Google, Bing, Yahoo—What’s the Difference Between Them?

When it comes to search engines, you can use Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Though Google is the most popular search engine, Yahoo and Bing don’t lag in functionalities and usability. Let’s find out what are the major differences between these 3 search engines.

Google is a brand with various tools that merge with search and search engines. However, Bing is a search engine that uses a few search modules. Surprisingly, Yahoo is not a search engine. With the right SEO services, you can boost your website’s ranking on these search engines to widen your reach. Though all these search engines are similar, there are specific differences between them that you should know as an internet user.

Want to know the critical differences between them? Read this post to learn the same. But before outlining the differences, let’s explain each of them first.

What is Google?

Google, founded in 1998, claims to offer the most detailed information and user-friendly format. It provides featured snippets at the top of search engine results for different search queries. Such boxes show all links to the website, news, and articles results for the related search terms. The boxes tend to get displayed as brief replies to user queries and intent without the need for users to click on a link. The different reply boxes include population charts, movie showtimes, flight details, word definitions, and other information pieces.

When it comes to displaying search engine results, Google evaluates the authority of websites. It evaluates the authority of a website considering other linked websites. Google won’t disappoint users when acquiring trusted and validated results. Google crawlers can effectively distinguish valid and fake links.

Over the years, Google has upgraded its algorithms and focused on high-quality and valuable content rather than promoting well-built links and web pages. Google helps start-up websites and gives a chance to build links naturally. It displays your link on the result page until you draft and delivers high-quality and relevant content for target customers. With advanced features like Google Instant, Google delivers search results quickly. Users don’t need to press “Enter” when typing a search query.

Google offers numerous vertical searches to improve the UX. The homepage consists of features, such as email, web, images, and news, to help users narrow down their searches as required.

Google Scholar is a feature that makes Google extremely popular among internet users. This feature helps them to easily perform scholarly research. Google Videos, Google  Blogs, and Google Books are specialized Google services that make the search engine extremely relevant and useful for users.

Google also displays an excellent horizontal search result to boost UX. For instance, if you search for “movies near me(your location),” Google displays a horizontal list of movies currently playing (take a look at the screenshot below) above the organic list of top search results.

Google SERPs sometimes display right-column previews of information related to the search. This right-column search result is the outcome of Google’s Knowledge Graph and mainly includes Wikipedia snippets, images, and relevant details and searches. The right column also displays business directory details with the capability to call directly from the SERP and map results for your regional searches.

Internet surfing has almost become synonymous with Google search as searchers and bloggers get various benefits.

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What is Yahoo?

Yahoo, launched in 1995, is mainly an online portal rather than just a search engine. During the early years, Yahoo utilized search results from other web crawlers during the early years and started indexing and crawling in 2003. One of Yahoo’s key features is web search. The home page looks much better and more interactive than Google and Bing. The page includes a wide range of products and features that connect you to email, travel, shopping, news, sports, scores, and much more information. One of Yahoo’s key features is web search.

After Yahoo formed an association with Bing in 2009, their combined forces pose risks to Google.  Bing powers Yahoo’s searches, while Yahoo powers the SERPs designs and displays results. You can see a few answer boxes and no right-column content on Yahoo SERPs.

Yahoo is good at website indexing and has been making a lot of upgrades and modifications to search engine algorithms. But it prefers old and well-built web pages over new websites on SERPs. As Yahoo has plenty of internal content on the website via its paid inclusion program, it usually displays biased search results that redirect searchers to their own content. This technique may compromise the results’ relevancy that users find unacceptable.

When you type your query in the search box, Yahoo focusses on matching text rather than scanning content to determine relevance. So, it is advisable to assume Yahoo does not display the most relevant search results. But, websites and web pages displayed on SERPs can link to the correct web page.

Yahoo lags behind Google in terms of answer boxes and right column. Still, many website owners, users, and bloggers find Yahoo very useful as it positions old websites high on the search results. The new website owners tend to display on Yahoo’s SERPs than on Google.

The above screenshot shows when you search for “population of US”, it returns a snippet of information from Wikipedia as a search result and an answer box hybrid below. When you search for a word definition, it returns the same results and answer box.

What is Bing?

Bing is a Microsoft-powered search engine that was launched in 2009 and thus, is quite newer to the online search world like Google and Yahoo. It was functional as MSN Search in 1998 and then evolved into a more advanced search engine.  Bing may not be as advanced as Google but has a more visual home search page than Google’s simple version, with links to news added to the background picture and trivia bits.

Bing’s search home page shows a news carousel throughout the bottom.  Except for that carousel, Bing functions almost like a typical search engine. You need to type a query and press the “Enter” button to get the search engine results.

Your website can easily rank high on Bing’s page if you use relevant keywords in your content, mainly heading. Even though new website owners and bloggers can gain online visibility easily, users may not be highly satisfied with search results. Bing never cares if websites ranking high on SERPs have high authority links, which compromises the search results relevancy and makes users doubt the authenticity of websites.

As Bing is a relatively new search engine on the internet, it doesn’t have an excellent crawling and indexing system like Google and Yahoo. It is not capable of distinguishing genuine and fake links. While Bing is quite better than Yahoo at decrypting meaning behind search queries and attempting to deliver the most relevant search results.

If you can build a highly focused web page, your content tends to display on Bing’s page. Moreover, iOS uses this search engine to boost search results for its app Siri.

Bing also uses SERP answer boxes which are pretty less prominent than Google. Bing has their right-column content, known as Snapshots, that looks almost the same as Google’s Knowledge Graph results.

The screenshots above show if you type, “population of US”, Bing displays an answer box and population graph before organic results, Wikipedia snapshots, interests, and relevant searches. Bing SERP “extras” are getting significantly more effective, and the search engine is consistently adding more Snapshots and kinds of answer boxes to match up the Google standards. Bing Rewards is one of the lucrative features of Bing. Once you sign in to your Bing account, you can earn points for every search that you can redeem later for movies, contest entries, gift cards, apps, and games.

So, that’s all about what Google, Yahoo, and Bing are. Now let’s find out how they differ.

What are the Differences Between Google, Yahoo, and Bing SERPs?

The organic search results on Google, Yahoo, and Bing differ even if the search query is the same. Take a look at such differences below depending on different factors:

• Local Searches

Local searches on Google, Yahoo, and Bing tend to return the most similar content. Though all SERPs look different, they display maps, ratings, advertisements, genuine company websites, and directory listings. The organic search results are the same, but the order differs in different search engines.

Every search engine or online portal values directories, like Yelp, for local searches. Initially, Google and Bink rank search results from their business directories for local searches.

• Images

Suppose you search your name on Google, Yahoo, and Bing image search; the latter two display many images that are not of people. On the contrary, Google returns your images and many other images of other people.

Google understands search intent much more precisely than Yahoo and Bing. You will realize this even if you perform a search without signing into a Google account and on a browser and computer that you haven’t used before.

• SEO

Business directories and local searches are crucial across all search engines. Google and Bing have their directories and rank them above other search results. Every search has its algorithm and follows a different strategy to order results. As you get pretty similar organic results, it proves that you don’t require different SEO strategies to optimize your website for Google and Bing.Don’t get tense about implementing two or three different SEO techniques.

It’s good if you learn the demand of Google and Bing, and then implement SEO strategies to meet that. Search engines tend to focus on providing users with the information they need. Thus, the top search engines always prioritize technical website optimization, offering a user-friendly experience and relevant information.

How to Choose the Best Search Engine Among Google, Yahoo and Bing?

Google, Yahoo, and Bing deliver different search results because of the different ranking systems even if you enter the same query. As no one can tell which is the best search engine among them, you need to choose the best one suited to your needs and preferences. You need to understand algorithms and consider the factors below to make the right choice:

• User-Friendliness

  The ease to navigate and interpret the search results.
  

• Relevancy

  The search results’ relevance to your query.

• Customization

  Narrow down search results to your queries.
  

• Duration

  The duration of search results loading.

The SEO Perspective- How to Optimize Your Website for Google, Yahoo, and Bing?

Google, Yahoo, and Bing have different features, and thus you can’t follow a set of similar tricks to optimize your website for all of them. You need to check your website step-by-step to ensure it is optimized for all search engines.

Here are some of the common pointers to optimize your website for the leading search engines:

• Post Authoritative and Relevant Content

High-quality content boosts the search engine ranking of your website. Identify and target specific keyword phrases for every authoritative web page content. High-quality content boosts the search engine ranking of your website. When adding keywords to your web content, think about how readers may search for a certain page with search terms. To rank for multiple keyword phrases with your website, you need to build a separate web page for every keyword phrase you target.

Place keywords tactfully throughout the content so you don’t end up stuffing them. Link your content to sources and relevant information both on your and other websites. Use heading tags and highlight keyword phrases.

• Update Content Frequently

As search engines seriously consider content, you should update it frequently to increase your website’s relevancy. Set a schedule to audit your content and make required updates. When you add content filled with keyword phrases to your blog, it boosts your website’s search engine rank.

Interlink your blogs and relevant CMS webpages when it gives a clear picture to readers regarding a topic.

• Review and Update Metadata

As your website keeps on changing, you should review and update metadata frequently. You should use clearly understandable titles filled with keyword phrases.

Description metadata is the text used by a web browser in a page search return. Consider it as your website’s window display which acts as an appealing and concise description of your website content. The description metadata should intrigue users to enter your website. A perfect meta description tends to consist of two full sentences. Search engines may not always consider a meta description when ranking your website; still, you should add one to your website.

Keyword metadata may not be that important search engine ranking factor. But you need to be already aware of the trending and most relevant keyword phrases so your search engine rank doesn’t affect when you don’t add them to keyword data. You should add a variety of three to seven keyword phrases, each having one to four words.

If you follow these tips above, you can build a website that ranks high on all the most popular search engines.

Comparing Google with Other Search Engines

Google is the most popular search engine. Almost all internet users look for what Google says to their queries and rely on their information. Google has a market share of over 90% and caters to Google algorithm’s SEO strategies that work well for searchers.

Yahoo and Bing also control a significant portion of the marketplace. But make sure you decide if the research and implementation of SEO techniques that serve  Almost all internet users look for what Google says to their queries and rely on their information. The Bing search engine helps your industry niche.

It’s you who decides which search engine to use. Yahoo is better than Google in offering more trending results and suggestions that you may not be searching for. Bing provides a better visual user experience which is quite the same as Google in the way it presents data with the additional answer boxes.

You need to choose a search engine depending on how you want to acquire the required information. You need to select a search engine depending on how you want to receive the necessary information. Google is ahead of Yahoo and Bing in the search world. But it can’t be said if it is better than Yahoo and Bing. You need to choose a search engine depending on how you want to acquire the required information.

Remember, Google follows its approaches to assess if your website content is valuable to target customers. You can check how frequently Google crawls your website. When the website elements need to be updated, you should remove your information. Update your content as and when required, so Google crawls it.

The Bottom Line

Hopefully, this post helped you learn the differences between Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Start implementing the most effective SEO practices if you want to increase your online presence and get displayed on Google, Yahoo, and Bing results.

A high ranking on Google search results is a must to grow your presence. But you should not avoid optimizing your website for Yahoo and Bing. Get in touch with the best SEO agency that can offer comprehensive services suited to your business and industry requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions