Other than the search box, I think the page is laid out in order of importance. I think the links etc. that people are most likely to use are at the top, and the ones they are least likely to use are nearer the bottom. I again think this is important because then the people who use the search engine won’t think it is a waste of time.
The page is bright, but it doesn’t have a wide range of colours on it. I think this is best because people who use it mainly need to see the search box, and that is clearly visible, so I don’t think other links need to be particularly bright.
There are not many advertisements on the page, however, if there are, they are generally linked to ‘Yahoo!’ in some way. For example, there is BT Yahoo! broadband. The two companies have joined and formed a broadband service, which can then promote both companies. These advertisements are quite bold, as they are probably paying ‘Yahoo!’ large amounts of money to do this. However, there are only two or three at the most advertisements. These are very small. There are no advertisements on the results page. The colour scheme on ‘Yahoo!’ is quite bright, and funky. Therefore, ‘Yahoo!’ seems to be attracting a younger audience. So, the main colours that ‘Yahoo!’ have used include: red, blue, black and purple on a white background.
‘Ask Jeeves’ has a fairly small title, but a large logo, so you know where you are:
This page is quite uncrowded, so nothing needs to be particularly bold. This time the title is white and black, inside a red oval. It is on a yellow-ish background. The title is again at the top of the webpage, but unlike ‘Yahoo!’ it is not always the first thing you see when you log on, which could be a disadvantage.
Straightaway, we can see that ‘Yahoo!’ has the title that stands out to you the most.
The search box on ‘Ask Jeeves’, like ‘Yahoo!’ is in the middle of the page. The search box is very easy to spot because the page is not crowded at all. The layout of the page is very simple, as there are just a few icons you can click, the title and of course, the search box.
The page is fairly colourful, because unlike ‘Yahoo!’ the background is not white, it is yellow and red. There is also a picture of a butler, as ‘Ask Jeeves’ is like a butler service. This adds more colour to the page.
There is no advertising at all on the home page of ‘Ask Jeeves,’ unlike ‘Yahoo!’ There is also no advertising on the results page of ‘Ask Jeeves’, apart from perhaps results from other search engines. This is the same on ‘Yahoo!’ I think that this is because ‘Ask Jeeves’ is maintaining the fact that it is a search engine, and do not want advertisements to distract you from your search.
There are no graphics moving on either webpage, but I think that this is good because you might get distracted from what you are trying to do, and you may get confused. There are lots more pictures on ‘Yahoo!’ than on ‘Ask Jeeves’. ‘Ask Jeeves’ has four pictures altogether on the webpage. The main picture is of ‘Jeeves’, the butler, which is part of the title, and the other three are small images at the bottom of the page, which are for shopping, travel, and recent searches. The butler image I think is there to remind you of the service that the search engine offers. These images are easy to understand, for example, the travel has an aeroplane underneath. These have a good effect on the webpage because it adds colour to it and you just have to look for the image that corresponds with what you are looking for.
This is exactly the same on ‘Yahoo!’ except ‘Yahoo!’ has more of these icons. ‘Yahoo!’ has icons at the very top of the page, which is probably better, as the ‘Yahoo!’ page is quite crowded. These icons are also easy to spot, and you know what category they are there for e.g. mail or travel.
These icons are very effective because they draw you to what you are looking for, and they make the webpage better in the sense that they make it stand out and look nicer.
On ‘Yahoo!’ the main advertisements are linked directly to ‘Yahoo!’ For example, there is an advertisement for BT Broadband internet, but this is linked to ‘Yahoo!’ as ‘BT’ and ‘Yahoo!’ have joined together. Other than this, ‘Yahoo!’ doesn’t seem to take on big or small companies to advertise on their webpage.
This is the same with ‘Ask Jeeves’. They have no advertisements at all on their home page. Instead ‘Ask Jeeves’ offer advertising elsewhere on their website, as do ‘Yahoo!’
The target audience for ‘Yahoo’s’ advertising reaches all ages who are interested in the internet.
‘Ask Jeeves’, however do not have a target audience for their advertising, because there is none.
But, you can argue that there is a lot of advertising on ‘Ask Jeeves’ and ‘Yahoo!’ because when you search for items, many companies will come up. So, therefore the target audience is a wide range of people. The advertisement, therefore display a wide range of products, well known and not well known.
The advertisements on ‘Yahoo!’ do not take up very much room at all. They are very small, but quite bright so you do notice them.
On ‘Yahoo!’ the search engine seems to be very personal. This is because it offers things like personal e-mail, and the language is expressed so you feel like ‘Yahoo!’ is yours, or at least partly yours. They make you feel like ‘Yahoo!’ might have been made partly for you. ‘Ask Jeeves’ is less personal, as they don’t have facilities like mail etc.
The language on the websites are suitable for young people, as well as older people. Children could use the site, as the words on there are easy to read, except possibly for the news, whose language may be suitable for more mature people.
This is not the same, however for ‘Ask Jeeves’. The language on there is suitable for young people as well as older people. As there is no news headlines etc. on ‘Yahoo!’ I believe that there are no age boundaries, except of course that the website would not be suitable for people who can’t read! Making the language suitable for a wide range of people means that the websites have a larger target audience. People won’t turn away because the language is not suitable for them.
The language on both the sites is formal, however I believe that ‘Yahoo!’ is slightly less so. I think this because ‘Ask Jeeves’ greets you with “Good morning”, “Good afternoon” or “Good evening” when you log on, and I think that the language should be more formal, as the service of ‘Ask Jeeves’ is supposed to be a butler- type service. ‘Ask Jeeves’ is definitely more welcoming.
I tried to search for dressmakers in the United Kingdom when I searched on ‘Yahoo!’ and ‘Ask Jeeves’.
Both websites came up with result in less than five seconds, which I thought was very impressive. I asked to search within the United Kingdom on both websites.
‘Ask Jeeves’ then came up with 5,310 results, and ‘Yahoo!’ came up with 18,300 results. However, both websites displayed some websites for dressmakers twice or more, which is not helpful, as if you have already been on that website, then you are wasting time looking at the same thing again.
Both websites then gave me the choice to search on the whole of the web, not just inside the UK.
Both websites also gave a small ‘blurb’ to tell me a small bit about what a result was, where it was etc.
‘Ask Jeeves’ also gave me a list of related searches that I could search for if I didn’t find what I was looking for. ‘Yahoo!’ didn’t offer this.
In conclusion, I believe that ‘Ask Jeeves’ did a slightly better job at finding a Prom dress maker in the UK, because the site was a lot more user-friendly. It was less crowded on the page, unlike ‘Yahoo!’.
‘Ask Jeeves’ didn’t come up with the most results, but the results I did get were relevant to my search. ‘Ask Jeeves’ also gave other related searches, which you could click on, and get even more results.
‘Yahoo!’ was more funky, and for younger people who have a sound knowledge of the internet, whereas ‘Ask Jeeves’ is for a wider audience.
However, both search engines were a pleasure to use, and they both did an excellent job at finding what I was looking for.
