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Are The Big Three Search Engines Xenophobic

smart-keywords.com — While Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are big in the United States, the three seem to have very little time for other countries with the exception of China. Are they xenophobic?

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  • losloslos, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3Google is probally waiting for someone else to develope it, so they can swoop in and buy it.
  • AussieWebmaster, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1Funny the most probably will.... watch them buy the German and French engines being developed now in a year or two... even though the EU wanted them to give them a separate voice.
  • Burento, on 10/11/2007, -3/+6Yahoo is huge in Japan as well though. I mean like HUGE
    • AussieWebmaster, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3Yes but Yahoo Japan is not owned by Yahoo... it is owned by SoftBank
    • KafirGuy, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2That's what she said
    • masonba2000, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Why is that not surprising to me?
    • manmaru, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Some services (like BB) are owned by SoftBank but the actual Yahoo website is owned by Yahoo Japan (check the bottom of the website).

      And yes, it is a major web service, even more so than in the US I'd say. It also offers some services that are unique to Japan. For example, it offers a cherry blossom forecast during cherry blossom season. If the company was "xenophobic", they wouldn't offer services that were specialized for an individual country.
    • EndlessRain, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Guys, hate to mention this to you, but Masayoshi Son, the owner of SoftBank which controls Yahoo Japan gave Yahoo USA hundreds of mirrions of dorras when they were just a startup. So technically, you USians are looking at his bastard pet company that's called Yahoo!. Your comments are comparable to looking at a dog's doghouse and goes, well, this is nice. Then turn around and sees the mansion of the dog's owner and goes, well, that's HUGE! Too bad that's not the dog's house.
  • Diggitydigger, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1I don't think xenophobic is the word. More like they just don't get it in other countries. Yes they are working China but they especially don't get it there. Their deep pockets aren't helping either.
  • gmuessig, on 10/11/2007, -3/+4I agree with Diggitydigger. The web was begun and developed in the US, hence the language of choice for the beginning. Years ago, the concept of Esperanza, a global language that cobbled together elements of some existing languages was a big idea. Today, the marketplace has put that idea to rest. The language of business is English because the structure of commerce is being invented, designed, and constructed by English-speaking people. When that changes, the language will change.

    Will the language of the world become Chinese when the 5+ billion Chinese speaking people begin to use the web? Probably not. Note that there are already more English-speaking residents of China than there are English speaking residents of the US (and beyond). So it is evident that mere numbers of people speaking a specific language and engaging in online activity is not going to change the global language of commerce.

    Will it change when people who speak another language begin to develop the next phase of commerce? Of course. Follow the technology and you will learn the language of commerce.
  • Scottat2, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1You better look at the alexa ranks. You will see in the top 500 times like 150 times lol.
    And in just about every country's top 20. After I looked at that I understood why they were the number one search engine.
  • JoCliMe, on 10/11/2007, -4/+7Here's my one gripe with the English (or Greek?) language (What am I saying...there's a lot of gripes I have!)
    Genocide=Killing of a cultural group, race, etc.
    Xenocide=Killing of aliens (well, in the Sci-Fi world)
    Xenophobic=Being afraid of foreigners
    Genophobic=*Not a word*

    Why wouldn't it be called genophobic if it's fear of other groups/countries/ethnicities, etc?
    • D3koy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I took a little greek and latin

      Gen means race or people
      Xeno means stranger

      Genophobia would be fear of a race..
      Xenophobia is fear of strangers/strange things
  • drewhenson, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1Oh my, the grey.
    • silverchrysalis, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3at least set your viewing level on -4, then you can see a few worth reading
    • D3koy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Oh my, the irony.
  • DCB360, on 04/11/2008, -1/+1"The web was begun and developed in the US, hence the language of choice for the beginning."

    Oh, I thought we created the whole world. Meh b3d.
  • pimpinainteasy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2You foreigners keep clogging our tubes with internets. You see, its not a big truck.
    • cyberscape2, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1We filled it up with porn and racehorses.
  • manmaru, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Notice google maps is, in many countries, written in the native language and not the English equivalents. I'd say if google was "xenophobic" this wouldn't be the case. How many languages does Windows come in? I think this is kind of a ridiculous claim. It's natural for many to distrust Google, Yahoo, and (especially) Microsoft because they are big and also because they originated in the US, but that distrust stems from their far-reaching influence, not "xenophobia".
  • unusualbob, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1wrong location
  • ruddy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1learn english. problem solved
  • darkane, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0This guy will never approve my comment on his blog. So I will say it here, just in case he reads it:

    How horribly uninformed and ignorant of you.

    First of all, just because the first page of results for "pokemon" are in English, doesn't mean that search engines aren't incorporating other languages into the process.

    If you had done any research at all, you would realize there are language-specific versions of every major search engine. But instead, you apparently felt the need to show everyone that you learned a new word with more than 2 syllables that starts with an x. Congratulations, we're all proud of you.

    As for including multiple languages in a single search, the technology just isn't there yet. It's impossibly difficult to determine the relevance of websites in relation to a search word or phrase when there are just two languages involved, much less all of them.

    So instead of being critical of the search engines just for the sake of being critical, why don't you offer the algorithmic solution to the problem? I'm sure Google would happily put you on the payroll for a proof of concept.
    • AussieWebmaster, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I only reject spam posts.... sure you have the right blog? I would gladly have you add your viewpoint even if you think me ignorant.

      I agree with people above who have posted the millions of country extensions for Google that they have gone through the motions. The algorithm, however, is not being tweaked for the subtle differences of language.... it has not even been done for English so you know the other langauges are even further down the list.

      Just because they exist does not mean they are being given any attention.

      I agree it is easy to criticize ..... you have done a good job of it. I am hoping the engines start to see they are missing opportunities. Go beyond the organic and see what is happening in paid search where they leave the money on the table. We hear numbers of percentages of search etc. but the engines give us traffic and the numbers are low even for Google.... content ads may be the way in some countries - maybe they are not search engine users per se...

      I ndo not have all the answers but it is good to see the post created some conversations.... this is how things get attention.
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