Okay Geek Farm
Why Yahoo and AOL must die - and they will
Brandon Davenport
What are search engines? They are meant for search, right? We're supposed to type into a little box, hit enter and see a list of search results. Then why do AOL and Yahoo seem to be fantasizing about being the next TMZ and Radar Online and totally ignoring the fact that everyone else still considers them to be a search engine.
Sure, your rockin' Mom and Niece love Yahoo, because they have "free email" and "news" but where do they go to do their searches? Google. Yes, they do! And guess what, many of them type "Google" into the address bar in their browser and click on the first link in the Google search results for "Google". Here's why Yahoo and AOL need to die, and how they definitely will...
They sucked from the beginning
Look at this. Look at this! WTF is this? Sure, it was the early 2000's but please, that site looks like the main concept was "How many links can we fit on someones screen, without making their eyes bleed?" from the beginning; Yahoo was a confusing mess. AOL was no better - Look at this - This was another monstrosity of link farming and eye-gouging masses of buttons and "What the hell is that? AOL Real Estate?" I mean why? Why do we need all this crap in front of us. If we want to look at news, why not go to "news.aol.com" which you could link to with a little button, along with everything else, above the search bar, which should be the only thing on the page!
Why they still suck
Have you ever been in a Starbucks when there was an office meeting going on with some overly eager yuppies, a group of joggers, and a Sunday mass all trying to talk at the same time? What happens next is they all start talking louder and louder so they can be heard over the other people talking louder and louder.
This is the basic concept of Yahoo and AOL. They have so much crap on their home page, they have to go to all this trouble to make stuff stand out, among the other stuff they are trying to make stand out. It's like digging a hole while skydiving, it doesn't work.
Why not have all the people in Starbucks be quiet to begin with, so when someone has an important announcement to make, they can speak up. Same with the homepage. Make it simple. Dead simple, and clean so when you have something you want to promote, you can make a little button and it will stand out like a sore thumb, even though it's so tiny and simple.
Here's how to fix it - from a web developers point of view
Take what you've got, it's just lovely, only hide it all and add some web 2.0 magic to make it work well. Here is the break down of how to bring AOL and Yahoo back to the top.
Clean up the homepage - Take the main structure of Google's homepage, then play with it. Take your logo and place it where Bing's is. Add a small, simple menu depicting "Search, Images, Video, News, Weather" and so forth, and place it above the search bar.
Add some simplicity - When the user clicks one of the menu items, for instance "news", have the search bar slide to the top, and fade the content (news) into place. This is 100% possible using jQuery or another form of Java library (maybe your own, Yahoo) and utilizing other web standards like CSS3 and HTML5 which have animation capabilities and transitional effects which are possible without Java script, or flash.
Make it social - Integrate ways for users to connect their Twitter, Facebook and other things they love, and plug that into search results. So if a user searches "2010 olympics" they may see a plain old search result, or news story, but they can also see related results in which their friends have Tweeted, Facebooked or Flickred and make it optional to sort results by how your friends react to it.
Separate and Integrate - Make all your services like news, mail, and search feel like they are completely different products, or companies, and they just happen to be owned by you. That way you will be able to attract people that may not want to use your search at all, but would like to use your news app. Once you have each of your services separated, give the users options to integrate them with each other. That way they can use one, all of them, or if they choose, be able to mix them together if they want.
Compare AOL and Yahoo, to Bing and Google
Why Yahoo and AOL will die
Now let's make some things clear, there is a 0.1% chance that they could outlast Google, that said, they are going to die. Let's face it, when is the last time you went to Yahoo or AOL to just search something? I'll answer that for you. Never. When was the last time you re-set Yahoo or AOL as your homepage? I'll answer that for you too. Never. So why do people go to AOL and Yahoo? Boredom and too much time.
Your business model is gone, you have lost your "Claim to fame" and you are now slowly fading out, and becoming the next AltaVista. The're just keeping the chair warm for you...
