Yahoo going to bribe people to use its search ?

[xpgeek]

http://news.com.com//i/ne/p/2006/yahoo_survey_550x641.gif

Source (http://news.com.com/2300-1038_3-6037161-1.html?part=rss&tag=6037161&subj=news)

[xpgeek]

Seems that way to me. Make Yahoo your primary search engine and we'll give you rewards. Sounds like a bribe to me. They must be pretty desperate.

[zimagirl79]

hahaha I have a Yahoo mail account, but only because I signed up for their messenger service to keep in touch with a couple of people. that's not incentive enough for me to even use the account for mail - I forget I even have it sometimes. Bet I've got some spam sitting in my mailbox, guess I should pop in and take a look once in a while!

EDIT - no worries, they've made my account inactive for not logging in over the last 4 months! lol

[xpgeek]

I have a Yahoo mail account just to have one pretty much, but I never use it really for email. I do use it for Yahoo TV listings site, which is wayyyy better designed and less annoying then tvguide.com, and when logged in can show me only the channels I actually want to see instead of all 500. And I sometimes use it for the forums on Yahoo Movies, Yahoo does have a pretty good movies site.

[zimagirl79]

It allows me to still use my login info for other services, so I'm not in any rush to reactivate the mail part of it. I've got too many mail accounts as it is and generally stick to using just a few of them. Comcast allows me 7 accounts, we use 4 of them currently between me and my family. I don't think I need the Yahoo one.

I would like to check out some of their other services though. Thanks for pointing them out.

[xpgeek]

Yahoo movies is right up there as like second best movie site there is, at least in my opinion. Its no IMDB, but for someone who likes watching movie trailers, like me, Yahoo movies does get a lot of trailers wayy before any other site does, even before quicktime trailers, and they sometimes have exclusive ones too no one else will ever have.

[xpgeek]

And of course theres Launch.com, if want to watch music videos online Launch.com is THE best site. And yahoo owns konfabulator now (now Yahoo Widgets).

I like a lot of Yahoo services, just don't use the email because I have my gmail, and I don't use the search cause well who doesn't use Google these days.

[Micron]

I use Yahoo for mail only. I uninstalled the messenger ages ago as it was just annoying, even with the use of Y!Tunnel.

I agree, its a ploy to get people to use Yahoo Search. Yahoo was once the best search engine, Mr Wang had a great idea, then others like Altavista and Bigfoot followed in its footsteps, and with the introduction of google formed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in the late 90's wiped out all the competition.

Google is now the biggest and best engine for searching, though has become bloated and cumbersome, and unless you know how to use googles search parameters, you will get loads of crap thats unrelated to your search.

Just out of interest, Google is derived from 'Googol' and is a mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros.

[xpgeek]

Cnet has posted a more thorough story about it.

Use Yahoo search, get a reward?

Yahoo is polling users on what it would take to get them to make its search engine their primary choice for online queries, the company confirmed Wednesday.

Possible incentives include frequent flyer miles, discounted or free music and movies, and Outlook access.

While Yahoo was not announcing any definite plans, bloggers scoffed at the proposal. If you have to pay people to use your service, they said, things must be pretty bad.

Blog community response:

"So, with all three of these companies talking about bribery as a method to steal users away from Google, it becomes increasingly clear just how 'sticky' (argh, buzzword) Google really has become. Getting people to switch is not easy. It can't just be about catching up, or being marginally better--but about being so overwhelmingly better that people can't afford not to switch."
--Techdirt

"Ultimately, if Yahoo wants people to switch, they'd have to pay a lot, since having to use a search engine makes it harder to get used to it. They'd probably have to pay more than its worth."
--Inside Google

"Don't pay people to use search--pay people to help improve Yahoo search. Give anyone a tiny micropayment for a tiny contribution to Y search. Leverage the massively distributed specialization of the edge to improve/filter/rank results."
--Bubble Generation

Source (http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-6037212.html?part=rss&tag=6037212&subj=news)

[Micron]

"Don't pay people to use search--pay people to help improve Yahoo search. Give anyone a tiny micropayment for a tiny contribution to Y search. Leverage the massively distributed specialization of the edge to improve/filter/rank results."

I agree with that 100%

[xpgeek]

Looks like MSN getting pretty desperate too.

MSN offers prizes to searchers

Microsoft is offering prizes to people who use its MSN search engine, according to a promotional Web site it calls MSN Search and Win (http://www.msnsearchandwin.com/). "Simply search with MSN, click the Search and Win link in the results, and you could instantly win one of many fabulous prizes," the site says.

The list of possible prizes includes a one-year Netflix subscription; magazine subscriptions; gift certificates at Starbucks, Blockbuster and Barnes and Noble, among others; a Panasonic plasma high-definition TV; a Canon digital camera; a home office makeover; hotel stays; and a cash award to the charity of choice.

MSN isn't the only search engine looking at ways--other than providing good search results--to increase its traffic in the face of the Google juggernaut. Yahoo also is considering offering incentives to get Web surfers to use its search engine.

Source (http://news.com.com/2061-10803_3-6039286.html?part=rss&tag=6039286&subj=news)

[xpgeek]

"MSN isn't the only search engine looking at ways--other than providing good search results--to increase its traffic in the face of the Google juggernaut."

lol thats funny.

[Micron]

Thats it... Im going back to BBS systems lol (bulletin Boards) bit like teletext.

[xpgeek]

haha. I'll just stick with Google. :google: