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When you look at the Big 3 Search Engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, it is difficult to compare them only from a search engine perspective. So I started working on a list which showed a set of categories and listed the product each company brought to the table. After a while I started noticing a trend, Google, Yahoo and MSN have their hands in everything! A user could literally stop using one company’s services and switch to another’s while still being able to accomplish every single task. This is one of the main reasons these companies are so strong, they offer a complete solution. Furthermore for one company to stay competitive with the other two it literally has to be prepared to offer a similar service otherwise it could potentially be left in the dust.
| Product | MSN | Yahoo | |
| Search Engine | Live | Yahoo | |
| Gmail | Hotmail | Yahoo Mail | |
| Instant Messaging | GTalk | MSN Messenger | Yahoo Messenger |
| Feed Reader | Google Reader | My MSN | My Yahoo |
| Directory | Google Directory | MSN Directory | Yahoo Directory |
| Social Media / Web 2.0 | Blogger,Orkut | My MSN | del.icio.us,MyBlogLog |
| Groups | Google Groups | MSN Groups | Yahoo Groups |
| Maps | Google Maps | Map Point | Yahoo Maps |
| Finance | Google Finance | Money Central | Yahoo Finance |
| Shopping | Froogle | MSN Shopping | Yahoo Shopping |
| News | Google News | msnbc | Yahoo News |
| Photo Management | Picasa | MSN Photos | Yahoo Photos |
| Video | Google Video | MSN Video | Yahoo Video |
| SEO | Webmaster Tools | Adlabs | Yahoo Site Explorer |
| Sponsored (PPC) | Adwords | adCenter | Yahoo Search Marketing |
| Analytics | Google Analytics | Gatineau | n/a |
| Travel | n/a | MSN Travel | Yahoo Travel |
So which one do you prefer? In fact, one important thing to compare is also international perspective. For instance, there are not many Yahoo users nor MSN users in Estonia. In the same time, Google is very widely used and has much more global touch.
So in this sense, Google beats MSN and Yahoo. MSN with its’ services is very IE centric which is not cool at all.
If picking one out of those three is the case, I would go for Google. But I would not suggest to pick one only, but rather use services from MSN and Yahoo as well depending on your needs.
You’re right it’s hard to select just one when comparing so many services.
I will however start a series of posts where I compare the 3 engines for a given service (i.e.: feed reader or instant messaging)
Looks to me like Yahoo could use an analytics division!
Tina, Why don’t you approach them with VisiStat?
Google is rebranding “froogle” to “product search”. MSN also has live maps http://maps.live.com/.
I like the way you have compared and contrasted the 3 service providers , I also follow these three companies and ur post was really informative . Google has left yahoo far behing and its now the time of MS to get impacted by Google’s opensource revolution
Thanks Niladri,
Google and Microsoft are in fierce competition right now, trying to purchase as many companies (components) to add to their arsenals.
Niladri – Google isn’t open source. Just because they back a few open source programs doesn’t mean they are part of any open source revolution – in fact they are probably more secretive about what they are up to and how things work than even Microsoft. Did anyone see the Youtube purchase coming for example?
i beleive google will win bcoz it has:
google maps
google docs
youtube