Yahoo is the gateway to the Internet

Absrtact: Back to the 90 's. Almost everything you need: email, news, sports, stocks and maps, all in one website: Yahoo. Yahoo is the gateway to the Internet and can provide you with everything you need. Yahoo has done a very successful job in this regard, almost

Back to the 90 's. Almost everything you need: email, news, sports, stocks and maps, all in one website: Yahoo. Yahoo is the internet's "gateway" to provide you with everything you need. Yahoo has been very successful in this respect and few other companies have been able to provide online media content on such a scale.

Yet Google is emerging. Google has found that the Internet is growing too fast for Yahoo to adapt. Google has adopted a different strategy, as well as a lot of revenue: using keywords to turn users to the best websites on the internet, such as providing Wikipedia links to hot topic queries, and IMDB links to movie information queries.

As a result, search replaces portals to become dominant. Everyone realizes that no website can cover all aspects of the Internet with its own power.

The rebirth of the portal

After entering the 2000, Facebook and smartphones, especially the iphone, have become new portals. This reminds me of the times of Yahoo. These services and tools provide all the experiences you need, including weather, stocks, games, and maps. The difference is that these services and tools are not stupid enough to think that they can do this with their own abilities. They only use the platform to expand the size of the portal with partners.

As a result, the current mobile and social portals provide a way for third parties to publish and push third parties to use their platforms to develop content. In this world, the App Store is the new Google.

However, even if the best applications can meet my needs, but the download, installation and start still more trouble. And although there are many outstanding applications, it is almost impossible to find the best application. In addition, even if a suitable application is found, the application has no clue to me. I need to register and make a certain degree of personalization. Of course, I also need to understand the application of the user interface, remember what the application features, so that the next time to use.

These problems make the simplicity of the era of Yahoo no longer exist. In Yahoo's era, as long as you log on to the site, you do not need to remember where you want to go, and the application of the function will not repeat, or abnormal behavior.

The evolution of Search

On the other hand, these problems embody the opportunities faced by the next generation search engine. When you do a search, you know what you want, and the search engine then points you in the right direction. You don't need to preset the results or choose a suitable application beforehand.

We have seen that Google, Bing and Yahoo are making their search results "applied". When you search for the words "Dark Knight", they will load the movie show time, show the cinema location on the map, the weather forecast of the relevant city, the company's stock information, and news, pictures and videos. However, they try to overwrite each situation without the help of a partner. According to Yahoo's past experience, this does not last long.

The answer is not to do everything autonomously, not just to build an application developer community, but to combine the two: a portal that associates users to the most relevant applications based on search keywords.

If this portal believes that a keyword is generic, then it can be developed and applied independently. For example, Yahoo can keep stock and news apps, but outsource a few niche applications, such as Yelp, Spotify and social-reading tools. This is similar to the iphone pre-installed with the calendar and stock apps, but not pre-installed any games. In fact, there are always areas where no application has been developed.

So, how does this help with search? Imagine that the Web page will pop up Spotify when searching for "Black Eyed Peas" and will pop up Yelp apps when searching for "French dinners." Search engines can allow third-party developers to develop more applications that will compete for rankings in search results through their own values.

Such a search engine means that users will no longer need to install hundreds of apps, and remember each usage scenario, but automatically get one of thousands of apps in every scenario that needs to be done. This will help users focus on their original needs instead of using which app. For now, I need to know each type of application, such as "I want to find restaurant information," and then I know what kind of application I need. I want to skip this step and express my needs directly, such as "I Want French Laundry".

Even Apple admits that this is the direction of industry development. In Siri, for example, you wouldn't say "let Yelp go looking for a French laundry" and just say "help me make a reservation for French laundry." Siri will determine which application or which data source best meets the requirements.

Why Yahoo instead of Google?

The core of Google is a search company, which earns a lot of money. If you're Google search manager, do you want a new model when your business model is still working? This poses a risk, and it's not your DNA. Your success will make you a victim, not to mention how disruptive it would be if you competed with Facebook.

Bing can't do that, because Google won't. Bing's goal is to take a slice of Google's profits to prevent Google from attacking Microsoft's other lucrative business. Bing's specific approach to Google is to mimic Google's strategy.

But Yahoo is already thinking about it. Over a more than 10-year period, Yahoo has focused on providing users with the functionality they need in a variety of scenarios. Yahoo's website still has huge traffic and is a content company. Yahoo is promising to become an apple in the Internet industry.