Google vs Yahoo

The first to call you was that super geeky Yahoo. He spends so much time in the library it's hard to fathom how he noticed you, but he did and somehow got your number and the nerve to actually use it.

"Ursula? This is Yahoo. How are you?"

"Yahoo? The ner...I mean the smart guy everyone likes. Yes, I know who you are. I hear you've been in the school system since it began. Please forgive me, I'm still learning my way around. I am doing well, thank you. Yourself?"

"I've been better, but I recently got some help to boost my confidence, so everything will be good."

"Hey, how DID you ever get my number?"

"Well, it seems that a lot of kids at school like to collect numbers and yours is a hot one. I even heard that your number was on a bathroom wall, but I paid no mind to that. I just asked my lab partner for it, and decided to call."

"Well, how sweet. So, why did you really call?"

"Firstly, I wanted to welcome you to the community and to the school. I also just wanted to find out more about you. Not to be creepy, just so I have an understanding and reference about another classmate. I like to know those around me, so I can point to who might have the right answers when someone else asks a question."

"Oh. I thought maybe you were going to ask me to the Prom," followed by a nearly stifled giggle.

"We'll get to that, but there has to be a logical progression."

"Oh. Okay."

"What's your favorite past time?"

"That's easy. I love to dance!"

"Really? Got Proof?"

"Silly. Of course I do. My Journal is titled 'Dance, Dance, Dance', and in it I swear, about every other word is dance."

"What kind of dancing do you like?"

"I write about line dancing all the time, and I really like the newer ones. The 5 O'clock Dance is my favorite."

"Excellent. Okay, how about attending the Prom with me and afterwards we can go to the south side of town and hit the Brewery District? There are three clubs there that specialize in line dancing."

"Ummmm...Yahoo, I'll have to think about it for a bit. Can I have your number?"

"Sure, but remember, I can get you to three places that have line dancing written all over them."

"Okay. I'll see you at school in the morning."

HOW YAHOO LOOKS AT YOU!
Yahoo has been around for quite along time, and I can remember when they were ad free and touted access to over 30,000 sites. That's right; 30,000 sites! WOOT!

In the beginning, Yahoo was a model search directory and to this day continues to operate as a directory. Furthermore, Yahoo has a large amount of it's own content in their index, so they have reason for a lot of ads for their services on there Search Engine Results Pages (SERP).

Let's take a look at some key features that Yahoo looks at about your lenses or sites:

* The spiders are not geared toward A.I. allowing Yahoo to continue operating as a directory

* Keywords are still heavily weighed in the meta values and looked for on a page

* Back link quality takes a backseat to quantity

* Puts weight into pages, as opposed to sites.

In the end, what we generally see on a Yahoo SERP is geared towards it's advertisers You'll find pages that are full of the same word, over and over (some pages look downright spammy).

A page is cataloged into Yahoo's index and by doing that, they show you what they want you to see. A page can rank well rather quickly in the Yahoo index, provided the niche is tight and the content is screaming with identical keywords. Tags obviously play a big role in the cataloging process as they indicate where the webmaster of the page thinks the page belongs in the index.

No sooner than did you hang the phone up, it rang again.

"Hello, this is Ursula."

"Hey Ursula. It's Google." Your heart thumped hard as you heard the most sought after boy in school utter your name. The quarterback/knight/heart-breaker is the Golden Child that make people stutter.

Umm...Hi Google. I wasn't even aware you knew my name."

A confident, yet reassuring laugh, "Sure doll, I give everyone a look, and some I learn their names."

"Well Google, I have to that this is a pleasant surprise, and would like to know how you got my number."

"First off Ursula, I have to warn you against giving that number out to everyone that asks for it. A lot of people you don't even know having that can't be good for your rep. I even saw it on the wall in the boy's room down by the locker rooms. In fact, you may want to get some of those back and consider paying someone to clean the number off that wall."

"Gee thanks Google. Are you always this helpful? Is that how you got my number? From the wall?"

"Thanks it is who I try to be. Really want the best for everyone. As far as how I got your number, one of my oldest and dearest friends had it. You know Mary Jo, right?"

"Yes. Mary Jo is in my modern dance class. She has been dancing since she was five or so, and knows her stuff. I hope I'm as good as her some day, and looking out for me was?
really sweet of you," hushed giggle,"No wonder the girls swoon at the mention of your name. By the way. Is that the only reason you called," the step off into the darkness," or did you want to ask me to the Prom?"

"Actually, I would love to take you to the prom, but tell me about dancing first."

"Really? You want to hear that? From me?"

"Of course I do."

"Okay, here goes. I'll read from my journal. Dance, Dance, Dance is the title and the first page reads like this, 'I love line dancing, especially the newer forms of line dancing. The Line dance called the 5 O'clock is my current favorite line dancing out there. It is hard to go out for a night of line dancing and find a club that offers the lin...."

"Stop! Ursula, I get the point. You say you love dancing, but tell me how line dancing makes you feel, and why you love the 5 O'clock Dance. Put that journal down and tell me from your heart."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Okay; Line dancing, especially the newer steps, such as the 5 O'clock, is such an energetic form of exercise and fun. I feel pleasantly drained when I come home from a night of dancing. I always look for new dance steps to exercise not only my body, but to also keep in tough with the dancing form I have enjoyed for most of my life."

"Cool. I'll tell what. I'd love to take you to the Prom, and we can go out dancing afterwards if you want. There is an awesome club downtown, away from the new Brewery district. The Texas Rose has been around a while and seem to have a commitment to trying the newer steps every chance they get. Are you game?"

"I just may be, Google. Let me think on it. Give me your number, and I'll call you."

"Sure, Doll. Whatever you need."

"Wonderful. I'll see you at school in the morning."

THE WAY GOOGLE OGLES YOU
Google jumped onto the scene in 1999 and quite frankly I was unimpressed. Just another search engine jockeying for position against the heavy hitter Yahoo. At one point, Google was ready to court themselves to be part of Yahoo. At kind of submission if you will.

Boy, what a difference 10 years can make. Today, Google handles better than 60% of all search requests., and for good reason. Google Search is geared towards being intuitive to what the query wants and is using relevancy as the key to delivering what we the users are looking for.

Here is how Google seeks relevancy, or authority:

* The newest generation of spiders are infused with A.I., allowing them to read and analyze a page before actually recording them to the database

* Google no longer looks at Keywords

* Although Google glances at Description, the content is most important

* back links that are of quality have great weight

* Reciprocal links may be a thing of the past as far as the algorithm is concerned

* the title meta tag (or the title of your lens) is the all important reference to determine relevancy

Authority is the real key with Google. If the page is older and has solidly relevant back links, the indexing will be greatly enhanced. Throw in a good dose of well written content and you're well on your way to a glut of Google Juice.

Google sees it as their mission to make everyone (both sides of the SERP) happy and goes to great lengths in achieving this. Take a hard look at all the free Webmaster Tools available and you won't be able to deny that Google is striving to serve.