Tag Archives: writing sites

Should Google Buy Yahoo?

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Should Google Buy Yahoo?

This is a question that has been a subject of much speculation recently, especially with Yahoo performing poorly in recent times.

In my opinion, I have to say in no uncertain terms: NO, NO and THRICE NO!

Once upon a time, Yahoo could be said to have the best search engine there was – until along came Google and not only created a better one, it did everything so well that people now “Google for things” – the word “Google” is most definitely in the modern dictionary.

Now if it was just about search engines, absorbing Yahoo into Google might not be a bad thing at all, but there is a lot more to Yahoo than just the search engine, and here is where a lot of the problems lie.

As far as search engine popularity, Google has dropped from 85% in 2009, to 83% in 2010 and 79% in 2011.  Yahoo has gone from 7% in 2009, to 6% in 2010 and risen slightly to 9% in 2011.  The main rival to both of these, Microsoft’s Bing has gone from just 3% in 2009, to 7% in 2010 and currently stands at 9% in 2011.

While this looks as if Google is losing market share and Yahoo is gaining, there are some factors behind this that ought to be considered.  Firstly, Bing is a relatively new search engine, and it’s rise in popularity has almost certainly had an effect on Google.  Secondly, the algorithm change that Google underwent early in 2011 (known as “Panda”) hit many sites hard, especially Yahoo, and some users of Yahoo in particular have moved away from using Google more as a boycott than because they prefer the functionality in Yahoo.  The extent to which this move remains firm will probably be seen by 2012, and I personally expect to see a slow move back to Google.

But aside from the search engines, Google is well known and respected for Google Maps, Google Earth, Blogger, YouTube, Google Mail and the latest offering Google Plus.

None of these products are known to have major problems across the whole Internet community.  Practically anything that Google releases works, and works all the time as well, without crashes or errors.  The name Google is synonymous with quality products.

This is sadly far from the truth when it comes to Yahoo, and it’s publishing arm, the Yahoo Contributor Network seems to exhibit more errors than most systems do during a Beta testing phase.

Since purchasing the Internet publishing company Associated Content in May 2010, the problems that writers who contribute to Yahoo publishing sites have just gone from bad to worse.

While Associated Content had it’s share of programming bugs, they were usually dealt with fairly quickly and the system was fairly reliable. 

Within months of Yahoo taking over, they replaced certain parts of the system with code that was so broken, junior programmers would be red-faced by it.

The fact that Yahoo articles do not rank well in Google since the algorithm change is just another slap in the face for Yahoo, but truth be known the slip in traffic began months before that and soon after yahoo took over the company.

Recent problems that most people in IT would consider extremely embarrassing in a live environment include (a) the wrong day of the week being displayed for statistics, and (b) links in RSS Feeds being incorrectly formatted.

The wrong day of the week only took weeks for Yahoo to fix, whereas the RSS Feed issue has been ongoing for a good 10 months and currently has no due date for it to be fixed.

With RSS Feeds being a major way in which articles are propagated across the Internet, and a source of backlinks and traffic for articles, the fact that Yahoo seems incapable to fix something which ought to help boost it’s traffic, rankings and earnings, is a little worrying.

In summary therefore, should Google, a company that is known to create software that is reliable, buy Yahoo, a company that is becoming increasingly known for it’s incapacity to achieve this?  My answer – most definitely NO!

Google would be far better creating it’s own systems that would compete with Yahoo, than to take over those which are so full of bugs as to be a corporate embarrassment.

In case you were wondering, YES I am a big fan of Google.  I have used many of their products and found few problems.  In many ways (such as built in conversions and translations in their browser) Google are one step ahead of the user, adding features that are really useful and easy to use.

I have been writing for Yahoo Contributor Network and previously for Associated Content since January 2010, and seen traffic to my articles rise dramatically until Yahoo implemented it’s first major changes, and then the slide began.

You can find my articles HERE – I doubt you will find many of them easily in Google.  You are more likely to find where I have added them to Digg or blogged about them than to find the original articles.  And as for the RSS feeds – some readers do correctly fix the links, but others don’t.

Article Summary 24th May 2010

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This is a list of articles that I have written on Associated Content in the last week, I hope you will take a look at them and also enjoy them.

I write on a number of topics, usually it depends on what comes into my head on any given day, so it could be a travel story, memoirs from my life, something from the daily news, or even a poem inspired by something.

This is what I have published in the last week, enjoy:

If you enjoy my writings, poetry and photographs, why not register with Associated Content, and then you can get an email every time I publish something.

Now that I am back writing I already have a number of additional articles published.  You can also Click Here to see my latest articles, rather than wait for the next summary posting.

A New Site For Writers To Earn Money

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Edited 6th May 2011: 
Sadly the site that was featured in this article, and that created a lot of anticipation, failed to survive, and is now kaput like so many others before it.
However, I would like to direct you to another site where you can earn money for posting articles, as well as for uploading Links, Photographs and Videos.
The site is Redgage, it’s FREE to join, and you can learn more about it HERE.

I received a special announcement today about a new site that is looking for writers to join and will pay them $10 – $100 for all articles that make the front page.

This is a good opportunity for writers with and without experience, and with many international authors (non American) having just left Associated Content, the timing is prudent.

For more information, take a look at the introductory message from their web site HERE.

This is a genuine writing opportunity for existing writers or those who want to write, brought to you from the owners of Qondio.

More information to follow soon…

Catching Up

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It’s been a while since I wrote a new post on our blog, and for a few reasons.

Firstly, life has just been very hectic lately, with Debbie’s daughter, husband, 9 month old baby and 2 dogs coming to live with us 3 months ago.  The extra people in the house, especially a baby and 2 dogs, just made it harder to focus on all the writing that I wanted to do.

They are headed out to South Africa (emigrating) in a few weeks, as soon as the visas have been sorted out, so soon we will have the house to ourselves again.  No doubt it will be then almost too quiet!   The dogs have gone to new homes, so no more barking or mud trodden into the carpets, however Debbie’s grandson is now in between the crawling and walking stage, and has discovered how to shriek at a pitch and loudness that is dangerous for your health.  It’s that “fun” stage where the word “NO” doesn’t seem to mean anything, so it keeps you on your toes, and nothing is safe!

Secondly, we only moved into the house at the end of October, and there are plenty of things that need doing, both inside and in the garden.  It’s taken a lot of our time, but again it’s been hard to get motivated to do some things.

Thirdly and most importantly, we finally got married in April, and went to Cornwall on honeymoon.  The preparations for the wedding took a lot of Debbie’s focus and time, and also mine to an extent.

Lastly, in an attempt to try and boost my online earnings, I have been writing a lot over at Associated Content.  This is a great site for authors wanting to get noticed, and if you are thinking of writing to earn some money, I definitely recommend it.  Click Here to register, and even if you don’t want to write, you can opt to be sent an email every time I publish a new article.

So what do I write about?

Pretty much anything really, from written articles to poetry to slideshows of our trips and local area.  Topics recently have included the UK General Election, the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud, movie quizes and a lot more.  Just visit my account at Associated Content and take a look.

I am hoping that as the year progresses both Debbie and I will be back writing here as well, but you can always see what we are up to, every Sunday there is a Twitter summary posted here, and on Mondays a summary of my new publications over at Associated Content.

I hope you have a chance to read some of what I have written there, and every page view counts towards my earnings total.  If you do visit, please be sure to leave a comment to let me know you were there.