Yahoo cranked out one of its best new features into the SEO struggle for supremacy. Whereas Google and MSN have their strong points, Yahoo continues to keep the same personal touch they’re known for In this new My Web 2.0 (beta), Yahoo really makes their case for remaining the pioneer in search engine optimization.
Yahoo bills the new version of My Web as a “social search engine.” With it, not only can you save all your own personal searches, but you can also pull others into your search web and save group search features. This is the next level in Yahoo’s My Web advancement.
When Yahoo put out My Web 1.0 back in April, they added some nice features to their SEO efforts. Yahoodlums could essentially create their own search engine so to speak. They could control what went into it and even block objectionable content. If certain sites weren’t relevant in a search, chuck it out. Then you could limit all the content to your own personal search (engine).
Yahoo has taken the next step. They’ve added lots of new features, not the least of which is the social search engine. A creation allowing groups to create their own search engine.
So, say you’re a gamer geek and you and your buddies want to talk about the new release of the L5R 3rd edition. You get to bring them into your circle of searches. You could mark the home page of the game publisher, AEG. Then, since everyone has obviously created their own fan sites, throw all those in.
Then you add RPG.net for reviews and the list could go on. Before long, you got 50 sites tied to just this game you and your buddies play. Of course you wouldn’t be limited to just that game. Suppose you want to watch the Paris Hilton commercial for Carl Jr.’s. Stick that link in there too.
So, before long you’ve got 300 websites of varying content and you need to add some organization to make it all relevant for your purposes. Yahoo also threw in the ability to tag your searches. The structured tagging feature offers a great tool for Yahoodlums to take advantage of in their search groups.
Tags can be abused, as most folks familiar with search engines are aware. Yahoo recently purchased the Flickr Company in order get the tagging technology they possess. The tags are quite similar to the older metadata tags, which were, at one time all the rage.
Unfortunately, fairly quickly, metadata became quickly misused and they fell into disuse fairly quickly. Yahoo maintains that in an enclosed environment, these tags can be quite useful though. Yahoo also maintains the ability for folks to enclose or expand the tags as much as possible.
My Web also works quite well with Yahoo’s Toolbar. Something I noticed when I downloaded the toolbar with the My Web feature on it back in April was the fact that it could grab all the favorite websites I’d saved and make them accessible pretty much anywhere.
This may be the strongest feature in Yahoo’s SEO arsenal right now. Yahoo’s emphasis toward personalization definitely takes a big leap as Yahoo strives to put together features for groups and individuals to build on.
Another side for Yahoo and certainly where they’ll make their money is going to be the ability to niche market their advertising further. The ads will show up but Yahoo will be able to analyze the contents for certain groups and throw up ads in the mix. These ads can be designed and go towards specific types of customers and depending on the size of some of the groups involved, may even allow tailor made ads for specific groups.
The downside, particularly with other problems Yahoo’s had would be how to monitor some of these groups. Yahoo recently shut down their personal chat rooms on their instant messenger service because some of the names of the rooms suggested lewd behavior geared towards children. This group service could be misused in that manner and there’s no reason to believe it won’t be eventually, if not almost immediately. And as mentioned above, the tags could also be misused if the groups aren’t careful in how the regulate the usage of these tags.
Overall, Yahoo’s new My Web 2.0 really adds something to the web experience. Its applications seem endless. Whether you’re a model train collector or merely a physics class in college, the group build social search aspect really gives Yahoo something special. As search engine optimization continues to expand and grow and the companies try to find relevant features, this My Web is one that stands out.
John Stith is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
