Yahoo is one of the oldest and one of the most comprehensive ’’search engine’’ on the net. It is not a mere ’’search engine’’ anymore. The links it offfers, viz..Arts & Humanities, Governmetn, Education, Computers, Sciences, Entertainment takes you to loads of sub-links which in turn enlist several (probably the most) number of sites related to the link. It was the the first to tie up with google to make its ’’search’’ option fast and effective.
Yahoo has developed a separate page for more than 40 different countries, (like in.yahoo.com for India). In case of large countries like india it also offers ’’local’’ pages for about 19 or 20 different cities. I dont think any other portal offers so many ’’localised’’ options.
Yahoo was one of the first to offer 6MB of free space on it’s Mail. Yahoo mail, inspite of the huge number of subscribers is quite fast and very easy to use.
Yahoo auction lists tremendously vast number of articles on auction and yet again this option too works fast and is extremely easy to use.
Yahoo shopping too has extremely large number articles listed. The feature of ’’rating’’ their own dealers on the basis of reliability, promptness and service is an extremely useful feature. Again this (Y!-shopping)too, is a very fast loading and easy to use feature.
Yahoo chat is also a very nicely managed feature, it offers..Yahoo uses, probably the best Java appelate for its chat option. It offers exteremely large number of rooms. Again in spite of using a ’’heavily loaded’’ Java appelate, ’’chat’’ loads fast and responds well, and is easy to use.
Yahoo also offers a good variety of on-line games. Again the option is easy to get to the game of your choice and loads fast.
For all the above features of mail, shopping, chat, auctions, etc..I have stressed on the site’s ability to be easy to naviogate and load fast, because without speed and ease these options become cumbersome and boring to use (like in msn.com).
Moreover if a member/subscriber (of mail/chat) faces any difficulty or has any specific question, the subscriber-support system is very good too. If you post a question on its ’’Help’’ option, you normally get a reasonably satisfactory reply within 24 hours. Considering than most portals don’t even offer such help at all..this, I thnk is certainly a PLUS for Yahoo.
The only thing missing is ’’downloads’’..Either Yahoo doesnt offer any free or paid ’’software/games’’ downloads..or that I have not been able to locate it on its page.
All in all I think there is something for everybody on yahoo.