What is Yahoo thinking by announcing this? Search is over? I really don’t think so. I mean as boring as search can be, there are still companies such as Collarity, again a sponsor of this blog, as well as the new Jason Calacanis startup Mahalo. Even though I don’t think human search is the answer, I don’t believe for a minute that search is over.
If search is so over, how come Microsoft is making secret plans to do a search engine? Why would the big guy spend money on something that supposedly is so over? I agree that personalization may be the key to the future of being online, but people will always want to search. Whether it’s for hobby, research, blogging, or just plain looking something up, search is going to always be on the forefront of “why people get online”.
It goes back to my story of the people of Potosi, MO; Scotland, SD; and Alhambra, IL. When that demographic jumps online it’s going to be for a few reasons. 1. To check e-mail. 2. To search for something. 3. Login to their social networking account.
Technically Speaking, Yahoo seems to be disconnecting themselves from the very people they need to plug in with. That group is the group from the above small towns that still are not online and plugged in as everyone out in Silicon Valley is. To win the battle online, for supremacy, you must gather in that group of demographics. For a company to ignore that group, is quite unwise and fool hardy.
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