April 24, 2008 5:21 PM PDT

Yahoo Suggest: The Good, the Bad, and the Unbelievable

by Stephan Spencer
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In my presentation yesterday here at Web 2.0 Expo, I showed Yahoo Suggest as an alternative to Google Suggest for quick-n-dirty keyword research. Both tools are free. Google Suggest is also built into the Google Toolbar's search box, so it's super convenient: just start typing keystrokes and it makes suggestions (think: auto-complete), the suggestions listed in order of popularity. In fact, it was Google Suggest that my daughter Chloe used to identify her top search term, "neopets cheats" and thus named her site "The Ultimate Neopets Cheats Site" since Google Suggest showed that "neopets cheats" was the second most popular search term after "neopets".

Google Suggest works great if you're comparing keywords that start with the same keystrokes, but you can't compare, say, "new cars" with "used cars". Yahoo Suggest has a leg up on Google Suggest, in that regard, since it returns search terms where your keystrokes may be in the middle or end of the search term. Just go to Yahoo and start typing in their search box.

Sounds great, doesn't it? However, when I was showing this in my presentation, it didn't work as expected. In an instant, and in front of a live audience of 400 people, I lost my faith in this Yahoo tool and its data. I used "cars" as an example, and you'll see from the screenshot below that the third most popular suggestion for "cars" is "toyota car malaysia new car cars".

Yahoo Suggest in action

Yahoo Suggest in action

Hmmmm... Not exactly a credible search term suggestion! I have a "Google, I Suggest..." blog, maybe I'd better start one a "Yahoo, I Suggest..." blog too! This could be my first post there. ;-)

Stephan Spencer is the founder and president of Netconcepts, a Web agency specializing in e-commerce optimized for search engines. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
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by j_a_s_p_e_r April 24, 2008 7:22 PM PDT
"Tag parser: Tag 'newslink' missing closing tag. "

One of the best articles ever!
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by superpuper7 June 9, 2008 5:40 AM PDT
Try this search http://www.tripleme.com - it is really good stuff!

I use this 3 in 1 solution to find quickly results and check up my SEO progress.

TripleMe.COM fetching you results from Yahoo, Google and MSN Live on one screen in three columns side by side, allowing users to quickly find relevant links for the search string they entered.

According to TripleMe users statistic data for 3 months, 40% of results found in the Google column, 31% of results found in the Yahoo column and 27% of results found in the MSN Live column.
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About Searchlight

Search engine optimization expert Stephan Spencer and analysts from Net Concepts share late-breaking SEO tools, tips, trends, resources, news and insights. Stephan is the founder and president of Netconcepts, a web agency specializing in search engine optimized ecommerce. Clients include Discovery Channel, AOL, Home Shopping Network, Verizon SuperPages.com, and REI, to name a few. Stephan is a frequent speaker at Internet conferences around the globe. He is also a Senior Contributor to MarketingProfs.com, a monthly columnist for Practical Ecommerce, and he's been a contributor to DM News, Multichannel Merchant, Catalog Success, Catalog Age, and others. The blog is part of the CNET Blog Network and the authors are not employees of CNET. Disclosure.

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