Big Changes at Yahoo

Q: I heard that there are big changes with the Yahoo search engine. What are these changes and how does it affect my B&B being found on Yahoo.com?

A: Yes, there are big changes going on at Yahoo and it affects not only Yahoo but also several other search engines. I’m going to take a moment to explain how Yahoo worked a month ago so that I can contrast this to the recent changes. Hang on though as it can get confusing fast. The way it was: When a person searched for something at Yahoo they were presented with three groups of listings. The listings in order were: Yahoo categorical directory listings, Pay-per-click listings from Overture and free listings from Google. This was one of the reasons Google was so valuable is that you were listed not only on Google.com but also Yahoo (among other places). A while back Yahoo purchased/aquired several other smaller search engines such as Overture, Inktomi, AltaVista and Fast in an effort to compete with and replace Google. Well, now they’ve gone and replaced the Google listing on their web site with those from a new search engine of their own. Sound confusing? If so you’re not alone as the majority of the search engine industry is waiting to see what Yahoo will eventually do.