May 8, 2008

Yahoo search drops numbered rankings?

Written by Brian Turner

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So I’m running a manual check of some rankings on Yahoo search - only to suddenly notice that the ranking positions are no longer numbered:

All I can do is give a slow clap on Yahoo’s continued disdain for the user experience.

This is not least after recently posting 10 Reasons Why Yahoo search sucks - which covered user experience issues before even getting to Yahoo search results.

Let’s be clear - having numbered listings was one of the few positive user experiences that Yahoo provided - and was unique to Yahoo search.

And now they’ve dropped it??

Congratulations, Yahoo, for bringing down the level of user experience a peg or two!

They must have someone from Microsoft working on Yahoo search at the moment. :)

In the meantime, interesting changes with Live search.

While the flashy image box will invite its own comments, the big change for the user experience is that Live now allows users in the UK to select UK sites/pages before searching - something the old Live.com site did not allow, and Yahoo still has to catch up with.

Isn’t that sad, really, though?

That as one of the early internet innovators, Yahoo! find themselves trailing behind even Microsoft’s example?

As an investor recently commented, perhaps Yahoo should change punctuation - from Yahoo! to Yahoo?

Filed Under Marketing