Yahoo!, how we loved you so?

You had a directory whose quality was unquestionable.

You had pages that were quicker then quick, light and fast.

You had the greatest geek mindshare, bar none.

When people asked – how do I find [this] on the web? We confidently answered, “Yahoo!”.

Then you decided to grow your business. AltaVista came and kicked your ass.

AltaVista, how we loved you so?

You had search results that were more accurate then your competitors.

You had pages that were quicker then quick, light and fast.

You took over the greatest geek mindshare, bar none.

When people asked – how do I find [this] on the web? We confidently answered, “AltaVista”.

Then you decided to grow your business. Google came and kicked your ass.

Google, by purchasing Pyra Labs (Blogger if you live in a cave) is now trodding down a predictable path. Will it make the same mistakes?

People forget how much power Yahoo! had over the web in it’s early days. As Google decides to grow it’s business – I’m going on the lookout for who is going to dethrone it. Look for it to happen in one to three years. Like to make a bet?

Isn’t this good for weblogging you ask? Initially, yes. Congrats to he Pyra folk who have been providing a valuable service to so many webloggers and readers. The service will definately be strengthened with Google’s resources behind it. I fear that eventually however, when companies control both the pipe (in this case the search engine) and what goes thru it (weblogs are found more by search engines then by other weblogs, contrary to belief) – it is only good for one entity – the company itself.

Usenet newsgroups are just growing by leaps and bounds aren’t they? Shelley is on target to remind us of Google buying Deja News.

Do people forget how great Geocities once was? eGroups? What makes Google so different from early Yahoo!?! Nothing! The same spirit that drove Yahoo! back in the day drives Google now. Yahoo! kicked ass. The geeks rallied behind it. Now it is a successful business. Good for Yahoo!. The pioneers however, moved on and promoted the upstart. Google has been kicking ass. The geeks have been rallying behind it. Soon it will be a large, successful business. And soon, a new generation of geeks will move on – eventually taking the web with them – to the new upstart.