Yahoo’s new ad is bright, ear catching, and filled with positive thoughts. The one thing it isn’t though, is realistic. In the new ad, Yahoo states that their homepage is all about you. It’s your sports, your news, and your entertainment all rolled into one!
Disclaimer: I admit, before writing this, I had not used Yahoo’s Search in over 5 years. Therefore to be fair, I signed up for a Yahoo username to “experience” the new Yahoo of today.
After signing up, here is the Yahoo homepage I was greeted with. This is a random page and the first one that loaded for me. It’s an example only.
Wow, I have to look at all of this just to search for bread recipes?
Not only is this information completely unnecessary for my goal of finding bread recipes, it’s actually the complete opposite of what Yahoo claims to be in their new ad.
We will start with exhibit A and only focus on Yahoo’s and Google’s Search homepage.
My Sports
According to Yahoo, these two sports articles cover all of “My Sports” needs. I am not a huge sport nut, I do follow soccer quite a bit, but I don’t follow baseball or golf one bit.
These articles are worthless too me. I don’t want to see them, but I have no choice if I want to find a soccer forum on Yahoo’s Search Homepage.
I did find a link called “soccer” that takes me to a general Yahoo sports page about soccer. While the page gives a good general overview of soccer news around the world, it doesn’t provide me with all of the latest Seattle Sounders news or even just MLS news, which is all I really wanted anyways.
Yahoo claims, Google Delivers
Here is a better option to get “Your Sports”. Go to Google’s Homepage, log in, and then click on “News” up at the top. Next, off to the top right click, “Add Section”. Now, either search for your favorite sports team or create a custom personalized section for you team. Now you can get all of the sports news you want and none of the sports news you don’t want.
My News
I do have to give a little bit of credit to Yahoo for taking my geolocation and providing me with some local news stories from the Seattle Times and the Seattle Pi, but that is where my praise ends.
My first question, what is all of this finance rubbish? Why does Yahoo assume that I want a specific section on finance? Do I care that the DOW is down 0.54%?
You wouldn’t even need the Yahoo sponsored stock search on Google. You can type any stock symbol right into Google Search and get instant realtime results. Once again, “My News”, is nowhere to be found.
Yahoo claims, Google Delivers
Just go to Google’s homepage and click on “News” at the top. It’s more organized and incredibly more comprehensive then what you will see on Yahoo’s homepage.
My Entertainment
I don’t need a lesson on what type of language to use in different social situations and I really don’t want to have to hear another story about Justin Bieber.
Does Yahoo assume I am a 13 year old boy or girl?
Yahoo claims, Google Delivers
Just go to Google News already!
What really separates Yahoo’s Search Page and Google’s Search page apart is their focus. Yahoo tries to make a simple search a “experience”, while Google makes it a simple search. Attempting to appeal to every person in this world with one handful of random popular topics is actually counter productive. In the end Yahoo’s attempt at mass appeal ends up being, mass disillusionment.
Here is the ad from Yahoo. To me the ad is a absolute hypocrisy, but as always, think for yourself and if you wish, post your thoughts in the comment section below.
