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GRUBI and the Jedi have been talking about these two companies since many days - about their products, services, the general service, their usefulness to web in general and such. And everytime we have come down to the same conclusion - Google may be the darling innovator of the world, but its Yahoo which is actually doing the useful stuff, albeit without much noise and bells. I decided to put this post up after I read that Google announced Google Pack at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show - this was supposed to be their big keynote speech.
A look into Google Pack only reveals otherwise, and comes accross as a rather disappointing and I dare say, desperate move by Google to capture people’s desktop. Google Pack is no different from what was already available on their download site as a “download all” option - the pack consists of their usual suspects (desktop search, toolbar, picasa, google earth et al) and some new additions (namely adobe acrobat reader and symantec anti-virus 6 month edition). The prize catch however is the Google updater software, which will act a la windows updater style for google’s own products.
Google Pack is clear indication, perhaps now more than ever, that Google is actually NOT doing well with any of their products; And that they are losing out to most notably Yahoo, even though many geeks and self confessed google lovers would like to think otherwise; even if Wall Street and media wants to think otherwise. Lets take a vis a vis comparison between what Google and Yahoo offer to their users, and how they measure up when you account in their usefulness, popularity and usability to the user. In specific, I can account atlest for myself and Jedi 
Gmail vs Yahoo Mail : Inarguably, google mail changed the world email. Gmail is superior to Yahoo mail every which way you want to see except one small caveat - and that is google has successfuly fooled people into thinking that they dont read your email. They do. Period. Its only time before people start noticing their rather friendly features (aka mapping addresses from mails automatically) to be not only intrusive, but unnecessary and adding no *real* value to the service. That saying, Gmail wins hands down compared to any other mail service, whether or not its Yahoo.
Google groups vs Yahoo groups: If someone tells me google groups is better than Yahoo groups, they must be outright kidding. Yahoo groups has evolved into a mature product and has stood the test of time. Google groups cannot come *anywhere* near Yahoo groups functionality, looks, usability, features and ease of use. Yes, Google groups though has good interface, clearly lacks everything that Yahoo groups has. Yahoo wins here, hands down.
Google Maps vs Yahoo Maps vs MSN Local: Google Maps are the best thing to have happened to web… looks wise. Yet, its Yahoo Maps which still consistently gives out better directions. Google maps have misled me many times, by refering to right turns as left and left as rights. I have sent them better directions to places consistently - one may argue its a beta product, but hell, more than 90% of google’s offerings are in beta anyways. One can argue that Google satellite map and hybrid map are its high points, but gentle readers, I suggest you give a look at Windows Live Local - yes, a Microsoft product. It kicks Google Map’s butt big time. I ain’t kidding here. And if you are, you are clearly obsessed with google. Yahoo’s trump card though along with their maps is their ability to pin point anything on their maps - but most important of all, Traffic conditions, a very useful service. And you only need to look at Yahoo Maps Beta, to figure out how good they are going to get with maps in a while. Yahoo wins again, followed by MSN Local and Google Maps.
Google Local vs Yahoo Local: You could tell very that Google Local never took off; hence Google merged Local Service with their popular Maps service to give Google Local a boost. And frankly, I still haven’t found Google Local to be remotely as useful as Yahoo Local. Yahoo Local’s interface is not only pleasing, but more often than not, it has come up with the right stuff I am looking for. 3/4th of google local is devoted to their Map interface, making their actual search results cumbersome and constricted to a small area. Versus Yahoo, which shows the map, but keeps the useful stuff in the major part of the page. Plus, the results can be sorted by distance, ratings given by users, user reviews and so on. Add to it, it also remembers your previous searches - everything about Yahoo Local is way superior to Google Local. Again, Yahoo wins here hands down.
Google Orkut vs Yahoo 360 : Both are miserable to the T. Its about time Orkut comes out of its “bad bad cookie, no donuts for you mode”. For all its hype, it still sucks in its looks department. Yahoo has a clean interface, though I cannot think of why its there in the first place! Social networking clearly belongs to Friendster, MySpace and the likes. No winners here.
Google Toolbar v/s Yahoo Toolbar: I personally think that google toolbar is just excellent. Having installed all three - msn, Yahoo and & Google toolbar, Google toolbar is the best in terms of how it handles popups, looks and icons. Also its cleaner than MSN and Yahoo toolbar. I have friends who swear by Yahoo toolbar, but I prefer Google Toolbar. Google wins this department. MSN toolbar doesnt even merit an attention.
Google Desktop Search Vs Yahoo Desktop: Again, both are miserable software, and anyone who wants to argue against me saying Google doesnt suck in desktop search - well, you can hold on to your opinions. The first thing I never liked about google desktop search was its uncanny similarity to their web interface; I can NEVER feel comfortable with that. Next they have never done the email search in Outlook properly; the moment my mails got transferred to archive directories, google desktop search would simply lose the link. Yahoo’s main problem is their cumbersome look to their software. They tried to do a little too much and ended up overdoing everything. Google desktop search hogs memory and slows down the PC; their indexing database consumed nearl 2 GB(!) of my diskspace - I usually have a lot of windows and applications open on my PC at any time, and can not afford to let a search service eat memory or CPU - which is what google did. I uninstalled it and installed MSN Desktop search - and in every terms, MSN Desktop search wins hands down; right from its memory consumption to their interface and search results - MSN Desktop rules!
Google Acquisitions vs Yahoo Acquisitions: Its a mixed bag here; Google has been buying fancy companies like Picasa and Keyhole and adding their software. But clearly after the initial hype dies out, there is nothing really great, fancy or different about either of Picasa or Keyhole. None of the software have repeat sustainability. Yahoo in comparision has been buying out smaller companies like Konfabulator, Del.Ic.Ous, Flickr and more web based companies. Konfabulator rocks in comparison go Google sidebar. So does del.ic.ous and Flicr - each of their acquisitons have had a lot of merit. Though google may have good products, I have to edge it to Yahoo here for buying out right stuff - aka stuff people use in day to day life.
Google video search v/s Yahoo Video search: Both are difrerent in the way they handle video and present it to users; Google video search lets u upload video and make it searchable; their video player is fantastic! Yahoo video search works more like video search - and often comes up with great and accurate results. Both win according to me in this area, because they are a little different in the way they do video.
Google News v/s Yahoo News: Google News is byfar their BEST beta product according to me, even eclipsing their gmail product. Not a day has gone by without me checking google news several times a days. Yahoo news is good too, but not as exhaustive or complete as Google News. However there is one small caveat that seperates the two. Google hasn’t figured out how to make money out of their News site, while Yahoo does make money. But I still think Google News wins it here.
There are also other offerings from these companies which cannot be compared really. To brief them out, here are what they feel like according to me.
Google Scholar: Thumbs Up! Scholar rocks in its accuracy in searching research oriented publications.
Google Suggest: Interesting idea, not really that useful though. Thumbs middle. Hehe
Google Translate: Thumbs Down. This one has a long way to go.
Blogger: Thumbs Up! They revolutionized blogging; though no one knows how they make money out of Blogger.
Google Blogsearch: More of the same, though is a useful service. Thumbs up.
Google Print: Two thumbs way way down! I just disagree with the concept that Google wants the author’s to opt out rather than opt in to their project; they want to change the concept of Copyright to suit them, and will set a very bad precdent by doing this. Its Google’s responbility as a responsible company to ask author’s for their copyright & not otherwise.
Yahoo Podcast Search: 2 Thumbs way up! I just love this feature of Yahoo. I dont know why people haven’t thought about this.
Yahoo TV: Thumbs up! Its fun catching up on lost episodes of various TV series. I luv their TV partnerships.
Yahoo Messenger: Google talk vs Yahoo Messenger doesnt even merit a comparision. Yahoo Messenger simply rocks.
Yahoo Unlimited: Thumbs middle: I have had a so so experience with this one.
Yahoo Radio / Launch Cast: Two thumbs way up!! Possibly their best integrated service with their messenger.
MyWeb / Yahoo 2.0: Thumbs up! I love their whole idea of myweb.
In the end…
Phew! That was a rather long comparision, and didnt even include MSN counterparts for most of the services. As above, I just feel that except for Google Mail, Toolbar, Blogger and Google News, I just dont think any of Google’s products have enough merits to cap them numero uno. On the other hand, Yahoo with its Local, Maps, Groups, Acquisitions have done a much better job of giving services to people which are actually useful in day to day life. Both companies are doing good work no doubts about it, but I think its Yahoo which actually does the more useful stuff - and they have been smart enough to let Google walk away with all the glory while they quietly do their job. Cynics accuse Yahoo of being a copycat, but then, Yahoo almost always ends up doing a better job of it. So I cannot complain.
Coming back to where I started with Google Pack - now this is why I dont like it - there is Google update software which will act as software updater for its products - which means, Google will now act as updater for my software - eventually I am sure they would want to handle all products other than Microsoft LOL. Whats worse about it is, now other companies will follow suit - in addition to my Windows updater, If I download Google updater, that too will keep sending information to google servers - and very soon we can imagine Yahoo, AOL and others to jump into the frey. Thats when Google starts becoming evil - they want your computer. And looking at the way they are going - they bloddy will get into our souls before turn of the century.
PS: I am not comparing Google’s flagship product Search vs Yahoo Search - its an unfair comparision. Google rocks. It would also be unfair to compare Yahoo Portal to Google personalized homepage as well. Yahoo rocks in that department. Both were their flagship products, and cannot be compared.
Till then, the debate of Yahoo v/s Google continues. So who do you like more - Yahoo or Google?
I guess my opinion is already known here and I completely echo Suyog’s sentiments.
Taking nothing away from Google, I can see how Google has been an innovator and many of their products are great. Google search is unparalleled (Search=Google) and Gmail is great. Both I use in everyday life. But the rest are something I can *easily* do without in my life, and in some cases inferior to whats already offered out there. I can see the angry Google fanatics thirsting for our blood after this
But thats how we feel.
Google Pack was the last straw for me too. I think the question I’m forced to ask myself and everyone around me is: We know that Google has been brilliant in the past, but is it really worthy of the *enormous* hype surrounding it today? I’m not so sure!
Personally, and this is my strict personal opinion, I believe Google is a victim of its own hype! Much like the Indian Cricket team of not so long ago. I think Google suddenly finds itself with too much wealth and resources, and they dont know what to do with it!!!
It would be be ill-advised for Google to put their feet into everything that goes around in this world and they must focus on improving their existing services. Also, I sincerely hope Google doesnt become the next Microsoft. The signs are already there !
jEDI
Very well reviewed and compared… I think you should have sent this one to some technical magazine and got some green bucks
I agreed with most of your points, save some. Just a little pointer: Google does not read your email, per se. It is just the NLP software at work
[...] Suyog has a long list of Google and Yahoo services and compares them service-to-service. Can’t say I agree with all of it - but go read! [...]
@Jedi: Yeah, exactly. Google is fast becoming a victim of its own hype; Google I think is in an unnecessary “one-up” mode over its rivals, when there is no reason to.
@Sudipta: Yeah, NLP or otherwise, its not their reading mails that bothers me - its the lack of options to turn featurs off that bothers me. I would love google to give me options to turn of stuff I dont want; eg: Mapping addresses using address contained in mail.
@Desipundit: Thanks a lot for linking the post ppl. Cheers.
Cheers!!
Suyog
hi - neat piece. could we publish it on the tech page in JAM magazine? let me know if interested!
hey, you missed out one very good feature of Google which is its SMS service.
you can check it out @ http://www.google.com/sms
I dont think Yahoo would come up with such a feature.
The big thing that sucks about Google is they never accept if there is a bug in their software.
Great piece. Found you thanks to desipundit. I agree with all your comparisons. Add me to the list of folks unhappy with Google Desktop, and Sidebar.
I love Google News too and most of the times, I can quickly browse the top headlines from each section to know what is going on.
I love Google Suggest and now it is integrated in the Google Firefox Toolbar so even in the search window in the toolbar, you can see typical searches that start with your search terms. Neat.
As for making money off Blogger, I see the ‘Make money off Adsense’ line every time I try to log in, every time I do log in, and every time I log off. They want me to put the Adsense bar on my blog (and millions of others) so that they can charge more money from their advertisers. Among all its acquisitions, blogger is probably the easiest vehicle for getting increased revenue in their bread and butter technology - search.
I love Launchcast and can’t believe no one else has copied the idea yet.
But the only thing I have not used much which you claim is good, is MyWeb 2.0.
And finally, thanks for pointing the fact about the Google Updater. I will surely not install the Google Pack. I am happy with the way my computer works and don’t need another software to go report to their servers what I have on my computer.
Good article - will be linking to it on my blog.
Suyog:
You rock! This was one post I think that Desipundit should have linked it using the adjective brilliant.
Two things: When comparing google maps and yahoo maps I think the point about local results is important. Because of google’s popularity, brand loyalty, and geek quotient the local results regarding restaurants, ATMs, even sex offenders living in the locality etc. is much more comprehensive. I know of a lot of people who spend time adding stuff on google maps. Call it anecdotal evidence but I haven’t seen similar enthusiasm about yahoo maps. And regarding direction… I think map quest beats both of them hands down.
Secondly you talked about copyright issue in the context of google print. But missed the point when talking about google videos. I think the copyright policy on videos is even unfair than for the print. This is because at least google print is available worldwide. Google videos is not available in India. Desipundit linked to a post where the author pointed out that Bollywood movies Apaharan and Neal ‘n Nikki can be viewed for free on google video. Now if a film maker in India does not have access to google videos, how is he even supposed to know that his movies are available online for free? One has to know about the violation before one protest. Usko kya sapna ayega kya! This I find appalling, more so than the print issue because there at least the publishing companies have a stake and can look out for the authors’ interests. They have the resources to protect their turf. Whereas film makers are individuals and they have no one to look out for but themselves.
Okay,
This proves that Suyog and Jedi have nothing better to do!!
If you two are so vellas, why don’t you finish up my journal and other miscellaneous stuff for me?!?!
NM
@Rashmi - thanks a lot for the comment. I have emailed you already abt the post.
@Kris - I think no big company likes to admit they have bugs, and most of all google LOL. Thanks a lot for the comment.
@USC Trojan - Tch Tch - Trojans lost a rather close final. Will comment on your blog abt that. Yes, Google updater is the sneakiest part of it all here. I am glad there are more ppl who agree abt google lol - thanks a lot for the trackback, and I will check your blog next
@Chetan - hehheh - I am sure if the post had its author as some of our dignitaries (you know who!), not only would it have been tagged brilliant, but ultra brilliant LOL. Though I sholdnt crib. Actually google maps was smart to release Google maps API - thats why you see so many ppl putting in their applications. However check out Yahoo Maps 2.0 - they have the same interface, and they TOO have relased yahoo maps API. It wont be long before Yahoo also has ppl behind it.
You make an excellent point about google video - this is what I HATE about google. They want the onus of copyrights to be held by the author of copyright - then whats the point of copyright anyways, if google and others had to put the stuff and then ask the author to opt out. Its not that I dont trust google with their good intentions, but for their selfish motives, they are setting a bad precedent to the entire web - and it wont be long before the entire web says - well, I will copy you as long as you dont tell me to explicitly - which is a cheap thing to do. In that sense, google has done “enough evil” already to demerit their do no evil” motto.
I think google is headed the microsoft way - and I dare say this - at the least, Microsoft come accross as a hardocre profit making selfish company - Google is simply trying to fool people into otherwise, when it is becoming just the same.
Thanks a lot for your comment!!
Cheers all!
Suyog
Suyog, I agree with you on the evil thing, and on Windows Live Local. But for raw speed WLL still has to get their act together. The Bird eye view provided by WLL and Google Maps is what is called as oblique imagery. Pictometry is one such provider.
Also folks, I can say with some experience that most of the online map services are great for dense urban areas, but they suck for places which don’t have too much people traffic i.e like rural places or small cities. All these services get their data from somebody like NAVTEQ, whose update frequency of maps is dependent on a lot of factors.
@suyog: Not to digress here, but the Rose Bowl was a heart-breaker. More discussion on my blog
There is major flaw in your comparison - You did not even compare the main feature where Google made itself, a success - SEARCH (and its not beta
) Nothing beats Google at search. Other services are just a shadow to it.
Regarding Gmail - for a software developer, he would know that its the software algorithms that look into the email and not people. There is a clear difference between the two.
@USC: Yes, I will be there right away hehe.
@Vipul: If you read the post correctly I do state why I didnt compare Google’s Search and Yahoo’s portal. Both of their products are incomparable. I know that NLP processors scan email; that doesnt mean I will feel happy about it hehe :). Computers can be smarter than humans sometimes hehe. Thanks a lot for your comments.
Cheers!
Suyog
One item of note btw Google Groups v/s Yahoo Groups is that individual e-mails from the erstwhile are distributed faster and don’t contain any advertisements.
OTOH, if accessing a group via web then, yes, Yahoo is more user-friendly with additional features.
-=Grumbler
@Grumbler: Thanks for stopping by buddy; google groups has its pros, but when compared as a complete picture yahoo groups is perhaps better.
Cheers
Suyog
[...] *This article was originally writen by me in January 2006. It is now crossposted here. http://www.suyogdeshpande.net/blog/2006/01/08/yahoo-vs-google/ [...]