Okay, everyone should take the “Yahoo Challenge”: try to find something using Google, and then take the same search term and try with Yahoo. Report on which engine gave you better and more pertinent results. I have to say, I am getting less quality with Google these days which has left me to try Yahoo and MSN from time-to-time — they actually are quite a bit better sometimes.
I am a pretty big Google fan (and I’m sure they will come up with another huge revenue stream like they did with AdWords), but Yahoo! et al are coming out with some really nice, user-friendly offerings that are worth noting. And perhaps more importantly, the perception (and perhaps reality, since in business, they are no different), is that Google is not making as many strides as Yahoo!/Microsoft on their core search engine offering.
My opinion: Google will need to hit it fairly big on their next revenue stream bet or we will see them take a hit.
If you haven’t tried it, you really should: http://maps.google.com.
I have been using Google Maps to find businesses for a while now because it is fast and I can see an AJAX-draggable map right when I find them. I used to pick up my cell phone and call them right afterwards, but now, I don’t even have to dial their number. Google Maps will remember my phone number and I can click one button so that Google can connect me with the business. For free. Now, that rocks!
For people that get charged or have limited long distance calls, the soft savings expand to hard savings.
Also, when the call comes into your phone, caller id shows up with the actual phone number of the business you will be speaking with (rather than some random or meaningless number). So, just “add to address book” if you’d like when the call is over. This really is a cool service.
Very interesting.
Collaborate online with others. Save as Word documents or Excel. Heck, you can save documents as PDF. Have your docs available online (all the time, from anywhere with a connection). Okay, we can ask, what if we don’t have a connection? Yes, I am more concerned about my ISP dropping a connection rather than Google’s servers. But that is just something we need to get used to as more and more of what we do is done online, so no, that doesn’t yet seem to be a valid argument (and I’m sure they’ll end up with some sort of auto-save so you can work offline if needed — maybe that will be a feature they charge for).
Well, at least check it out:http://docs.google.com/
Did I mention it’s free? Now you have no excuse. Check it out and we’ll talk later.
