January 12, 2007

Yahoo! Using Black Hat Methods

Andy Beal details a very interesting action Yahoo! seems to be doing when people upgrade the Yahoo Messenger. Not only do you get the Messenger updated but you also get the new IE 7 with most of the settings set to Yahoo as the default.

Now that is some good black hat!

The article about hijacking the search and other features in IE7 (which is still a little buggy) is well documented with screen captures.

Good catch Andy!

Posted by Frank Watson at 3:54 PM | Permalink

October 13, 2006

Consumer Satisfaction Doesn't Equal Market Share

Earlier this week J.D. Power and Associates released the findings of its "2006 Residential Online Service Customer Satisfaction Study." The study, based on a survey of more than 10,000 U.S. residential Internet users, found that Yahoo Messenger ranked the highest among IM clients and that – and this is something of a surprise – InfoSpace's Dogpile had the highest rankings among search engines.

Here are the rankings of IM clients in terms of customer satisfaction:

1. Yahoo! Messenger 2. MSN Messenger 3. Windows Messenger 4. Instant Message Average 5. Google Talk 6. Trillian 7. AIM/AOL Instant Messenger

Compare that to U.S. IM market share (per Nielsen//Netratings):

1. AOL 2. MSN 3. Yahoo 4. Google

The J.D. Power report also said that U.S. residential IM usage was flat vs. 2005, at 36%. Yet the survey found that "among customers who report using IM on a regular or occasional basis, nearly 70 percent report that to some degree, instant messaging has replaced the use of traditional telephones." There are implications here for traditional telephony that are striking and worth further exploration.

Probably more interesting to readers of this blog are the search-engine findings. The survey reported that 75% of residential Internet subscribers used multiple search engines.

Here's the market-share breakdown that J.D. Power found:

1. Google: 51% (up 8 points from 2005) 2. Yahoo: 17% (down 4 points) 3. AOL: 9% (down 1 point)

The release doesn't report on the respective shares of Ask or MSN/Windows Live. Presumably they constitute the remaining 23% of usage or something approaching that.

Compare comScore August search market share data:

1. Google Sites: 44% 2. Yahoo: 28.7% 3. MSN: 12.5% 4. AOL: 5.6% 5. Ask: 5.5%

Here are the J.D. Power survey's customer satisfaction findings. Little used Dogpile was ranked number one:

1. Dogpile 2. Ask.com 3. Google 4. Yahoo! Search 5. AOL Search 6. MSN Search 7. Internet Explorer (treated as a search engine in the survey)

I don't have any insight into the survey methodology so we have to take the results at face value. But 10,000+ respondents is a very large sample. A disconnect is the difference between search engine market share and the satisfaction ratings. Based on these findings one would think that if Ask and (especially) Dogpile could gain broader awareness and visibility they might be able to gain some share.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 11:19 AM | Permalink

January 6, 2006

Yahoo Go Puts Yahoo Services Into Cell Phones, TV & PCs

Yahoo has launched Yahoo Go (link via PaidContent), a suite of products designed to let people reach information whether they're on their PCs, phones or using TV. The suite will be formally announced by Yahoo CEO Terry Semel at CES keynote today

Yahoo Go Mobile currently works only for Nokia Series 60 phones. It will allow you to sync your contacts, photos and mail with Yahoo. Yahoo says that in the near future, Yahoo Go Mobile will be preinstalled on the Nokia 6682 from Cingular Wireless. Beyond Yahoo Go Mobile, plain old Yahoo Mobile has a wide range of services, some of which involve no special software at all.

Yahoo Go TV is a coming application for Windows XP machines that allows you to see photo slide shows, listen to internet radio stations, search for movie info and clips and find video from the web. What's the TV part, then? It will work with a PC-enabled TV, News.com reports. Or, I suspect, a PC that displays TV in addition to a PC desktop, such as the Windows Media Center does. This application looks to tap into existing Yahoo products but perhaps make them easier for users to be aware of through a more customized software interface.

Yahoo Go Desktop / PC is another coming application that looks incredibly similar to the Google Sidebar. It allows you to apparently tap into and sync more easily with existing Yahoo services such as Flickr photo sharing, blogging on Yahoo 360 and Yahoo Mail. A new "social browser" is also promised, though this seems to be the sidebar or dashboard-like application I mentioned. From various reports, Yahoo Go Dashboard appears to be the name of this.

Yahoo To Launch Go Initiative; Mobile, Connected TVs & Desktop Access over at PaidContent has a nice summary, and v ia Russell Beattie, a number of articles have some additional details.

Yahoo goes mobile over at News.com says Yahoo Go Mobile will work in 10 different countries (I suspect this actually means it will work with 10 different Yahoo country specific editions, such as Yahoo US versus Yahoo UK). Yahoo Go TV is promised for download before April and remote recording of TV shows is planned.

Yahoo Launches Content Service for Phones from the AP covers Yahoo working with Motorola to bring Yahoo Go into its phones, though Google still looks to be the preferred search provider for Motorola, given its deal announced today.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:33 AM | Permalink

October 11, 2005

Interoperability: Yahoo Instant Messenger and Microsoft Messenger Will Be Able to Talk to One Another

When Google Talk launched Danny wrote, "This is also a good point to note that Search Engine Watch has no intention of suddenly diving into instant messaging coverage...IM isn't search, so it's not where we'll spend our time in depth."

However, I just wanted to put up a quick note pointing out that in the "war" between the big players, it's worth mentioning that Kevin Delaney has just posted a Wall St Journal story (reg. req) saying that Yahoo Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger will announce (tomorrow) that their IM systems will soon be able to talk to one another.

In a competitive realignment of the heated Internet industry, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. are expected to announce Wednesday that consumers using their free communications services -- including instant messaging and computer-to-computer voice calling -- will be able to communicate directly with each other for the first time, say people familiar with the matter. The expected linkup of Microsoft's and Yahoo's communications services would immediately challenge the leading instant-messaging market share of Time Warner Inc.'s America Online unit. AOL has a 56% market share world-wide, according to research firm Radicati Group Inc. It has long resisted letting users of other instant-messaging services connect with its own. A combined Yahoo and Microsoft could command 44% of the global instant-messaging market, according to Radicati.

Both YIM and Microsoft Messenger offer search options direct from the client.

What happens if some sort of hook-up between AOL and MSN goes through? Would IM be a part of it?

Posted by Gary Price at 8:17 PM | Permalink

September 20, 2005

Issues With Yahoo Messenger Installs

Yahoo IM users get more than they bargained for from News.com earlier this month looks at how the latest version of Yahoo's instant messaging client wants to make itself at home on your desktop beyond just instant messaging. Go with the defaults, and you'll not just get Yahoo Messenger but also the Yahoo Toolbar and new "Yahoo Extras" with "live links" that sound like Google AutoLink but seem to only act that way in the IM client, from what I can see. The install also tries to make Yahoo your default home page and search tool. It's easy to choose not to add any of these additional features, programs and changes, assuming you look for the right checkboxes, but many don't.

Yahoo's Jeremy Zawodny saw the story and commented that he found the practice "insulting and disrepectful." Google UI designer Kevin Fox chimes in on the comments at Jeremy's blog about dislike the tactics as well and defending Google's bundling of tools with WinZip as being "upfront."

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:59 AM | Permalink

August 24, 2005

Google Launches "Google Talk" IM Client With Voice Calls

No longer rumor, the Google Talk instant messaging service from Google debuted today. Got a Gmail account? Then you can begin instant messaging via Google -- or do voice conversations, as well. Don't have Gmail? There's a new signup via text message system in place to help you along.

New Google Talk Offers Instant Messaging & Voice Chat from me and Gary is today's SearchDay article that delves into the new service, looking at how it takes Google further down the portal path but a path it pretty much needs to walk to stay competitive with rivals. We also look at how the new tool isn't in the "blow you away" style of some past Google offerings, unless you feel the voice quality of calls is as good as billed. We haven't done enough testing to put a stamp of approval on that.

There's also a handy comparison chart on how the tool stacks up against some of the competition in terms of features, along with more information. Check out the story!

Want to discuss or comment? Visit our forum thread, Google Talk Instant Messaging Live!

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:01 AM | Permalink

August 2, 2005

Stats: Time Spent With Various Yahoo and Google Services

Bambi Francisco's article: Why Google may need instant messaging offers a bunch of new and interesting stats from Majestic Research about Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Instant Messenger and Gmail.

Yahoo Mail accounts for 42% of Yahoo users' online time
Yahoo Messenger accounts for 22% of Yahoo users' time
Gmail captured 45% of all time spent on Google in June
Time spent on Google's e-mail service outpaced that of Google's main search function, which drew 90% of Google's unique visitors in June
Yahoo Messenger attracted about 19% of Yahoo's unique visitors in June and accounted for 23% of total page views
Time spent on Yahoo outpaced time spent on Google by more than 9 to 1, according to Majestic

Postcript: The Red Herring Article: No Time Lost on Search, has a bit more.

Google generates nearly all of its revenue from search advertising, but search accounted for only 21 percent of the time that U.S. visitors spent on its site during June, said Majestic Research. In contrast, 45 percent of the time was spent on Gmail, Googles beta email service.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:21 PM | Permalink

December 21, 2004

Yahoo's Plans IM/E-Mail Combo Service in China

A Bloomberg story (appearing in the International Herald Tribune) discusses Yahoo's move to increase market share in China. Plans include offering a new service that combines email and instant messaging.

Yahoo Mail Messenger service will allow users to access instant messaging for free through their mailbox service with only one or two clicks, compared with the seven or eight previously needed, the company said.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:53 PM | Permalink

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