ON YAHOO! vs. GOOGLE, THE NEW TORTOISE VS. THE HARE?

DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS

Another New York Times article doing a compare and contrast between Yahoo! and Google's approaches to developing and filling out the features offered in their suite of services.  As Saul Hansell, the article's author notes:

"Do Internet users prefer services that are consistent and predictable, like those offered by Yahoo, or are they more interested in Google’s wow factor? These two approaches define a pivotal front in the battle for online loyalty between the major players in the Internet search business."

The article quotes Ash Patel, Google's Chief Product Officer as saying:

“Our philosophy is that being part of the Yahoo network is a huge advantage and a huge competitive differentiator,” said Ash Patel, Yahoo’s chief product officer. “When we build a product that takes advantage of the Yahoo network, it doesn’t feel like an orphan.”

In other words, Yahoo! tries to follow the "Ready, Aim Fire" mantra, while at Google, it can be "Fire, Ready, Aim".

Here's now the New York Times explains it:

"Sometimes this penchant for speed and innovation can cause Google to zoom past the basics.

When asked about the lack of an address book in Google Maps in an interview last fall, Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president for search products and user experience, said it was a gap in the product. She said it was much easier to get the company’s engineers to spend time developing pioneering new technology than a much more prosaic address storage system."

Looks like Google's going to have to buckle down and get it's employees to buckle down and do some "boring" coding, while Yahoo! is trying to take great "Wow" ideas, and make sure they integrated and work well with existing products and services.

Both need to borrow a little from the other one's approach.  In the meantime, Microsoft and AOL are trying to out-flank both.

As the man said, we do live in interesting times.

Comments

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