Yahoo! is unveiling it’s new website design (the first in 4 years!) in an effort to compete with #1 Google. It’s search engine vs search engine…
Curious – I checked out the new site. And let’s just say I didn’t get the warm and fuzzies.
Yahoo! changed it’s homepage to be more customizable and more social friendly – allowing you to see what your friends on Facebook are reading and sharing. It’s supposed to allow you to see content that is of interest to you rather than the hot topics of the day.
The only thing I can say is I think Yahoo! is still stuck in 2012.
That’s not innovative. That’s more of the same. Same as everyone else. Except for Google, of course.
Each page on a website should have a single call to action that is 100% clear as to what you’re supposed to do with the information in front of you. Take a look yourself:
YCheck out www.yahoo.com and note the first thing you see. What should you do first?
GNow check out www.google.com and note the first thing you see. What should you do first?
This exercise inspired this blog, actually. When I was on Yahoo! – I would click on the main story, not search for content. When I was on Google – the only thing I could do is search for content.
Truth is – if I want to see what my friends are sharing on Facebook – I’ll go on Facebook. I’m not going to use Yahoo! for that.
I was told early in my career that if I wanted to be successful – I should be really good at one thing – not just good at many things. I’m not sure what Yahoo! wants to be really good at…
A simple web search of Google and Yahoo! proves my point just by reading the page description (SEO speak):
What does that mean?
The moral of the story is if you’re going to re-brand or modify your service offering – make sure you first know what it is you want to be really good at. Second – are you offering more of the same or have you truly innovated the way customers can interact with you? And third – make it interesting so people want to talk about it.
There is a reason why Google Glass is trending on Twitter but Yahoo! isn’t.