SEO’s and webmasters everywhere are scratching their heads with the finality of the merger between Yahoo and Bing that has Yahoo Site Explorer shut down.
Thanks to the impeccable timing of Yahoo and Bing, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be a stress free, Happy Thanksgiving for SEO’s and webmasters who have relied on Yahoo Site Explorer for research data.
Although it was announced, the date was not certain but it seems the dreaded “Yahoo! & Microsoft Search Alliance” has finally taken place and Yahoo has officially shut down Yahoo Site Explorer.
Anyone familiar with using Yahoo Site Explorer to check key SEO statistics as related to Yahoo search, will now be greeted with the following message when trying to access the tools :
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With the completion of algorithmic transition to Bing, Yahoo! Search has merged Site Explorer into Bing Webmaster Tools. Webmasters should now be using the Bing Webmaster Tools to ensure that their websites continue to get high quality organic search traffic from Bing and Yahoo!. |
You can imagine this change will have SEO’s everywhere scratching their heads as many aggregate SEO tools have dependencies on Yahoo Site Explorer.
Bing Webmaster Tools is no substitute for Yahoo Site Explorer it requires a Microsoft Windows LiveID for login and the provided toolset is far inferior to Yahoo Site Explorer. The biggest drawback, one which renders Bing Webmaster Tools completely useless is that webmasters can only view data about sites they have verified ownership of. This means, much like Google Webmaster Tools, Bing Webmaster Tools does not allow analysis of competitor sites (ie: backlinks) as many of us are accustomed to using YSE for.
The fact that Bing is a Microsoft service is a huge turn-off for many webmasters and open source enthusiasts. Microsoft has proven to be completely inept with anything and everything internet related, they have consistently been behind the curve of internet development and have been a constant thorn in the side for web developers due to their lack of regard for standards.
Furthermore, I don’t ever want to signup for a Microsoft Windows LiveID just to see data they have collected about my own websites.
The big loser here is Yahoo (yeah, I know, Yahoo is synonymous with loser these days) because they had a valuable tool that many people relied on and instead of finding a way to monetize it, they just shut it down.
Now, instead of two second rate search engines in Yahoo and Bing, we have one giant second rate search engine to compete with Google.
That is no good for the people who use it. i don’t but i know how obnoxious it can be to try and figure out a new setup.
I am using Google webmaster tool for my works and I am totally satisfied by it but as bing is also becoming popular as google so I am expecting that bing is also going to do improvement and has to remove its drawbacks concern to its webmaster tool if bing want to stand in this competition fights.
Anyway thanks a lot for this.
My biggest issue with the switch is that Yahoo Site Explorer was the easiest way to analyze backlinks of sites not belonging to you.
I used it extensively to do research on dropped domains or just to find sources of valid backlinks when setting up a site in a new niche.
Right now, I’m using Blekko.com and it’s pretty good but I do find a lot of out-of-date information as opposed to YSE which always had fresh information.
Just another news that makes me annoyed because I had been checking the website through yahoo site explorer but now I do it through what else?
I noticed that the yahoo site explorer officially shut down. And I guess we can now use the Bing. But the problem is that I am not fond of using Bing and I do not know what toolbar to use.
Darn… Why did Site Explorer have to go to Bing? But I actually found this tool called called Open Site Explorer by SEOMoz. Sad thing is that only allows 3 searches per day. Really sucks for and affiliate marketer like myself….