Google Blatantly Copies Yahoo!?

What's next? Google using your algorithm? :)

Looks evil to me.

This is very low for Google. I couldn't imagine this kind of things at the level they are. Probably someone should be fired asap.

Your page looks better for what its worth.

I had to read your post four times in order to convince myself this wasn't a joke. That's amazingly... stupid! I'm wordless.

I'd understand some one-man-ISV to copy designs like that (and again, they'd be more creative and change some wordings!), but Google? That's low...

There probably doesn't exist a Google employee who could design something like that.

It's no secret they aren't exactly up to par on design. They could use Yahoo's help in that respect.

That's pretty good stuff there.

Same fonts and everything.

Google will be covered with praise in the blogs for this latest innovation.

Perhaps someone from Google contacted Microsoft regarding putting up a page similar to Yahoo's. Perhaps the Microsoft contact incorrectly assumed it was provided by MS, telling Google that they could just use the "same page as Yahoo is using".

Let's not jump to conclusions here... I much prefer to stick to the tried-and-true "Microsoft is evil" default approach ;-)

Ouch.... but is there any chance the page was written by someone in Seattle instead of Yahoo!? That would explain it.

See also:

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/12/race-for-optimizing-ie7.html

Issit just 'cuz'o the IEAK7 kit?

Duplicate content penalty!

Check out the HTML source for the two pages. Yahoo!'s HTML is pretty good and is almost valid except for a few minor mistakes. Google's HTML is hideously sloppy and doesn't even come close to being valid.

Whoever copied the design (and it's obvious that the design was ganked) apparently felt it necessary to muck up the HTML for some reason. Weird.

Are you quite sure both layouts weren't provided by Microsoft?

Yes, we are sure, because Yahoo! built the Yahoo! page, ourself, back in October. Also, note the Yahoo! Toolbar in the produce screenshot on both pages. Note Google's sloppy attempt at blurring the red Y from the screenshot in their image.

Microsoft worked with both Google and Yahoo! on these partnerships and the Microsoft Mar-Com group gives them the layout and text to use as per their guidelines. This is purposefully duplicated.

Sorry, you are wrong. Yahoo! built this page originally. It was not provided by Microsoft.

definately evil.

Google's new front page Firefox ad also (coincidentally!?) uses the exact same wording, punctuation, and layout as the IE7 ads that Yahoo! has been running since mid-October.

See side-by-side comparison here: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-8Qkt1Z4zabFpOv7R?p=88

That's so bad....also, note that a lot of the bookmark links are Yahoo sites, such as delicious and flickr...that to me says Yahoo-originated, without being excessively proconspiracy theory!

That's the sort of thing you expect from Microsoft vis-a-vie Apple, not Google. Why must you disasspoint me so Google?

I'm so sick of Google. J.D. nailed it - I'm sure Motley Fool will embarrass themselves with a sloppy wet BJ for how brave and innovative this is (meanwhile, 90% of their traffic comes from Y! Finance). Gack.

> Google's HTML is hideously sloppy and
> doesn't even come close to being valid.

Ah yeah, that's Google.

Looks like they plagiarized... I'll ask their press email.

Since Matt Cutts is on debunking duty this week, I'm waiting with baited breath to see his response. :D

What ever happened to imitation being the sincerest form of flattery? Yahoo should feel good about this.

Typical enterprise behavior. Let court judge it.

New revenue stream for Yahoo!.... copyright infringement settlement fees?

any possibility that this page comes from microsoft? It seems way more likely than google copying yahoo or vice versa (which i am not sure anyone mentioned either…).

I could care less as I much prefer firefox.

MSFT, Google, YHOO.

Basically, we're dealing with an oligopoly.

Yippie!

When I followed the links to the 2 pages, Yahoo told me "Sorry, your system does not meet the minimum requirements to install Internet Explorer 7" (along with a list of the supported OS versions). Google, on the other hand, happily encouraged me to "Download IE7 Now" to my Linux system!

God you people are dumb!

Ever stop to think that this is a template that Microsoft gave to both companies which needed to be used per an agreement with ALL partners (yahoo, Google, and anyone else) ???? Seriously. Microsoft wants that consistency for "branding" purposes and undoubtedly requires that they look similar.

Yahoo just launched first. Chill out.

At least Google has changed the order of optimized for.. :)

# Google Toolbar
# Google Search as your default

# Yahoo! Search as your default
# Yahoo! Toolbar

Good one Jeremy!

Better report this to the Google spam team as duplicate and plagiarized content.

I expect Matt to remove the site by tomorrow.

Yup, I noticed the same: http://www.blakeross.com/2006/12/09/how-about-optimizing-for-originality/

Thanks for confirming that it's not, in fact, a template.

Kind of like Microsoft copying Apple (http://theappleblog.com/2006/12/11/microsoft-gives-up-trying-and-starts-blatantly-copying/)

;-)

I didn't believe it at first so I had to see it for myself. I took screenshots of the Yahoo IE7 and Google IE7 pages myself and aligned the tiny browser.

http://chir.ag/stuff/yahoo-to-google.gif

It's pretty sad. You can clearly see Google folks blurring out the Y! Toolbar logo.

Great graphic Chirag - I didn't understand the "bits of Yahoo" but now it's clear. We'll never know but I bet whoever's job it was to come up with the design was goofing off until last minute, hit the deadline, and nabbed this one. How they thought they'd not get caught would be a good story, or maybe just a case of Web 2.0 copyitis where they figured it's all in play so what the heck.

I think google did it on purpose.

Besides, Yahoo sucks anyways.

I'm a graphic artist and I've worked in the computer industry. It might be possible that MS themselves, have set up the template as a guideline for them to use. MS is very meticulous when it comes to how their products and branding are marketed. Google blatently ripping off Yahoo, very doubtful.

I think this page is supplied by Microsoft. So that is why it's the same for either company.

If you look in the bottom right corner, the fasterfox timer is even the exact same time. This has to be something that was provided by Microsoft.

haha - viewing this in Camino on a Mac, the Yahoo page is smart enough to know that I'm not able to run IE7 and instad gives me the system requirements. The Google page still offers to let me download it.

@AJ - Did you even read the post? It wasn't that long, and he specifically states "And I've checked with our PR group to make sure that this was just a template that Microsoft gave to all partners. It's not."

Oh wow, that is insanely identical. What were they thinking?!

some people say that imitation is the best compliment

in music, blues musicians stole from gospel and early jazz, bluegrass musicians stole from early country and appalachian music, rock is a mixture of country, blues, folk, spirituals and gospel all stolen from the black folk...

I say give it a rest

I'm a graphics person so hear me out:

#1: Check out the outline on the bottom edge of Google's IE7 browser image. It is an obvious replica of the Yahoo version, except someone performed a cheap Photoshop job on it to remove the darker blue gradient background. The pixelated bottom edges are proof that a marquee tool hacked out the original background. Even the left-hand shadow of the browser image is exactly the same color and shape. The Google version also has pixelated edges.

#2: As Ryan Grove commented above, Google's sourcecode is not all that optimal compared to Yahoo's. In fact, rather than producing a layout that is CSS-based, most of the page is nested into tables and table cells. This is likely the product of a very quick and dirty design job. So quick, that the few existing divs have styles specified INLINE (ie: "") which is considered bad practice and not deployment-ready. Yahoo at least had the decency to create an external CSS style sheet, likely because they spent more time coming up with the design.

This is no surprise; since they were only too happy to steal paid search from Yahoo previously...without which they would have gone BK long before they'd have gone IPO...

Ouch, my inline div style example from Google's page was stripped in my previous comment post. Here it is again:

div style="background-color:f5f8fd;width:727px; border-bottom:1px solid #ccc;

I can't believe this made it to the front page of digg. You guys have got to be kidding me. Google didn't copy the content from Yahoo. Microsoft designs all it own advertising collateral. This add was designed by Microsoft and is available in several formats. Microsoft partners has access to this material for publishing printed and web advertising. Besides, do you honestly think google has to copy artwork or web pages. These guys have some of the best graphics artist and web designers money can buy.

Maybe IE gave both Google and Yahoo! this page template to promote their respective toolbars. This would explain why they look very much alike.

OR

Google just copied (which is very shocking indeed).

thats a default microsoft theme... its just customized for the google AND yahoo CI... you will prob. find it on microsoft.com and other search engines too... its just a marketing act from microsoft.

(i cant believe you dont came up with that idea...)

Yes, this is very important. I am outraged.

*YAWN*

also check this out:
http://searchviews.com/archives/2006/12/yahoo_pushing_i.php

This whole thing is pathetic. Is Yahoo in such a rut that their best dig on Google is this stupid IE7 page. And please as much as Microsoft likes to control things, I would totally expect guidelines for that kind of thing. But even if they didn't, who cares? Its a stupid Upgrade To IE7 page. Yahoo, you wsnt to impress me, make Yahoo mail more like Gmail - heck copy Gmail I don't care. I can't upgrade to the new Yahoo Mail because I don't use a high enough resolution. Who is Yahoo to tell me what resolution to use, thats poor design. And that is why my Yahoo email is used for garbage rather than email. This is a prime example why Yahoo is behind, an upgrade to IE7 page is this important.

"Besides, do you honestly think google has to copy artwork or web pages. These guys have some of the best graphics artist and web designers money can buy."

Laughable.

Are you sure yahoo didn't copy google?

frostbite, are you an idiot. See the comments and the blog entry. Microsoft did not provide this template, it's not their page. Yahoo! designed this page themselves and put it up over a month a go. Google just realized that they'd better get on the IE7 bandwagon now (I guess they figured that the great and mighty Google would not have to worry about IE7 grabbing search share from them), and looked around and copied Yahoo!. If you look at the graphic, it is obviously an IE7 with a Yahoo! toolbar with the Y! blurred out. Why would Google put up a graphic that promoted a competitors toolbar unless they blatently ripped off the graphic. I know it's hard to believe but even companies that pertain to do no evil, have employees that don't think.

Google clambers on a (Yahoo) bandwagon. Quelle horreur !
Google is a traffic whore. Old news.

To frostbyte and Tobsn
Read carefully before you blame anyone else.

"And I've checked with our PR group to make sure that this was just a template that Microsoft gave to all partners. It's not."

I took both main images and pasted them atop each other in photoshop. Google did a poor job of editing Yahoo!'s pic. The only differences:

the "optimized for" line -> obvious
the background color -> poor cut out job
and, less obvious, the three red Y's that are blurred out, but not erased. You can still see the main red Y in the address bar on Google's version. Google did a better job of blurring out the less obtrusive Y's on the browser tabs, but they are still there.

Otherwise, pixel for pixel, it's the same image.

and there motto is "do no evil". Cheating can be considered evil.

The reason they look so alike is because this is coming from Microsoft. i.e. Microsoft is dictating the look and feel and not Google or Yahoo. At least that is what my inside source as MS tells me...

OMG Your people need to get a life... it really doesn't matter...

This just shows the superiority of Yahoo's graphics technology.

No doubt the stock price will rise on the news.

I guess if they want to advertise anything M$, they'll have to use their template. Maybe that's what happened. M$ are very particular about their "branding".

I'm much more shocked that Google actually advertized for fricking IE 7. They really dance with the devil there.

yahoo weenies.

they copied it. google still kicks ass.

I know I'm talking like a teen on the net.but it's still true.Google kicks ass and you know it. Until they start copying algorithms or your AJAX, it's not gonna be too shamefull. So some lazy jackass at google who doesn't deserve to be there decided to save five minutes and take a coffee break instead and copied the page.

Big frikkin deal.

"And I've checked with our PR group to make sure that this was just a template that Microsoft gave to all partners. It's not."

Naturally the Yahoo! PR group would say that Google copied them.

Even if Google did copy, it's a minor infraction compared to the entire search result layout that Yahoo! copied from Google. Pathetic.

I like both the Yahoo and Google site.
Maybe I need me a custom page on my site for download IE7

whaaaa... its for a good cause get rid of stinking old IE

Yahoo has for more pressing problems to deal with than worrying about cribbed splash pages.

Panama and Peanut Butter.

Google seems to be doing more and more sneaky things. I recently noticed that their Google Browser Sync does a little trickery to install the addon directly from Google without having to add their url to your exceptions by partnering(?) with Mozilla on the addons page. I'm not sure if this is a common occurrence or not, but I still thought it odd...
http://dcortesi.com/2006/12/11/google-browser-sync/

That's not the idea of copying Yahoo's page. It's obvious that MS set that page for both yahoo and Google.

I'm amazed by how many people didn't even read the whole post or the comments. Microsoft did not provide the page in question.

K, maybe this is just me, I realize that yahoo PR says that MS didn't provide that page, but, um, since when does PR know much about programming and if 1 page out of the thousands yahoo has is provided by someone. I am not saying one way or another because I don't know, but neither do any of you.

Obviously the person who made this post didn't write the page, because he would know for certainty that it wasn't from microsoft. The image that google is using without the yahoo does make it look like it was copied. Of course, if the image was provided by microsoft with the yahoo logo google would definently remove it.

I don't know but all this speculation is... wait who am I kidding, this is the internet, speculate all you want. Your opinions don't matter anyway.

Someone from Yahoo! corporate should consider changing Google's wikipedia entry to make it say that Google is an *exact* copy and rip off of Yahoo!

Even the name -- notice that they have two oo's in their name just like Yahoo.

Yeah bro, checking with the PR department? Not a good source. You might as well ask the White House press secretary how the war in Iraq is going.

That said, I'm sure Google did copy it. I thought the Google vs. Yahoo thing was more playful. Looks like there's some giggling goin' on over at Google.

Oh come now Jeremy, you're attacking their religion, of course they become reflexively defensive and deny everything.

Maybe Dennis Hwang is on vacation?

"I'm amazed by how many people didn't even read the whole post or the comments. Microsoft did not provide the page in question."

Apparently included in those who didn't even read the whole post or at any rate think about what the words meant was you, Jeremy. In the post, you say, "And I've checked with our PR group to make sure that this wasn't just a template that Microsoft gave to all partners. It's not."

The fact that your PR said it, doesn't make it so. It certainly doesn't make it a fact that, "Microsoft did not provide the page in question."

Ignoring the possibility that the PR department is out right lying to you (that is their job description after all), they may be mistaken, or the person who is answering your question might not have been involved at the level of creating the art or communicating back and forth with Microsoft.

It also doesn't preclude the possibility raise above that someone at Microsoft saw what Yahoo had done and having done the back and forth with Yahoo said to Google, "Cut to the chase, this is what we want."

For what it's worth, the page looks different now, about 11 hours later... Can anyone verify the screen capture is legit?

Daemon: Yes, that's common. That's how the add-in's page works. You submit your stuff to Mozilla and they add it to the add-in's page. The add-in's page is pre-trusted, so you don't need to add it. I usually check there before searching for add-ins elsewhere because it's just easier that way. Google didn't do anything special there...

Maybe IE7 payed both Yahoo and Google to post the same page? Its not stealing from Yahoo unless its Yahoo property and it wasnt a 'yahoo' ad it was an IE7 ad.

Why can't be this a Microsoft template given to Yahoo and Google to advertise IE7 - although it is hard to believe but something which we can't refute either.

Whelp, they've changed it now: http://www.google.com/toolbar/ie7/

Looks like google has just changed their site...there is a red ribbon on the image now.

I happened to stumble on this site just in time to see the old, "copied" version, only to find out that it had been changed by the time I sent this link around a little bit.

I've talked to one of the people who worked on that page at Yahoo. It DID NOT come from Microsoft.

Hey, look at that. They have changed it.

I've updated the post to reflect that. Thanks for the tip!

Microsoft did not supply a template. Google copied Yahoo. That's it.

And interestingly enough, they (Google) have now radiaclly redesigned the page...

If this is the Microsoft template given to Yahoo and Google.

Then why did google ad would have removed the "Y" in an "unprofessional" way?

Havent they got better materials from MS? I just wonder why.

Oh please! use yahoo's algorithm?!? WHY? it's not very good you know.

About the page, maybe they changed it because they DO care about what people say about them, they LISTEN. unlike yahoo.

As further proof, if MSFT really supplied a template, why is USA Today's version so unique? Google copied. They should apologize.

http://www.usatoday.com/marketing/ie7/download.htm

I'm not surprised. Didn't you notice the two o's in both Google and Yahoo!? :)

Or maybe they're just being Agile!

Jeremy, my apology is here:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ie7-promo-page/

I also discuss 1-2 other instances of copying I've seen.

I am always amazed at how much press these incidents get.

Don't get me wrong; I understand Jeremy's position - I've had my own content (design and functionality) copied by my largest competitor, and it made me feel a little enraged. It's natural for JZ to want to protect his company and its properties.

But this is not the first time this has ever happened, and it won't be the last.

Well, I guess 'yay for the blog community for striking another blow against the corporate man!'

Seriously, I'd rather see a rant about how Google Apps for Your Domain does not include Documents and Spreadsheets, or how Yahoo's calendar UI still doesn't match that of its mail. Let's get some action going there.

Maybe its a template microsoft has made for them so naturally they both use it? We shouldnt jump to slagging off google or yahoo.

Yeah, that's lame. But I wouldn't cry wolf too loud, as long as your search and search results are an exact copy of Google...

When the whole world is watching you closely, you cannot affort to do such mistakes (though it is silly).

I guess:
- one person got sloppy at Google and thought he/she wouldn't be caught.
- someone made a mistake. Maybe they just copied the file for test purposes and the file was deployed accidentaly ? Maybe they expected the copied page to be live only a day or too until the real replacement page was implemented ?

Anyway I would expect an official apology. Changing the file is not enough.

Since when has google's buisness model changed from "find out what everyone else is doing, do it and put ads on it"

Nothing new here :)

Google copied Yahoo! So what? Yahoo have copied Google in the past. Big wow.

In the long run, does this really matter? Not so much...

hey..didn't expect such a lowly act from Google!!

Is can be possible that Google wanted to highlight that yahoo is copying their HTML for ads. So they took this measure and waited for yahoo to react and then they will have right time and enough audience to see yahoo's copying.

See the way Matt writes in comments above:
- I also discuss 1-2 other instances of copying I've seen.

and in comments of his own blog:
- Michael, it wouldn’t really be balanced. Google would have to remove a single page that was seen maybe a few thousand times since Google put the page up on Friday. But tens of millions of people have seen Yahoo’s search results every day for the last couple years. Imagine if all those billions of page views had to be undone.

http://mitanshu.blogspot.com/2006/12/race-for-optimizing-ie7.html

How many tabs to you have open?

No offence bud but it's a branded, co-op ad campaign for Internet Explorer. MS want the ad to look the same no matter who is offering it for download.

Move along...

Such fine conspiracy theories, but missing an important point: IE marketing comes from Microsoft, not Yahoo, and not Google. When MSFT provides online services partners with pre-built marketing pages, there's little mystery as to why they're similar, right down to the graphics pixels. The fact that Yahoo was first to show the page might give them an air of originality, but observing they've just parroted the MSFT marketing BS verbatim hardly reflects well on them either. At least Google made the effort to craft their own page afterwards.

I'm not sure what surprises me more, that Google would do something so stupid or that people actually still use Yahoo.

Some junior designer at Google probably found Yahoo's version by (ahem) googling around, copied it, and it slipped by management. It happens all the time. A lot of younger designers think its okay to take pretty much whatever they want online and reskin it.

I believe that this is actually an ad and the content is produced by Microsoft - not done by Yahoo and Google.

You could always consider filing a patent covering all html design. That might just work. Yahoo invented it, so why not? If Yahoo can patent social ranking and interestingness why not all html design going forward?

It's an AD for IE7. The text is only different because it's specific to google and yahoo's layout. Nobody copied anything. If google and yahoo both have ads for say..Oprah, then would you say google copied yahoo? Or vice versa? No. They're both ads.

Despite Google's obvious replication of the IE7 Yahoo! page, Yahoo!'s version continues to be significantly more visually aesthetic and lends color to encouraging users to the most important points in the page..the download. I heart Yahoo! for their functional applications as well as the effort that they put into visual design. I'll develop with the Yahoo! Maps API over Google Maps API anyday just for that reason.

P.S. I think its a little funny that the screenshots were taken in Firefox. Firefox rules!

It looks like they've also been "inspired" by a PayPal logo recently, enough to copy and edit it:

https://securepics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/paypal/imgEcheck.gif
https://checkout.google.com/seller/accept/images/ht.gif

Do they not employ any real designers there, or are they just lazy and unoriginal?

Who cares?

Besides, ie7 kind of sucks anyways.

Why don't you complain about how Mr Softy wiped out other browser platforms rather than google copying one ad layout - that isn't even for Yahoo, it's for MSFT.

Google has been using that page layout for a LONG time. For all of their downloads. Customized IE7? You may be right about Yahoo completing their customization first but if you're talking page layout, I'm thinking Yahoo is the rip-off artist here!

Google has already yanked down the page and replaced with a new design layout.

@Gargoyle - If Google was the originator of the page design, then why would they so hastily remove the page and redesign the page layout? I think your facts are askew.

I guess Google copied the style of Yahoo! This is because Yahoo! is used to using that style (e.g. when a new Yahoo! email interface was promoted, the promotion page was similar to that one).

Google did so perhaps due to tight schedule of the promotion. No more day is allowed for Google to lag behind Yahoo! in each battle. By the way, Google was honest as it did not only modify, but also copied it exactly. Once Google's own design was ready, it changed to the new one.

Is it evil if true? Well, it's just the business world.

Neil..let's not bring Oprah into this. We don't want to make Oprah mad.

And both screenshots were taken in Firefox.

Excellent.

I am a Google fan. But this time they did screw up. And to top that, Matt comes out with a childish reply.

Bad Google, no donut for you. Oops!! Matt might sue me for copying the Orkut error message. My bad.

HAHAHAH Tony Boy has post of the year! Love it!

# Tony said:

This whole thing is pathetic. Is Yahoo in such a rut that their best dig on Google is this stupid IE7 page. And please as much as Microsoft likes to control things, I would totally expect guidelines for that kind of thing. But even if they didn't, who cares? Its a stupid Upgrade To IE7 page. Yahoo, you wsnt to impress me, make Yahoo mail more like Gmail - heck copy Gmail I don't care. I can't upgrade to the new Yahoo Mail because I don't use a high enough resolution. Who is Yahoo to tell me what resolution to use, thats poor design. And that is why my Yahoo email is used for garbage rather than email. This is a prime example why Yahoo is behind, an upgrade to IE7 page is this important.

Send them a cease and desist sounding in copyright violation.

Maybe the Google UI team was too busy kicking Yahoo!'s ass in every other aspect of their site.
The jealousy is obvious.

Get over it girls...!

Pot: You copied that one page of ours! Foul!

Kettle: What about the search results? What about the sponsored links? What about the inline ads?

Pot: Uh...

Kettle: Glass houses, dude.

My question is: How can you have that many tabs open in Firefox without the POS crashing or sucking up all your memory?!?

This is blatant copying by Google.
But Yahoo has copied Google before as well.
Just look at these pages:
http://www.google.com
http://search.yahoo.com

Today they are slightly different now.
But I remember the day when the Yahoo Search page
changed and looked exactly liked Google's.
Talk about being uncreative.
Yahoo also copied the themed company name banners.

Seriously, if Google didn't copy it why they changed the page immediately? Google should apologize for this, or at least give the public explainations.

Probably because they didn't think there would be a bunch of whiners picking at trash news.

holy crap. how many tabs have you got open there?

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery :)

Off-Topic: Your browser's default search engine is Google!!! You said you work for, hmm, Yahoo?

(I assume those screenshots are from your computer)

Wow get a life!!!!!!!
I'm glad they changed it. It looks a hell of allot better than the one yahoo has. Now let's see how long it takes for yahoo to change theirs. Hahahaha

Who wants to read the whole post. I like to skip over the ones that post the same thing 50 times, but it's fun just to piss them off. Hahaha

Who gives a shit?

Yahoo screwed up tv.yahoo.com, which used to be a nice static html page that had everything I needed to figure out what I wanted to watch. It's now a slick, annoying ajaxy page that doesn't even load until I scroll onto the parts I want to read. Why? They just lost a loyal user.

Evil? - Maybe

"Tacky"? - Definitely

Folks,

Microsoft publishes what is called a "Branding Guide". It's a set of guidelines by which Microsoft advertisments must adhere.

I can't believe this made even the slightest splash on Digg.

Google and Yahoo didn't create these pages silly! Microsoft has branding restrictions and usually insists on creating the pages for the host sites themselves. There is no copying here. Adobe does the same thing on major sites that host their install packages. Use your noggin Jeremy!

Disappointing that Google folks just copied the Yahoo page with minor edits.

The image overlay by Chirag shows how blatent it is
http://chir.ag/stuff/yahoo-to-google.gif

Gee, like Microsoft has never blatantly copied anyone!?

Looks like Matt responded with some teeth (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ie7-promo-page/). I think it's hilarious that this is even an issue. Every website has borrowed, and/or copied somebody else at some point in time. Shutup and stick to making your respective search engines the best they can be!

It is funny to hear the "microsoft provided template" argument. If it was true, so what? Look at the two browser images in the two pages, the Yahoo icon on the toolbar was intentionally blurred and everything else was the same. That explain how lazy and unprofessional whoever did this. I guess Google finally figured out to hire some one capture a browser screenshot with Google toolbar on it. :) Ahh...what can I say.

Glad that Google is copying the *best* of Yahoo!?

Yawn.

So I haven't time to read all comments, just gone through the first half. But perhaps it's their (quite working, really) way of pointing out that the arguments presented why IE7 is "optimized for yahoo", are quite dumb? Like, they work just as well for Google, or any search engine?

I wonder if Google will issue (or has already issued) an official statement on this.

This is obviously just a cheap ploy by Yahoo to seem credible.

Don't believe it for half a second.

And how is it that a Yahoo guy would pick up on this quicker than a regular Google user like me...

PS If you look closely you will see more than just red pixels in the supposed "Yahoo" logo. Nice.
That's because it's actually a "Google" logo.

My post won't even be listed here, because all these messages are planted.

And if it does, don't take it to mean that I'm wrong.

Ha ha ha. What's clear from reading all the comments is that 9/10 people prefer commenting to reading other comments - so you have to ask yourself, what's to gain by commenting?

What ever happened to imitation being the sincerest form of flattery? Yahoo should feel good about this.

My main grudges with Yahoo are: Them buying out good companies like Konfabulator and then screwing up the original service and being reckless with account info. Yahoo's services not working or being down. Me being spammed on private addresses that I have divulged solely to Yahoo. I am talking Viagra spam, not opt-in crap.

BTW The only good and useful thing I've ever seen on Yahoo was/is it's financial indicators and graphs, apparently done by the guy running this blog. Neat work. Pity you didn't do it at Google.

Seems stupid on the part of google if it is true ...
But really doubt how much this is true

Common now. How many times has Yahoo! copied Google's HTML? You can dish it but you can't freaking take it.

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ie7-promo-page/

Even the Internet Explorer icon is the same. How dare you Google?

I can't believe how uninspired Google is, they obviously felt that what you created was good enough to rip off. It seems like many good products are copied. I have an iGo power adapter that I love when I travel, now I see other companies trying to copy the technology. I always advise anyone with a good idea or product get your patents in order!

It never ceases to annoy me how little people seem to care about the "rights" of Copyright law. Comments like "big frikkin deal" and "so what", etc. completely ignore that Yahoo paid someone to create that page (and stop arguing, if Microsoft had sent it, why would the Google copy have the Yahoo "Y"?). It's simply not fair that someone at Google can just take it for their own, for whatever reason they might give. Unless they obtained permission to use the copy from the rightful copyright owner (which seems highly unlikely, given the evidence), they have violated the owner's "copy right" (their right to distribute, sell, give away, etc. their content in any way they want). HTML code, images, design layouts, etc. are all protected under copyright law. It's the creative product of the person that made the page (or the company, if it was work-for-hire). So taking away the rightful owner's ability to sell that product, if they should choose to do so, is no different than stealing.

"What's next? Google using your algorithm? :)"

Hilarious!

Is this something Yahoo would send a mini lawyer/pr blitz onto?

Who cares?

No offense to you personally, but yahoo! annoys me w/ it's "busy-ness", while I love the simplicity of the plain old google homepage.

Plus, you're using firefox - so who cares about ie7? :D

Google this, yahoo that; yahoo these, google those - you have flickr, del.icio.us, and blogger opened up in your many tabs (oo.oo.. what next can "name brand company A" copy from "name brand company B") - take Web Wars 101...

Maybe Google were getting Yahoo! back for copying their bare bones search page ;)

Its silly to not to believe that Google did copy from Yahoo.

You can say Yahoo copied from Google for whatever crap (in terms of that search box stuff the Google guy talked about, Google copied from Overture, now bought by Yahoo.)...

Anyways, this is absolutely not a big issue, but don't know why people start making great deal out of it, or trying to deny or making whatever guesses.

The simple thing is, just look at that blurred Y! icon in the Google page ! That says all!!

The only sad part of this whole story is that Jeremy (no offense man) knew only to tell that the Yahoo page wasn't a MSN template and that the Google copied that page. But no words about what others know from some time: Yahoo! copied G! for a loong time, but this is obviously not important for Yahoo!.

P.S. Firefox rulez :)

How can someone run so many tabs in firefox? Thats CRAZY!!!

Just recently we was Microsoft "steal" an icon from Apple. Turns out that both bought the icons from IconFactory. Might Google and Yahoo have outsourced the page development to the same designers?

Or, hehe, might there be Y-G double agents coding for both?...

So many Google fan-boys. They all seem to be sure that Microsoft generated the page for both Yahoo and Google. Apparently they can't read before posting.

The graphic has the Yahoo tool-bar and logo on it. Did Microsoft generate a graphic with Yahoo items on it? See http://chir.ag/stuff/yahoo-to-google.gif You can clearly see where Google blurred out the Yahoo logo.

The Yahoo guy, whose project this was, says that Microsoft didn't give him a template: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-8Qkt1Z4zabFpOv7R?p=88

Actually, WAG, according to IconFactory themselves Microsoft was indeed in the wrong there:

http://iconfactory.com/home/permalink/1754

Not wanting to bring too many facts into an emotional debate, of course, but still...

HAHAHA, they copied because it isn't worth the effort to create something new just for Internet Explorer.

What are you doing.... Not that I want to take one or the other part! But don’t you have something else to do then bitching on a simple Web page.

Personally there is many other things that people should care about... look at the world around you! There is war, pore, sickness, genocide.

Please be realistic… It’s just a simple web page.

Hey guys ! What's the problem if google have the same page to download IE7 as Yahoo ??? The principal thing is that the surfer can download IE7 and stop ! why you consider that as a problem ??? I don't think that's a very big error !

Thanks.

Naughty naughty google but am i missing something isn't the complete yahoo search homepage a complete rip off of googles homepage?

You say that Google stole "our" design. Why are you using Google as your search engine for the browser?

CP:

Because it's the one I prefer.

What I hope Google will never copy is the censorship Yahoo! is currently engaging in on their Yahoo! Messenger.

The product that is being marketed IE7 - a Microsoft Product. If you were to advertise a product of yours on my website, would you want me to create the ad for you or you would create it yourself. What you may do is get a 3rd party (ad agency?) to create the ad for you.

Is it not possible that both the ads were created by the same agency (inside or outside microsoft) ?

"PR Group? Who???"

Sree

Good catch, JZ!

- M2

a yahoo marketeer wrote:
Yes, we are sure, because Yahoo! built the Yahoo! page, ourself, back in October. Also, note the Yahoo! Toolbar in the produce screenshot on both pages. Note Google's sloppy attempt at blurring the red Y from the screenshot in their image.

Are you a receptionist at Yahoo? It's product, not produce. I don't see a Yahoo toolbar, but if you happen to be carrying a long knife with you, then maybe I do... Not to mention that if the Yahoo toolbar were installed, well you'd be looking at it installed on Firefox and not IE7.

Oh hey, what sloppy blur attempt on a red Y are you talking about? You mean the little red Y! icon to indicate that tab is on a Yahoo web page?

Seriously, if you work at Yahoo, at least know what your produce look like, heh.

I don't even understand why this is shameful for Google. They used the same ad for the same product. The product was slightly modified, and so the ad was only slightly modified. That's it. This shouldn't even have this much thought into it.

"WTF is that about?"

It's about standardization and user-friendliness: if people have similar pages with similar layouts and content, they can more easily navigate.

I find it kind of embarrassing for Yahoo! that you seem to believe that this kind of announcement page is something creative whose design needs to be distinctive for every vendor. By shaming Google into changing their page, you have done a disservice to users.

Its good to carry similar identification for a certain products which alredy have its own image. IE 7 does and even it doesnot belong to Yahoo!
And so definately Google doest bother. Yahoo has copied so much of google's search engine and now busy in even for improving its paid search programme on the lines of Google Adwords.

Shouldn't Yahoo be trying to figure out how to make their Search Engine more like Google, rather then worrying about a stupid splash page for a crappy browser? Just a thought.

I can't say anymore, why Google doing this? and holla after they accept complain from netter they change the page as soon as possible? it's like tricks? to doing some propaganda for they new Toolbars? to beat Yahoo toolbars? it's not good...

If big company like Google use THIS BAD technique to make their toolbar become popular...

Google is Not Enough??

Well, I thought Google worked for Firefox and open source in general. Now, I hate Google for liking M$.

Gosh look at this

http://search.yahoo.com
http://www.google.com

Yahoo's search homepage looks exactly like Google's. Even after being pointed out several times, Yahoo hasn't changed it yet!!!! At least Google was ashamed of what it did and redesigned their page in this case. Yahoo has had no such thoughts whatsoever abt search. Yahoo users are still waiting for Yahoo to clean up its act before it is too late.

One theory: the designer was given a screenshot of Yahoo's page (I assume they were working from an image because the html wasn't used) and told to make a Google version.

There's plenty of english/context slip-ups that could leave room for ambiguity as to whether the page had to be simply rebranded or created from scratch.

It's only advertising material, after all. The sort of thing you'd expect to be recycled ad nauseum.

There is a very specific type of patent created to stop this kind of copying. It's called a "design patent". Cheap, easy to get.

(Begin - Shameless self promotion)

You can read an article getting design patents for web sites at http://www.bakosenterprises.com/IP/B-08152006/IPB-08152006.html

(End - Shameless self promotion)

Oh, and Ze Frank did a bit on your posting at http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/12/121506.html

1. The screenshots were both done from inside firefox, hence the link bars etc being IDENTICAL.

2. You are using Google as your search engine. Great idea for a Yahoo employee.

3. Google already used a similar style for the FireFox download as they did for the IE7 download, which means that they're not REALLY copying you (as much as you'd like that to be the case)

Interesting. Very interesting. btw, I find Yahoo more lively than Google. Keep up the good work!

This was a great post. Pretty funny to see google doing something like this when they are so big on copywright laws.

I had to blog about this on all of my many blogs!! Good work!

Why is this a bad thing? This is probably good: monotonous interfaces are easier to use for several reasons. Better usability is better for everyone.

Blame it on Matt Cutts!

Why do you think Google is so rich, it's called keeping expenses low. Stealing other peoples work is a sure fire way to save money.

I like the idea to push IE7 on IE users, as IE < 7 is only hindering productivity for web developers, but don't push that crap on firefox users, plz.

It's obvious that this is a pact with MS, or else you would be pushing IE users to use Firefox (perhaps), and wouldn't push firefox users to use IE7.

Yahoo! and Google have profited more from OSS than any other companies that I can think of, and it's sad that they would conspire to push proprietary software on mainstream users.

Did you see the latest Google goof?
http://www.richkahmer.com/mistake-at-google.html

I think that Microsoft probably designed the ad. But that's because I'm fairly stupid and can't read, and thus haven't taken on board the fifty billion posts here which refute that suggestion.

I can't believe you are ranting about that page. It's a dead simple static html page. Design? What design there's nothing to it. Come on intellectual property should at least hold some value, that page could easily have been created by a 6 yr old. Get over yourselves Yahoo and create some more usefull content rather than slagging off the competition.

Microsoft *did not* design the ad. How many times to I have to explain that?

I'm a Yahoo employee and was part of the team that built that page. I know and hired the engineer who wrote the code. I used to sit next to the visual designer who designed it.

So I can tell you beyond a doubt - it's not a Microsoft template.

However, our entire team got quite a laugh out of this. It definitely IS flattering! :-)

I certainly hope that Google doesn't copy Yahoo's policy of forking over private user data to the government.

The policy you refer is otherwise known as "following the law." I'm pretty sure Google plans to do so.

I maybe shoulda spelled out more that I was being sarcastic and it was meant to be a jibe at all the people who clearly didn't read (or worse, understand) the simple point that it was created at Yahoo. (The version they replaced it with is ugly, eh?)

Have you even looked at the two sites instead of looking at the images provided? I got the Googleized version when it was just announced and the page looked COMPLETELY different than yahoo's, and it still does....!!!

drunk3nrabbit:

Nice try, but that's simply not true. How do I know? Friends at Google confirmed it for me.

BUT....

What on earth does the Yahoo browser provide?

What is so special about Yahoo that requires them to release an "optimized" version?

Optimized for what? Just making sure that it works with the Yahoo service or are there any real value adds.

The Upgrade Now page does not give me any confidence that this is Yahoo not saying "bugger! Our site doesn't work in the new browser"

So go on... tell me it is more than just a toolbar and a couple of homepages - definately not worth wasting 17MB of my precious bandwidth for that!

This ones for "Tim said" above.

> 1. The screenshots were both done from inside firefox, hence > the link bars etc being IDENTICAL.

If you look carefully, the red "Y!" is on the Yahoo screenshot. In the Google screenshot, it's a faded yellow "Y!"

If that's not _hiding_ the fact of copying... don't know what is.

"Microsoft *did not* design the ad. How many times to I have to explain that?"

You haven't explained it ever.

You have claimed it multiple times. Claiming it doesn't make it true, or require us to accept your claims, or the claims of your coworkers.

Even if I believe you, and your coworkers, that the original ad was created at Yahoo, that doesn't preclude the possibility that Microsoft sent Google a copy of the ad said, "We want an ad that looks like this one."

I'm inclined to believe you as far as you go, but I have no reason to believe that you are omniscient.

This wouldn't be that big a deal, except that you are accusing your competitor of "stupidity, laziness, or a mix of both." Given that accusation, shouldn't you reason more closely and choose your words more carefully? Aren't there any other possibilities besides lazy or stupid?

I have spent a lot of time reading most not all but most of the post here. When it comes to who did what it does not really matter because if there was some impropriety between G & Y or Y & G it would have been on TV or Radio Or on any of the web news suppliers. Has anyone stopped to think that if there was something done wrong the company that was done wrong would be SCREAMING, RAPE !!!!!!
I have to figure that the higher up had come to some agreement concerning this if in fact it mattered to either.
I came here by accident in hopes of finding how I can add the IE6, My Pictures Image Toolbar, feature to IE7. I can at the very least assure you I did enjoy my visit here but Jesus, don't you think they will fight this out if it's real?
specialks I hope to return when I have more time.

hahaaa..lol..lol...lol....
this soo sux but in a very funny way...wonder what happened to the designer who did this....

merlinvicki

Jeremy, do you work for Yahoo?

What about Yahoo! India copying content as well, without any changes. Check this link for more information:
http://myinjimanga.blogspot.com/2007/02/yahoo-india-and-content-theft.html
and
http://myinjimanga.blogspot.com/2007/02/yahoo-plagiarizes-contents-and-blames.html
--

Who really cares? I mean come on. Both pages are basically sucking up to MSIE.

I suggest you guys get a life instead of wasting time going over screenshots with a magnifying glass looking for the mysterious yellow "Y".

WHO CARES??????????

OMG - maybe its a standard thing like erm... Microsoft said we are paying you to have this like that!

WTF guys? This is 2 months old now. Why did you suddently decide to care enought to bitch in the comments?

Lots of spare time on your hands, eh?

1. the screenshots have been prepared using Firefox. Many (not all) of the above posters don't seem to understand that.
2. The "Bits of Yahoo"...huh? Do you mean the tab icons? Those come from Firefox, and would be identical in either case.

I concede that the design of the two pages is identical...but given the lack of understanding revealed by the initial post, who's to say that this isn't a Photoshop job from the get-go?

My goodness.

Sorry to drudge this up, but check out the copy on these two pages:

http://promo.yahoo.com/user_research/

http://pages.ebay.com/community/people/researchpanel/index.html

Clearly and cut & paste with tweaks, though who knows who was first.

Yahoo India copies bloggers content

http://www.desipundit.com/2007/02/14/content-theft-by-yahoo-india/

http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2007/02/26/yahoo-plagiarism-protest-scheduled-march-5th/