Google Versus Yahoo

When it comes to searching the Internet most of us find ourselves on one of two search engines these days: Google or Yahoo. But which is better? In a head to head comparison it is hard to tell if Google or Yahoo is actually "better" than the other. Both perform exactly what you would expect a search engine to do they search through the billions of web pages on the net to find what you are looking for and both do it at blistering speeds. So when it comes down to deciding who wins in a one on one completion it really comes down to a matter of personal preference. However, having been a long time Yahoo user who recently switched over to Google there are a few things that I have noticed.

Google seems to have a more user-friendly interface. I say, "seems to have," because in all reality Yahoo is just as easy to use, but since Google tries to keep its home page free from clutter and places the search field right front and center it "seems" a lot less complicated and easier to use than the ad plagued Yahoo homepage.

Many times as a Yahoo user I would find myself reading all the ads on the Yahoo page and following their various links instead of performing the actual search that I had originally gotten on the Internet to perform. This usually resulted in me becoming frustrated realizing that I had spent over an hour chasing after frivolous advertisements and gossip stories about celebrities in place of getting the work done that I had set out to accomplish. This is not to say that I do not occasionally get side tracked by "Google Ads" while searching on Google, but I find the ads on Google to be less obtrusive compared to those on Yahoo.

Another feature on Google that I have found to far outstrip that of its Yahoo counterpart is its free mail service aptly named "Gmail." Once again in my mind the Google engineers have surpassed their Yahoo rivals in design. Yahoo's mail service, while perhaps more conveniently accessed from the Yahoo homepage, is just as saturated with bright colors and ads that distract me from what I really want to do--check my mail. Google on the other hand offers a very easy to use "non- bright" color template that is designed to help you do exactly what you want to, check your mail, not ensnare you with advisements.

Of the best features on Google's Gmail service is the fact that with more than 2GB of available memory to store your messages you never have to delete any messages. That combined with Gmail's ability to search through all your saved mail for keywords or topics I can always find exactly the message I want when I want it. Something that I was only able to do on Yahoo after spending undue amounts of time searching for the exact email I wanted.

Of course to be perfectly honest the factor that caused me to switch to Google from Yahoo more than any other is simply because Google has a much larger "cool factor" than Yahoo. Which may sound like a very unfounded reason, but when viewed in light of an ever increasingly techno-based world community where sleek and cool are more and more the leaders in the market world (the case being no different here with Google's market capitalization being at roughly 76 Billion while Yahoo's is only at 56 Billion) I find it to be not only privately, but professionally beneficial, to be associated with the coolest of cool devices, and that includes search engines.