Do you remember Yahoo? The site would like to relaunch its search engine against the ubiquitous Google.
Is it still possible for Yahoo to come back in force on the search engine market, today largely dominated by Google? Obviously, the company imagines it has something to play for: the specialized site Search Engine Land, which closely follows this sector, observed on January 30, 2023 a set of clues that would show the service’s desire to make a “come- back”.
A job posting for a Senior Product Manager for “Yahoo Search” was posted online. The person chosen must contribute to the development of our research strategy and roadmap and lead its execution “. Among other things, he will be asked to imagine new research experiments.
This publication was supplemented by a promotional campaign around this announcement from some senior Yahoo executives, such as Brian Provost, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Yahoo, and Karen Chin, Director of products. In addition, notes Search Engine Land, the CEO of Yahoo, Jim Lanzone, ” has deep ties in online research “.
Finally, there was the resurrection of the Yahoo Search official account on Twitter. ” I’m just passing by to remind everyone that we’ve done research before it’s cool. Back to make it cool again » ; ” Your latest Yahoo search. Without cheating », are some of the posted messages. Yahoo even reacted to the Search Engine Land article, without denying.
A moribund search engine
Yahoo’s search engine never went away; it is still usable from the website of the famous portal. But, it is true that his condition is moribund with the public. Its market share in the world, according to StatCounter, amounts to a painful 1.25%. It has been in decline since December 2021 – at the time it accounted for 1.5% of online searches.
The audience of Yahoo Search varies from one country to another (in France, it is around 1.4%), but it is still less than Bing (4.24% in France and 3% in the world) , Microsoft’s search engine. Google is by far the undisputed leader in the sector, without anyone overshadowing it: Google has exceeded 90% market share for years.
Today, we still do not know what will be Yahoo’s strategy against Google. Many search engines already exist, each with their specificities: Qwant focuses on the absence of advertising profiling; Ecosia links research to the ecological dimension; DuckDuckGo also plays the privacy card. But, their offer hasn’t turned the table so far.
Can Yahoo do it? The company’s history obviously urges some caution: shutting down once-core services like Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo Q&A, among other failures and missed opportunities. Two in particular undoubtedly leave a bitter memory at Yahoo: when it was still possible to buy Google, then a simple startup.
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