The lead sentence of this Forbes article is: "Google. Yahoo! Who can tell the difference anymore?" That sort of rhetoric can't please either company, but the sentiment is understandable. As Google spreads out beyond search while continuing to develop its core product, Yahoo! has focused more closely upon pure-search services while maintaining its broad service platform. I wouldn't say the two domains look like each other by any stretch whatsoever, despite Yahoo!'s emulation of Google's aprse search page or Google's follow-the-leader approach to home-page personalization. But consumer perceptions of the two giants might be merging, at least to the extent of satisfaction with the respective experiences. A respected consumer satisfaction survey performed by the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business shows Yahoo! gaining two points on its previous overall score of 78, to 80, while Google scores 82. I'm not sure what those scores really mean, and they might be unevenly balanced between search (most of the Google experience for most people) and other services (most of the Yahoo! experience for most people).







