Page:Untangling the Web.pdf/24

 send you to other sites. The Yahoo portal strategy was to keep the eyeballs on its turf, where they viewed more ad units, shopped, and bought premium services. Only when a third of online ad spending moved to search within a few short years did Yahoo decide to buy in big."

Again in 2006 Yahoo changed the look of its homepage, but I believe Yahoo is making a fundamental error by still presenting its busy, messy portal face to the world. Although savvy Internet searchers know to go directly to http://search.yahoo.com in order to avoid the confusion and get a clean interface, most users are still going to the main Yahoo page where they are confronted with this:

Here's Yahoo's dilemma: how does it compete with Google for searchers seeking a simple, clean interface while simultaneously retaining and attracting users who want "one stop shopping"? Thus far, more searchers are still going to Google first rather than muddling their way through the kind of mess you see above. Where Yahoo excels—and in my opinion beats Google—is in shopping and in finding local information. This is a fact Yahoo not only recognizes but also embraces. Says Ted Meisel, head of Yahoo's Overture division, "We never claimed it [Yahoo] was a better approach for doing research on 18th century Spain. But if you are trying to buy a power washer for your back deck, it's a pretty good way to find what you 16