And yes, I always instinctively turn to Google, too – precisely because everytime I’ve tried to do anything at Yahoo (like search for a particular kind of Yahoo Group, for example) I’ve gotten inextricably lost in the welter of rabbit warrens of totally illogical links thrust in my face as so-called search responses. The place is like the Labrea Tar Pits of the Internet.

“white paper” coffee phosphorus “fair trade”

…or something like that! What kind of ads do you put next to that?! Well they put loads of ads on but they’re all trying to sell me coffee! When I’m researching stuff, I’m not buying!

I can see, however, why Yahoo! might be faltering a little because I always find their results just go less deep
For example, a search for ‘sortroom’ on Google vs on Yahoo! Google’s results, though perhaps less focused because they don’t have ‘sortroom.net’ in the title of the page all the time, give a much greater depth of understanding, finding links. That’s a very specific example, but when you look at something very generic like Kelly Clarkson on Yahoo! and Google you see a similar picture but with interesting differences. Yahoo’s results make you have to look down the page just to see what you searched for while Google’s results are not only more helpful (telling you that KellyClarksononweb.com is the official site) but also gives you a picture. You know you’ve found what you’re looking for and it’s immediately clear what’s an ad and what’s a search result and so those ads are more likely (I think) to be deliberately rather than erroniously clicked on and so will be more valuable. By making their ads and results blurred Yahoo distract the user from what they’re looking for (the results) and make using the search less enjoyable. It’s an effort rather than a tool. I think Yahoo’s problem is that they’re so focused on monetising their product that they forget to keep things simple so that people actually want to use their search. If they’ve lost the core they’ve lost everything because users no longer have a reason to visit and so you find side distractions attempting to keep our attention. However no number of entertainment specials or cheap car promotions are going to keep me going to Yahoo! It’s the search that’s important!
So I use Google. Could you have guessed?