According to Dictionary.com, the word "underwhelming" means "to fail to excite, stimulate, or impress". Well, you might as well add the logo for Yahoo's new blog search tool - and Google's RSS reader - along side the definition. Yahoo quietly launched its blog tool as an adjunct - afterthought? - to its news search service. To be honest, there's nothing interesting or new about it. It appears Yahoo realized it needed a blog search tool so it decided to slap something together. Om Malik describes Yahoo's blog interface "like water torture" and asks ""why,a company as fine as Yahoo, launches a supremely elegant podcast effort in the morning, only to give us a blog search tool that reminds you of the Baby-episode of Seinfeld." Yikes!
It strikes me as odd that major online players such as Yahoo and Google can arrive to new markets late and when they finally get there, they offer services that pale badly in comparison to the status quo. The whole concept of not having first-mover advantage is you get to see the other guys mistakes and then create something that's better. On the Web, however, it seems the new modus operandi seems to be that if you can't be first, just be there. Some might call this approach arrogance because it suggests Yahoo and Google believe their brands are so powerful, consumers will gravitate to their services even if they are not as good. This strikes me as a strange way to do business. Maybe the happiest person in the blogosphere today is Technorati CEO David Sifry, who has seen Yahoo and Google come into his market with less than impressive offerings. The key now for Technorati is to work quickly and intelligently to take advantage of this opportunity. Given the M&A frenzy now happening, maybe Technorati is even more attractive given big boys probably realize it's tougher than they think to roll out a good blog search tool.