Impressive Yahoo Moves
December 14th, 2004Yahoo has announced that it will be giving away a free version of X1, the desktop search engine from Idealab! starting next year.
This is a brilliant move. In May I blogged about Google's free desktop search and what a threat it posed to Microsoft:
"When Google offers its free download, I'm not sure X1 will have a prayer, unless Microsoft buys X1 and starts giving its tool away for free to compete with Google."
I paid $99 for X1 and have also tried Google's desktop search and Copernic.com's free desktop search. While Copernic has the best user interface, X1 is far faster and more reliable than Copernic. I don't like Google's attempt to integrate web searching with desktop searching. I like the dedicated desktop search programs much better.
So Yahoo did what I thought Microsoft should do.
Yahoo is leading in another key area: customizable home pages. My Yahoo is absolutely superb. It offers not only stock tracking but now has more than 150,000 data feeds (including blogs and major news sources) that you can select for your MyYahoo! home page.
Posted in: Search Engine News
December 15th, 2004 at 02:12 AM
If you have an EarthLink account, they have a pretty sweet customizable home page offering at start.earthlink.net.
December 16th, 2004 at 03:12 AM
I attended one of your business lectures on the BYU campus where you made mention of my.yahoo.com, and I have loved using it ever since. It's wonderful having an information gateway at my fingertips.
December 20th, 2004 at 02:12 AM
Total in agreement here. I've been an X1 user since the first beta release. It's always been compelling (if a bit buggy and slow at first), but updates were released regularly which addressed user input head on. Desktop Search, in general, is a "closer to the user" move by X1/Yahoo. And you're right, X1 blows doors on Copernic and Google Desktop search. Also, Microsoft's rushed release of a Desktop Search in the last couple of weeks caught my interest until it crashed my system. Uninstall. Rebuild. Back to X1.
And the "power of free" will keep X1 in the lead. I've recommended it so many times, but I often got the response, $99 (or $49 when it was that) is too much.
Go Yahoo.
E
December 22nd, 2004 at 06:12 AM
Yahoo has done a lot more interesting things, lately. Specifically, check out their video/multimedia search innovations.
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