Two! Yahoo! Things! That! Are! Very Good!
Delicious & Flickr.
The former, in particular. I dread to think what would happed to Delicious if MS took over.
I just tried using Y! as my main search. It's still gash. It only lasted three attempts.
Did a test for 'Office Alternative'.
-Google = OpenOffice.org home page at the top.
-Y! = ranks a page for a 4-Battery Solar Charger on Maplin just below a review for OO.o on the bottom of the first page. OO.o home page not on page 1.
-Ask = OO.o comes second. A few other mentions returned plus a nice attempt at contextual options for narrowing the search.
-MS Live = Unsurprisingly, no mention of OO.o on the first page of results either.
-Alta Vista = "E-38 Inkjet Cartridge, alternative for Epson T048140, black" ranks second FFS!!! Again, no mention of OO.o on page one, and the usual raft of comparison sites are in full effect.
-Clusty = Same old story.
-Cuil = Fair play - it actually returns a couple of sites that mention OO.o
Let's try another search. What about 'make pdfs'?
Google gives three or four links to free pdf creation apps. Cuil manages a couple. Y! is hopeless. Clusty does well and gives a few decent HowTo's - and if you delve into it's clustering you're away. Ask gives good reults with a hover preview and offers context. Alta Vista = somewhere between Y! and Clusty but without the clustering. MS Live returns little of real use but bizzarely puts a Liberal Democrat PDF brochure at the top of the pile on the basis of including the word 'make' in the URL!
But what of the real 'acid test'? - a simple three letter search for 'Reg'.
It's top dog in all of them except Ask and Clusty.
But in all seriousness, Google is top dog because it helps you to find what you want. Simple as that. Ask and Clusty are usefull when a little context/clustering is required. MS Live is hopeless. Y! is little better. Alta Vista is just a re-jigged Y!. Cuil is surprisingly useful.
Final ranking, based on my exceptionally limited test:
1. Google
2. Ask or Clusty, depending on what you're after
3. Cuil
4. Yahoo or Alta Vista (they're essentially the same thing anyway)
5. MS Live
What this has to do with the share price, I don't know. But it sure explains why the big G has taken the market share it currently enjoys.