Why Does Yahoo Want to be Like Google? - Two Different Interfaces
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All it takes is a casual glance at the home pages of both Google and Yahoo to see that these companies are birds of quite different feathers. Yahoo’s front page is full of stuff. Across the top, you can choose from seven different search categories, including Web, images, video, directory, local, news, and products. Six other icons across the top lead to other Yahoo services, such as finance, music, and email.
Down the left side of the home page are boxes in various sizes that show other Yahoo services, including those for car buyers, small business owners, classifieds, and so forth. Down the right side is an ad, and…more services. This includes news, a weather and traffic search, and a box that links to Yahoo’s international websites. The page is so busy, it would be hard to find the search box if Yahoo didn’t put it at the top in the middle of the page (indeed, I have seen earlier layouts of Yahoo’s front page where the search box was much more difficult to find).
Contrast this with Google’s home page. There are literally no image icons on the page. You can choose about six different categories to search, or click on “more” for more options; you can also click on “Advanced Search” to be more specific about the filters you set up for your search. Clicking on “Language Tools” lets you change the language in which your search is performed, among other things. “Preferences” also lets you change some details about how Google presents itself to you.
Underneath Google’s search box, aside from the “Google Search” and “I’m Feeling Lucky” buttons, you can click on “Advertising Programs” if you want to advertise with Google, “Business Solutions,” or “About Google.” You can also “Make Google Your Homepage!” The last bit of information tells you how many pages Google searches; it was up to 8,058,044,651 when I checked.
The point is, Google’s interface is totally clean and uncluttered when compared to Yahoo’s. The search box, the company name, and all of the links I just described take up less than two-thirds of the front page. You don’t have to scroll down to see everything on Google’s home page…but you do with Yahoo (on my monitor, at least). If Yahoo really is trying to be like Google, why does it look so different?
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