DISQUS

I'd say that as long as your product isn't horrendous and the experience you offer IS fantastic you'll be sorted.. People will believe a product to be better than perhaps it is if the accompanying experience is a great and memorable one.
That being said, however, in this day-and-age no one can afford to shirk on the quality of the product they provide.. people will find out, word will spread and your business will fail

It's kinda sad that print media has fallen so far behind the competition just by stubbornly refusing to keep up with the new developments of the times.

Trusted referrals are always going to be the best.. but it's not always that easy to earn such referrals other than through providing a great business..

Great post!! I think it's far too easy to forget that the customer is actually a person, with real needs and desires that we have to attempt to meet!
We tend to write them off as faceless millions who generally cause us as much frustration as profit

If they're still intent about buying Yahoo! they must know something about Carol Bartz that the rest of us aren't aware of yet

Good idea from YAhoo!'s side.. ensure they don't just hire someone who's along for an overpaid ride to the company's financial decimation! And, one assumes, she's confident she can help the company get back on it's feet.. the next year or two should be interesting

it's kinda sad though, part of Google's charm is that they just do everything, seemingly at random (though we all know nothing they do is at random) they stick their fingers in every pie and their employees have this freedom to enjoy themselves and are given freedom to be completely creative..

I agree with you on this one, they should hang on to search for a while still... And they especially shouldn't cut it out of their arsenal during a time of such financial woe.. It could be a decision they'd come to regret in more prosperous times

I'd rather Google be open and honest, and they should also prefer that option... They want the public to start gaining trust for them again, they have to keep all informed as to what they're up to.. It's not like them having to lay off people is actually a surprise..

I think its a little early to tell, but maybe we should "give Yahoo! some friggin' breathing room," see what the near future holds for the company... Personally I'm just happy that they won't be giving in to MS

not to be argumentative or anything, but mayhaps they're indicating the fact that as kids are exposed more and more to the Internet and the inherent dangers it poses, they're becoming wiser to how they might avoid or counteract those dangers?

I couldn't care less about the "beta" label's presence, or lack of it, Google software in Beta is still better than the "finished" software of most other companies

that's terrible!! But proof I guess that some of the world is slower at adopting their practices and techniques to the web than others.. The non-tech oriented fields seem to be fooling themselves into believing that, somehow, the Internet will turn out to be nothing more than a short-lived fad that they can ignore until it goes away

Hmmm... I agree completely with the "Big Brand" syndrome.. and, speaking just from personal experiences, I've noticed more and more people buying into this whole "Google is taking over the world" mindset... poor sods, trying desperately to gather information to make things more efficient and convenient for users and they end up losing the trust of those users as a result

I personally try to avoid theories that cannot be proven one way or the other, beyond a shadow of a doubt.. So maybe global warming is BS, maybe it's not... either way I'm not particularly concerned.. Sorry if that's not very PC

@John: They have to do something, Google (considering the upstart it is compared to MS) is trouncing them and making them look bad in everyway... if MicroSoft doesn't turn things around soon their liable to sink fast

Great! Competition is always healthy, and of course the real winners will be the users.

Much as I'm happy to see Yahoo! doing something new and being the first ones to make a certain change, I doubt it'll take Google long to match, and eventually, overtake them even in this new endeavour... They've probably already begun work on a competing product and are simply waiting for Yahoo! to release theirs so that they can outdo it and launch one in return

I think it's gotten to the point where it'd be near impossible for another search engine to steal google's regular users. The brand has become so powerful and recognised that it changes people's perceptions, as you pointed out with, "results with the Google brand are perceived as more relevant than identical results with other search engines’ logos," it's similar to tests that were done a while ago in which children were given vegetables to eat, some of the veggies were handed over as they were packaged straight outta the supermarket, while others were delivered in McDonalds packaging.... The kids, of course, said the McD veggies tasted better, despite the fact that they were all the same thing

Good luck to Yahoo! they need to get back in the game and maybe a fresh set of eyes and a neew take on things will help shake things up a bit

I think it's a great move... Primarily because, right now, they can't fall much further and they need to do something, anything, to revitalise them. I wish them luck and applaude their shift in direction.

I gotta say that I think it's a bold move that would impress a great deal of those who are stressed about the amount of info the search engines have access to (me being one of them).. but I doubt that too many people will care one way or the other about it

I think that many small bussinesses see search marketing as a kind of esoteric science.. It's all too unknown and still somehow viewed as an unreliable and immeasurable form of marketing.. Something into which they're dubious about investing their money..

I truly believe that most of Google's efforts violate the individuals right to privacy.. This is just another example of something we've seen thousands of times before.

Google... Very tricksy fellows over there.. But you can't fault their drive.. And anyway, was anyone really surprised when they launched their browser?