no, really

Remember a few years ago when all Yahoo! was good for was a painfully slow e-mail system and pretty decent searching? Their look was the same forever, their pages were crowded… new features? what new features?

Today I read the news that Yahoo! is re-launching it’s photos section… properly branded for Yahoo! (instead of Flickr). They will keep Flickr around - saying it’s for the “early adopters,” and that Yahoo! Photos is for the masses. This is a great move. Yahoo! has very strong branding, and they’re throwing that muscle behind innovative new products that really do what people want.

That sounds like the motto of their Valley neighbors, Google.

Google is the new kid on the block… more like that kid in High School that moved into the neighborhood and blew the curve in every class. They come in with great ideas and training and muscle their way into the front row, and take all the attention away from the former teachers’ pets. Then those pets have competition and get off their lazy bums and study hard.

Okay, the analogy is becoming a Joel-esque diatribe, but you get the point. Google is doing doubletime building and buying products that support their business model, which is making the rest of the class step up to meet the challenge. Microsoft is working hard on their online properties - because they *have* to - same with Yahoo! and Ask and so on and so on…

Would they have been so inspired had there been no Google? Does Google mind the competitors? I’m guessing no on both accounts.