Google, owner of the leading online search engine, is devoted to a single-minded mission: transforming the way the world finds and stores information, even if that means sending people somewhere else.

Yahoo, owner of the world's most popular Web site, is taking a more multidimensional approach as it strives to be all things for all people — a one-stop destination for recreation, work and research.

The strategy has produced an exotic casserole that includes e-mail, shopping and news services, three-dimensional maps, digital photography, tools for creating Web logs, or blogs, and software for searching the information stored on computer hard drives.

As you know Yahoo is the most visited site on the web, then MSN then Google:

• Yahoo 30% reach
• MSN 28% reach
• Google 22% reach

It has been this way for years. Google is the super search engine, Yahoo is the super directory.

Yahoo takes a more practical approach to technology, first identifying what people want and then building or buying a product designed to give visitors one less reason to leave its Web site — already the world's most popular online destination

The emphasis has pushed Yahoo into territory that Google hasn't treaded upon. The list of Yahoo services unavailable at Google include instant messaging, music, gaming, fantasy sports leagues, job placement, matchmaking and broadband service.

One thing for sure is that Google loves links per domain instead of that tempting site-wide linking with other sites, Google sees site-wide linking like an unlogical network (somehow)! For instance:

Google likes: 1 link from domain A, 1 link from domain B, 1 link from domain C, 1 link from domain D... So on so forth.

Google doesn't really like: 150 links from domain A, 10000 links from domain B...

Google works by anchor text + link per domain. Yahoo works by anchor text + site wide linking ( and link per domain ).

MSN works totally differently from the 2 master of the search on internet, MSN loves new websites! IF your website is new, you will get higher ranking on MSN. If its old and doesn't change its content much, you'll disappear from MSN search. Also creating inbound links gives the honor for your website to remain on MSN search with some nice SERPS if you did a good on-page seo work.

Google and Yahoo put forward Off-page seo in their algorithm, msn likes better the on-page SEO

The difference is that Yahoo and MSN are true portals with all kinds of additional services

Google was one of the newer search engines, but it rapidly becomes the favorite.  In fact, the word is commonly used as a verb, a synonym for searching:  "I'm going to google the web to find the info I need."  

Google is thorough and fast.  Its technology considers pages that are linked from many other sites to be more important than pages that only have a few links from other sites.  In other words, if many webmasters consider a website valuable enough to create a link to it, Google considers that a good reason to justify a high ranking for that site. Google is totally search engine.

Yahoo’s search functionality for a couple of years was entirely based on Google.  In fact, Yahoo was one of Google's investors.  As of March, 2004, however, that partnership ended, and Yahoo is now developing their own search technology, which will probably be based on search algorithms they obtained when they acquired Inktomi.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s search and MSN.com have also been based on Inktomi's technology.   (Inktomi provided the technology for one of the hot search engines of the 1990s, Hotbot.  For more info on 1990s search engines, see our historical information page for more details).   Microsoft reports that it is working to develop its own inhouse search technology to replace Inktomi, but there is no fixed date for the cutover.