from time to time. This is very likely a temporary measure to 
  ensure search-continuity as Yahoo engineers continue to develop 
  their algorithm. 

* The description meta tag weighs heavily in Yahoo's algorithm. 
  Webmasters are strongly recommended to display similar 
  incidents of keywords in titles, descriptions and body text 
  for each page in their site. (Be certain the incidents are 
  page and topic specific, of course) 

* Yahoo has a new spider known as YahooSlurp. YahooSlurp will 
  work a lot like GoogleBot in that it will follow every HREF 
  link found on a website. YahooSlurp will NOT follow SRC links 
  such as images or FRAMES. When optimizing a site that uses 
  FRAMES, correct use of the  tag will be necessary. 
  Yahoo's spider can follow dynamic links, but Yahoo is advising 
  webmasters to post static pages with HREF (text) links directed 
  to specific sections featuring dynamic content. This tells us 
  that the use of a sitemap will continue to be an SEO Best 
  Practice technique. 

* Yahoo will respect common ROBOTS.TXT statements. For more 
  information on ROBOTS.TXT files, please visit: 
  http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html 

* Paying to get into the Inktomi database should attract more 
  attention from YahooSlurp. I am pretty sure that YahooSlurp 
  will find your site if you don't pay. However, paying will buy 
  you much greater frequency of visits from the Slurp spider. 

* Inktomi is very old-school when it comes to Keyword densities, 
  keyword arrangement and simple-site structure. Optimizing for 
  Inktomi is a lot like optimizing for AltaVista was a few years 
  back (without the leader-pages and gateways that were once so 
  popular). While Yahoo is clearly not running on pure Inktomi 
  results, the fact they share a spider and likely a database 
  leads us to believe that the two sections of the same firm are 
  working together and will continue to share several common 
  algorithmic attributes. 

There are several other factors we are examining in regards to 
the new Yahoo. Hopefully we will have some answers to these 
questions in the near future.

* What is the relationship between Directory and Algorithmic 
  listings?

* What is the average "turn-around" time for sites from 
  submission to Top10 or Top20 placement? 

* Will the expected absence of Lycos affect Yahoo or Inktomi's 
  database in any way? 

* What is the role of AlltheWeb and AltaVista? Both are owned 
  by Yahoo which acquired the two companies when it purchased 
  Overture. Speculation had Yahoo buying AV and ATW for their 
  patents but what about their technologies and databases?

This move, in my mind, marks the second phase of the current war 
of dominance between the big three. Last year was marked by the 
many mergers and acquisitions that redrew the landscape. This 
year we've seen former big players such as LookSmart and Lycos 
fall below the radar screen as the first major casualties. While 
it is becoming more difficult to predict the next victims, 
clearly the big winner this month is Terry Semel and the team at 
Yahoo.

For search engine users, marketers and advertisers, the 
increased competition between the three major search tools will 
be, for the most part, beneficial. It will be easier to find 
relevant information and easier to achieve strong placements on 
one or more of the major search entities. In the best and most 
idyllic circumstances, competition breeds better products, 
fosters stronger customer relations, and pushes competitors to 
work harder and smarter. We will see more innovations, new 
product and service offerings, and a race to "lock-in" users by 
offering more personalized information resources such as Email, 
dating services and one-click lookups of common information 
(such as airplane schedules). Hype it or hope for it, the future 
looks very search friendly. 

================================================================
Jim Hedger is the SEO Manager of StepForth Search Engine 
Placement Inc. (http://www.stepforth.com/) based in Victoria, 
BC, Canada. StepForth is the result of the consolidation of 
BraveArt Website Management, Promotion Experts, and Phoenix 
Creative Works, and has provided professional search engine 
placement and management services since 1997. 
Tel - 250-385-1190  Toll Free - 877-385-5526 Fax - 250-385-1198 
================================================================
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