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The latest results on the September 2007 search results show that Yahoo! managed to drop yet again against arch-rival Google. There is more to this than it may at first seem however.

Yahoo! this year underwent a management change and a policy shake-up. They launched a new, improved version of their targeted ads to battle Google’s AdSense and they have improved their algorithm. So, why are they not performing better?

The answer may lie at a fundamental level which also indicates the company philosophy and the way Yahoo! works (or doesn’t) as the case may be. A recent story showed that the company is attracting newspapers in a move that on the face of it emulates Google’s radio and newspaper ad space deals.

There, however, the similarity stops. Whereas everything Google does is aimed at extending the ability of AdSense to reach a greater and greater audience to the mutual benefit of advertisers and Google, Yahoo! looks to consolidate its position for what it originally wanted to be: an entertainment company.

The direction is fundamental as is the company philosophy. Yahoo! situated its headquarters to be closer to Hollywood whereas Google stayed focused on its Silicon Valley roots.

What this means for webmasters is that with a finite amount of time to focus on optimising your website for the major search engines your priority should be: Google and then MSN. Yahoo! may not be long in the search engine business and it may even revert, as a recent rumour amongst SEO experts suggests, to taking its search results from Google’s database like it had in the past.