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The Internet

Yahoo Tops Portal Market In Visitors 130

Posted by CmdrTaco from the way-more-than-us dept.
linumax writes "Yahoo Inc. continues to lead the portal market in the number of unique visitors, and is also the top destination for news, a market research firm says. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company led the top 10 Web sites among U.S. home and work Internet users with 101.3 million visitors in August, EMarketer Inc., said. Second was Microsoft Corp.'s site with 95.6 million, followed by its MSN portal, 92.1 million; Google, 80.4 million; America Online Inc., 75.7 million; EBay Inc., 55.2 million; MapQuest, 39 million; Amazon.com, 37.6 million, RealNetworks, 36.4 million; and the Weather Channel, 31.2 million."
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Yahoo Tops Portal Market In Visitors More

Yahoo Tops Portal Market In Visitors

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  • Raw numbers don't matter (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ThatGeek ( 874983 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @11:53AM (#14233513) Homepage
    I'd argue that raw numbers don't matter with respect to Yahoo. I mean sure, they're paying a whole lot in bandwidth and all, but their site is so cluttered that I never have any idea what I'm looking at. There could be ads for free hundred dollar bills and I wouldn't even notice.

    I can't tell you how many times I've gone to yahoo to find their directory of sites and given up and gone to DMOZ [dmoz.org] instead.

    • Re:Raw numbers don't matter (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      That you keep going back to their site demonstrates its success.

    • Re:Raw numbers don't matter (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yahoo!'s search engine isn't all that impressive; but as a portal, Yahoo! excels. They've got weather, news, movie information, games, and they offer free email that isn't half bad. And now they've gone out and bought deli.ci.ous and Flickr, two of the most fun sites around.

      Yahoo! hit a low point after the dot-com bubble burst and they couldn't sell an ad to anyone other than X10 (who we all remember for their wonderful, innovative use of the pop-up); they have, however, since relearned what made them so po

    • As an avid Yahoo! user, I never go to their home page. I've never needed it. All I use is My Yahoo! [yahoo.com], where I can read the daily news, Slashdot, comics, get my daily horoscope, Jeremy Zawodny's blog, and what not! Its the Kick Ass aggregator I've ever seen!!

      • my yahoo (Score:3, Interesting)

        by IANAAC ( 692242 )
        I use my yahoo a lot too. Really, you can configure it pretty much any way you want, even add stories/sites from websites that aren't specifically known to yahoo's news gathering.

        About the only complaint I have is their advertising. Adblock goes a long way, but frankly, it's really annoying when they split their dating service ads into cells of a sub-frame.

    • It's not surprising to me that Yahoo's hit count is so high. A lot of people probably have Yahoo! bookmarked as their home page from way back, just as lots of others have MSN or even Netscape.com. But the Yahoo brand is a household world, maybe about 70% as pervasive as Google. (I would argue that no one would browse to MSN if it weren't shoved in their face when they start up IE.) When people want to check the sports scores or headlines, Yahoo is a convenient portal to go to. The millions of Yahoo!Mai
    • Oh man.

      I'd totally forgotten that Yahoo used to be a categorized directory of web sites...
    • In general, I agree that the regular Yahoo sites are cluttered. In my opinion, their customizable portal My Yahoo really can't be beat though. I've tried several others but always find myself coming back.

  • Interesting (Score:2, Insightful)

    by technoextreme ( 885694 )
    I seem to always go to yahoo.com when ever I search for something and rarely use any other search engine like google. I have no idea though because personally I don't care what search engine Im using but I do usually default to yahoo first.

    • Does Yahoo filter spam from rankings better? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ATeamMrT ( 935933 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @12:07PM (#14233588)
      I seem to always go to yahoo.com when ever I search for something and rarely use any other search engine like google. I have no idea though because personally I don't care what search engine Im using but I do usually default to yahoo first

      I've been a Google user for years, but I am starting to use Yahoo more often. At first it started because I was at Yahoo for a different reason, and the search was there, so I did it. Boom, less spam results. I went to Google to compare and there is more spam in the rankings.

      Try searching for a review of a commerical product like a TV by model number. Google will fill the search with places selling the product, not with reviews. If Eopinions or Amazon does not have a review, you're screwed. You'll be buying blind.

      Google to me was most usefull as a NON-COMMERCIAL tool, to find information, not sellers. There are plenty of places to buy, and I know their websites. I don't need google to show me electronic stores.

      • As much as I hate to admit it, I've pretty much reached the same conclusion as well.

        Now, if I want to find prices, froogle is a fairly good tool, but just try to find information on your cell phone and you'll be swamped with junk.

        At some point, things will hit a stopping point and they will fix this problem and then the page rank spammers will have to find another way to break it.
      • Google to me was most usefull as a NON-COMMERCIAL tool, to find information, not sellers. There are plenty of places to buy, and I know their websites. I don't need google to show me electronic stores.

        Mostly I don't need google to show me so damn many stores. Whyen it was one or two at the top, with minimal screen space, it was, gasp, useful. Now it is approaching something less than useful.

      • Re:Does Yahoo filter spam from rankings better? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 11, 2005 @02:25PM (#14234318)
        Try searching for a review of a commerical product like a TV by model number. Google will fill the search with places selling the product, not with reviews. If Eopinions or Amazon does not have a review, you're screwed. You'll be buying blind.

        I can't believe you are serious. Do you work for Yahoo? Because that is the only way to explain the nonsense you wrote.

        You want to find a review on a specific model of TV? Okay.
        Let's just say it is the Sony KDL-V40XBR1.

        So you go to a search engine. (It doesn't matter which one...)

        Okay genius, what keywords do you enter? If I wanted to find reviews on the Sony KDL-V40XBR1, I personally would type in "sony KDL-V40XBR1 reviews".

        If I were a moron, I would just type in "sony KDL-V40XBR1" and then wade through pages of useless (to me in this particular situation) results from websites trying to SELL me a Sony KDL-V40XBR1.

        Jesus....

        You want a specific type of search result? Then all you have to so is include another more specific search term, or two. :)

        • Try searching for a review of a commerical product like a TV by model number. Google will fill the search with places selling the product, not with reviews. If Eopinions or Amazon does not have a review, you're screwed. You'll be buying blind. Okay genius, what keywords do you enter? If I wanted to find reviews on the Sony KDL-V40XBR1, I personally would type in "sony KDL-V40XBR1 reviews".

          I tried your search. And I wasn't impressed with the results.

          1. http://www.pricerunner.com/sound-and-vision/vis [pricerunner.com]
        • I've given up trying to find reviews of products by searching on google. Even performing searches of the form that you suggest, you end up with pages full of useless results. So many online retail sites have user reviews now that most of them will turn up, yet it's rare that there will be any reviews (you'll get a hit on links such as "user reviews (0)" or "add review").

          On top of that, you'll get all the price comparison and user review sites that list every product they come across, regardless of whether t
      • I thought Google wasn't really a portal site? It's definately nothing like the others on the list.
  • How did real networks get so high. I never have visited their website. But I use Google, Ebay, and Mapquest often. I can't think of any reason a user would need to use real networks on a daily basis, or even weekly basis.

    • Re:Obvious question... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by radical_dementia ( 922403 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @12:11PM (#14233610) Journal
      I think it may be due to the fact that programs like realplayer usually go to a homepage when you launch the program. As far as I can tell its just an ordinary web browser built into the program, so they probably included those visits in their numbers.
    • All their applications phoning home of course. No spyware though, I am sure. If you can't trust Real, who can you trust?

    • Re:Obvious question... (Score:4, Funny)

      by Frankie70 ( 803801 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @12:30PM (#14233704)

        How did real networks get so high. I never have visited their website.

      That's why they are at #9. Once you start visiting they'll probably hit Top 5.
      • I'm guessing most of it is because many people use the RealPlayer program, and whenever it connects, it opens up the RealPlayer homepage in the player itself, so that probably accounts for at least 50% of their hits.
    • They also own Rhapsody, one of the more popular subscription music services around.

    • They're probably counting other pages with the embedded Real Player object. If so, that seems to me like counting pages with Flash, or DoubleClick banner ad hits. (I think I'll block Real as much as I do DoubleClick and see if anything breaks.)
    • I'd be interested to know what you like about MapQuest? I know they are number one, but it just seems like they offer close to nothing over Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and even Virtual Earth. Since I have only tired-kicked them, maybe if I used them more I'd find they had better directions.
      • I'd be interested to know what you like about MapQuest? I know they are number one, but it just seems like they offer close to nothing over Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and even Virtual Earth. Since I have only tired-kicked them, maybe if I used them more I'd find they had better directions.

        I like mapquest for a few reasons. I use their directions feature often. If I've never driven to a place, it has become habit to look at mapquest to see what roads they recommend. I like how they show the milage per road,

    • I was thinking the same thing. I never ever had the desire or even the idea to go to Real's site more than once. And I can't see why anyone else would want to.

      The fact that it's one of the top 10 sites is very curious. I'd question the measurement strategy. Maybe the high ranking was caused by Real Player talking "home" - and not because people love to surf to real.

  • I think their definition of portal site is being a little overly broad considering who Yahoo is competing with. Yahoo is a better portal site than microsoft.com? Who would have thought it? At first glace every single one of those sites fulfills a slightly smaller role than Yahoo and does a much better job of it. Yahoo might be getting the hits, but I don't know that it's representive of quality or even of perceived quality, just of offering a trillion services through one site. That attitude of quantity ove
    • I dont necessarily disagree completely with your statements. But yahoo is my default home page and then i have 4-5 tabs open up with google for my searching. But for the current weather/news/sports/etc other stuff i care about its pretty convenient. It may also be that im juts comfortable with their format after using it for years and years. Searching on yahoo pisses me off tho.

    • We're all sheep (Score:5, Interesting)

      by fleener ( 140714 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @12:29PM (#14233697)
      Hey, all I know is that the majority of the hits to my blog come from Yahoo and MSN. My page titles are crystal clear about what you'll be seeing before you arrive, so I'm not too worried about a lack of "quality" in my site traffic. My hits from Google are from people who search 2 to 5 pages deep in search results before finding me. Much of the time, Google ranks other blogs linking to my post higher than my posts, even for searches which involve my web site's name. So I humbly suggest that Yahoo and MSN aren't popular merely because people are sheep, but because those sheep have found contentment in being fed.
      • I was simply saying that comparing Yahoo and MSN to the Microsoft corperate homepage doesn't give you any kind of meaningful comparison. They perform two different functions as is evident by the fact that Microsoft and MSN exist as different sites.
    • Yahoo has better news coverage than MSN. MSN may be more flashy but Yahoo has more news, more organized. Its mail service has a better interface than Hotmail. Yahoo has free chat rooms which MSN does not.

  • pfft (Score:1)

    by know1 ( 854868 )
    maybe i could have stretched to imagining yahoo bettering google at something other than search (i'm pretty sure they farm out their search to google to some degree, although i might be wrong) but msn beating google...nah. well, it is a market research firm, not a news outlet...someone has to pay them to do this work. not that i'm suspicious of course

    • Re:pfft (Score:1, Interesting)

      by 110010001000 ( 697113 )
      Yeah, reality is hard to accept isn't it? Just think, if you added both microsoft.com's and msn.com's numbers together you would get 187 million users, which dwarfs Google at 80 million.

      Its true, many people don't use Google! Its always funny when reality penetrates Slashdots reality distortion field.

  • Impressive showing for Google (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gasmonso ( 929871 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @12:13PM (#14233611) Homepage

    Considering that Google doesn't offer anywhere close to the amount of crap that Yahoo and MSN do I think Google is doing far better. Yahoo, MSN, AOL, all offer a million different services and Google's primary function is searching. The maintenence costs for those sites must be through the roof, whereas Google can spend the $$$ on research and innovation.

    gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/ [religiousfreaks.com]
  • Google probably has 'em beat. If Google offered the same number of services they'd probably beat them handily.

  • More market research.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by deep44 ( 891922 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @12:15PM (#14233625)
    ..and in yesterday's news, new study finds that 'Google Users more Wealthy, Net Savvy' [slashdot.org], which confirms something I've known for quite some time now:

    We're outnumbered.
  • Okay, they all seem logical except real networks. Can someone explain how real is getting that many users? I am not sure I have ever seen anyone actually use their site for anything.
    • Opening realplayer opens the guide.real.com page.
      I don't know if this occurs whenever a movie is played or if its just in standalone mode. It might also occur again when the messeging centre starts on bootup.

      (since I disabled the messaging and never open the standalone I don't know)

      lots of places for them to get hits and stats, quite worrying really.
    • http://www.real.com/rhapsody/ [real.com]

      -everphilski-
  • I know (sadly) plenty of people who leave their home page to the browser default. For IE this is MSN.

    For someone to have any other portal (with IE), it is usually because of an action they have taken.

    • Re:msn.com home page (Score:3, Interesting)

      by bwalling ( 195998 )
      Not only that, when you have a typo in a URL, you are often taken to MSN Search if you are an IE user. I never go there by my own free will, but my browser will end up there on its own.
    • I agree, although OEMs can make deals with other portal providers (or any other kind of webpage, for that matter) to make them the default home page.

      BTW, there's a similar situation for Macs, where Mac users leave Apple's own http://livepage.apple.com/ [apple.com] (which redirects to http://www.apple.com/startpage/ [apple.com]) as their home page.

      • My home page in Safari, which I rarely use anymore, is the default Apple.com startpage. And my home page in Firefox is still http://www.google.com/firefox?client=firefox-a&rl s =org.mozilla:en-US:official [google.com]

        I really don't bother with the whole concept of "home page" anymore. These days, when I fire up my browser, I'm either clicking on a link from an email, or I already know what site I'm intending to visit, so it doesn't matter to me what site is "home." I can't imagine the same isn't true of many ot

        • Fully agreed. Usually I either leave my browser open, or launch it with a url. That and sessionsaver reloading my last session rather than starting with a static page means my 'homepage' is pretty much never seen. Pretty sure its still the firefox default, but I couldn't tell you with any certainty.
        • I really don't bother with the whole concept of "home page" anymore. These days, when I fire up my browser, I'm either clicking on a link from an email, or I already know what site I'm intending to visit, so it doesn't matter to me what site is "home." I can't imagine the same isn't true of many others

          Wait a minute, you start your web browser more than once a day???

          FWIW, I start firefox when I login every morning; after that everything is a new tab, perhaps opened by another program sending a URL using moz-

          • Wait a minute, you start your web browser more than once a day???

            Is this where I'm supposed to say, "Your way of doing things is totally whacked; obviously, you're a moron"? ;-)

            Yes, I start my browser more than once a day ... actually, I guess it depends upon what you mean by "start." The process is usually running all day, but when I'm not actively using it, I close the window (cmd+W). What I meant by "fire up my browser" was launching/relaunching it when I need it. Since there isn't one site I'm

    • I know (sadly) plenty of people who leave their home page to the browser default. For IE this is MSN.

      And Hotmail takes you there when you logoff.
    • My wife purposefully sets MSN as her default homepage, even on FireFox. Personally, it boggles my mind, but she says she likes their fluff (their articles on movies, entertainment, life style, etc.). She searches on Google, but I guess their homepage is too bare. To each their own, I guess.

  • Portals? (Score:4, Informative)

    by quokkapox ( 847798 ) <quokkapox@gmail.com> on Sunday December 11, 2005 @12:22PM (#14233659)
    The fastest way to get to your favorite sites is to bookmark their search form query boxes in firefox using a keyword. I can bring up slashdot or a google image search or an imdb page or a wikipedia article in new tabs, while blindfolded, with a couple of keystrokes, instead of wasting time clicking pretty widgets. You can even tell if the text you were looking for is on the resulting page by the sounds emitted by find-as-you-type.
    • that sounds like it would be pretty useful - but I have no idea how to do it. How does one go about bookmarking with keywords?
      • Go to your desired search page (such as froogle search, wikipedia search, amazon book search, etc.) and right-click inside the query box where you type your search keywords. Choose "Add a keyword for this search". Give it a name, and a quick keyword (such as "gi" for google image search). Then you can pop open a new tab with ^T, and in the empty location box where your cursor is then placed, type "gi fnord" and hit Enter.

        Firefox encapsulates the form fields and action into the bookmark and POSTs the r

  • Does anyone else see the irony in an article about number of unique hits on a portal being hosted on that portal? Forget about proclaiming yourself as great and writing an article about youself in your own newspaper. This is an insidious way to generate more hits!

    • Re:Irony (Score:3, Funny)

      by prostoalex ( 308614 )
      That's because a third-party magazine posts its stuff on Yahoo! News.

      At least now we know why your Dad always brings up "he's not the brains of the family, but he's still our son" point, whenever he talks about you.

  • Better way to calculate use? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dada21 ( 163177 ) * <adam.dada@gmail.com> on Sunday December 11, 2005 @12:33PM (#14233720) Homepage Journal
    Wouldn't it be better to calculate which portal is the top portal based on the actual number of users that click a portal link?

    I have customers who leave yahoo.com as their home page but always click a bookmark or head to another search engine to actually start browsing. I have no idea why people don't change the home page, but even some of my family works this way. Every time they open their web browser, yahoo pops up, and then they head off in a different direction.

    With the various search toolbars, will the portal be as important as it was over the past decade? My homepage is blank -- especially on my primary browser, my PDA. Even with a fast connection I don't like the delay in popping up a start page.

    I go look at yahoo about once every few months and just can't handle the site. Too much text, way too many colors, and it doesn't respond very quickly on some of my older (IE-based) PCs. I guess the average person doesn't have very much knowledge of proper use of color, text and overall layout. Yahoo reminds me of the beach blanket bingo madness from the 60s.
  • For once, we don't need to use the ?????? in our profit plans :

    1. Have news website write how great the portal hosting it is.
    2. Get the news posted on slashdot and other news site.
    3. Increase page views and make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
    4. Profit!
  • The quality of service provided by a portal and No. of visitors are two different (although slightly correlated things).

  • Let the stock market decide... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Chaffar ( 670874 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @01:01PM (#14233866)
    If Yahoo is so much better than Google, than why does GOOG have more than double the market capitalization [yahoo.com] of YHOO ? Because the stock market is run by people who vote with their money, and therefore by people who try to make the most informed decisions they can. Those who know, know a good product when they see one (OR. they just bought into the hype and invested in Google like crazy, them and the rest of the world. But it paid off. didn't it :)).

    Variety is the spice of life, and I think there's a market for both the "all-in-one" Yahoo-type solution just as much as the "function before form" Google method. Your personal preference shouldn't affect your judgement towards the other. I personally use both: Yahoo when I'm bored and Google when I need to get a job done fast.

    • One word (Score:3, Funny)

      by winkydink ( 650484 ) *
      If Yahoo is so much better than Google, than why does GOOG have more than double the market capitalization [yahoo.com] of YHOO ?


      Greed.

      Need two?

      Irrational exuberance.
    • Stock price is irrelevant to the quality of the product. Remember that article that on /. that google was worth more than Time Warner? Well they're not but that wont stop profiteers and lunatics trying to make money. Stock markets aren't about informed decisions half the time.
    • Ohohoho.

      Because the stock market is run by people who vote with their money, and therefore by people who try to make the most informed decisions they can.

      It's not "run" by anybody, except in the sense that exchanges provide a platform and certain rules such as those regarding circuit breakers.

      Remember the .com smackdown? The day-trading fad? Startups spending too much money on Superbowl ads and fancy office chairs?

  • the title is misleading (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I don't want to be a falmebait but the title of the story is kinda wrong. I tought that "wow, yahoo has more users than google? MSN has more users than google? REAL has more users than google?" It comes out that the stats are for U.S. only.

    The titel should read: "Yahoo Tops Portal Market In Visitors in US" or something like that.

  • I'm disappointed (Score:4, Insightful)

    by eyrieowl ( 881195 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @01:02PM (#14233872)
    though not surprised by the large number of /.ers on this topic whose comments are so Google-worshipping. Google has done some very good things, but I think people should give Yahoo a little credit for having come out with a very large number of services, often beating others (including Google) to the web with that service. Maybe, just *maybe*, that's being reflected a *little* in these numbers? I'm not trying to flame Google, or say Yahoo is the bee's knees (god i feel old), but I certainly think that Yahoo deserves a little more credit than people give it. Google has all these great tools, most of which I've been using courtesy of Yahoo long before Google offered them. No, numbers != quality necessarily, but "Google" does not automatically equal "best" or "quality" either. Of all people, we, the people here ought to be most interested in choosing a toolset for its quality, not the press it gets, or the company that makes it.
    • Google is the latest "Great White Hope" in destroying the evil that is M$; that's why slashdotters worship Google so much.

    • Re:I'm disappointed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by marauder404 ( 553310 ) <marauder404@yahE ... m minus math_god> on Sunday December 11, 2005 @02:01PM (#14234193)
      Google has done some very good things, but I think people should give Yahoo a little credit for having come out with a very large number of services, often beating others (including Google) to the web with that service.

      I completely agree with you here. Google has clearly done a lot to change the way people look at the web and monetization, but it has little that's truly unique anymore. Google spent years building its search engine and produced some incredible results. When Yahoo launched their own proprietary engine in early 2004, they produced a product with results that were nearly as good. I love Gmail for its interface, but is still playing catch-up for features with Yahoo, and they have a brand new interface [zawodny.com] that will be released soon. Google Maps did a great job and re-invigorating the maps market, but Yahoo's new Maps Beta [yahoo.com] is really much better. Overture could use some work as compared to AdWords/Adsense, but it's quite good.

      In 2003, Google had better than 80% search share in the US. Now it's almost half of that, and there's even more to play out. To me, Yahoo also has the right mindset about Web 2.0 communities -- look at its recent acquisitions of del.icio.us and Flickr -- and these will be important in the future. Google has a lot going for it, but Yahoo isn't just the funky homepage it used to be.

  • where traffic comes from: (Score:3, Insightful)

    by DECS ( 891519 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @01:27PM (#14234028) Homepage Journal
    MSN is the default IE browser homepage.
    Yahoo the default browser homepage for many DSL providers, including SBC.

    Both are the "choice" of people who don't make choices.

    Google is a default homepage for people who choose to download Firefox.
    Google is also clearly what most people are using to search the web (webmasters, check your web stats - its 85% Google referrals)

    So Google is the choice for people who actually choose.

    Looking at Yahoo/MSN vs Google's approach makes that pretty obvious: Google is a tool to use, while Yahoo/MSN is for tools to use.

  • Anyone who reads my post's knows I'm pro MS, but I don't belive for a minute that MS sites have almost double Yahoo. The MS sites get about 114 million, not over 180 million like this report says. If that report were accurate, combined with the AOL deal, MS would have the most lucrative Advertising network the internet has ever seen.

    This report also contradicts some stats (that I think are more inline with the truth) published by the NY Times and Associated press for the month of september.

    Here are the nu
  • Here's why: I tend to want the best content on a particular topic. Amazingly, Yahoo or another directory like Galaxy sometimes meets the bill. We are the Google generation -- who only clicks the top result. I find that horrendous. If you are going to click the top result, why not at least have it be peer-reviewed? Sometimes, I just want basic information on a particular topic. Google's algorithim may show me the most in-depth links, but maybe I just want an introduction. Google's algorithim can't factor

  • AOL really number one? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sloths ( 909607 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @01:44PM (#14234111)
    AOL owns MapQuest, and 80.4 million + 55.2 million=135.6 million. Sure you can argue that Google+Blogger or Yahoo!+Flickr, but if AOL changed the MapQuest URL to something like MapQuest.AOL.com, then would AOL be first?

    Click here if you use MapQuest [google.com]
    Click here if you use AOL [google.com]

  • Yahoo vs. Google: page views/visit metric (Score:3, Interesting)

    by otisg ( 92803 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @02:16PM (#14234268) Homepage Journal
    What is amazing about Yahoo is the number of page views per visit. This is a really important metric for any business counting on advertizing revenues. The numbers are here [alexa.com] (also a google.com comparison). Compare that to Google's numbers [alexa.com]. Google's numbers are 2-3 times lower!
    • Google's approach is tool-centric. Yahoo is finally consolidating their tools under a community-oriented approach, which may in the long run be better for advertisers. Since the acquisition of flickr, their strategy seems to look more focused. The deli.cio.ous acquisition fits right in with this strategy. All of their beta apps (360, et. al.) are better integrated than their first-generation applications. My feeling is that AOL has more to fear from Yahoo than from Google. While alpha geeks will continue to
    • As someone who runs a relatively large website:

      If you're not pushing per-view advertising, you want to minimize your page views per visit. You want information available to your readership/users at a minimum click death. Low page views per visit is a lot nicer to the user and minimizes resource consumption (servers, bandwidth, http connections, memory, whatever)

      Only those primarily interested in advertising want to maximize their click-count per visit. Those are the same folks who lace their sites with F

    • Re:Yahoo vs. Google: page views/visit metric (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Scrameustache ( 459504 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @04:08PM (#14234764) Homepage Journal
      Google's numbers are 2-3 times lower!

      So that tells us you need two to three less pages to find what you want at google. Which is why I google, and I don't yahoo.
    • Google is first and foremost a search engine - one or two page views per visit. Google was late to the webmail game so the traffic from GMail is probably 10% of that of Yahoo! Mail. Other than that, there is not a whole lot that would warrant multiple page views in the Google world -- maybe GoogleGroups, but I doubt that it's very popular outside of the geek world. In contrast, I've been using Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Mail for years. Both of these by their nature take several page views per day. I thin

  • Page View Inflation (Score:2, Insightful)

    by arof ( 924559 )
    As a quick look at Alexa [alexa.com] would point out, 50% of pages on yahoo are on mail.yahoo.com. 90% or more of those pages are refreshes to see messgages or even your inbox because of how their mail reader system works.

    Compare that to the G-mail system (only 6% of their pages by Alexa's count link [alexa.com]) that's smart enough to allow you to check all your mail without a page refresh something like Alexa will pick up. That's where so many of Yahoo's page views come from: a dumb mail system.
  • The default for millions of (suckers) aka Microsoft Customers who use Internet Explorer - MSN is by default their home page.

    They're just too stupid or brainwashed to change it.

  • is that Yahoo! beat out microsoft(the page visited by windows update), MSN(the default IE start page), Google(A modded version is the default for firfox, not sure if that's counted in these stats or not), and AOhelL(the default for AOhelL idio^h^h^h^husers and for AOhelL webmail). Other than downloading the Yahoo! toolbar, I can't think of a way that Yahoo! is forcing anyone to visit their site. You have to bear in mind that most people don't bother to change the startup page for their browser, so most of t

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