Google has introduced a new portal service that makes it much more like Yahoo and MSN. Go to http://www.google.com/ig to try it out.

Is it worth it? They still have some work to do to make it as useful as Yahoo and MSN and there are a few glitches, but overall it is great. In true Google fashion, the page looks and feels a lot cleaner and loads a lot faster than its rivals.

What’s missing? First of all the most important thing that is missing is actually a good thing – there are no dancing bananas or other distracting, flashing graphics and no popup annoyances. On the negative side, I’ve grown to really like Yahoo’s RSS feature that lets me add my own RSS feeds, I’d like to see this feature added to the Google portal. The Stock market ticker will show you delayed quotes of a custom list of stocks but does not allow you to actually track a portfolio like Yahoo and MSN do. If you actually want any level of detail you end up in a frame that lets you look on Yahoo Finance, Fool.com, MSN MoneyCentral or ClearStation to get it.

What are the glitches? When I look at stock detail and then click the Google logo I’m back at the old, uncustomized Google home page instead of mine. When I click on Go to Google News I end up on an generic Google News page, even though I’ve customized my news, it takes a few extra clicks to get to my personalized Google News page and then it is difficult to get back to my customized portal page.

I’m sure that these glitches will be fixed soon, and I hope that they add RSS. As long as they keep their clean look and keep improving they might take over the portal traffic next.

Looks like it’s mostly home pages, but a very complete set of them that yields current and relevant results. Try it out at http://www.mysearch.com.au/and see what you think.

Google’s index was months old for quite a while, now that it’s more up-to-date it is still far from complete. Pages seem to get dropped for no apparent reason, making their directory quite useless.

DMOZ, The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. Many of these editors are dedicated and devoted individuals; some of them are also arrogant and complacent. How they decide if your site is “worthy” of being added to the directory I don’t know. I waited several months to get our site added to the local Asheville directory for Web Designers. I still have not been added to the general Web Design directory and have never heard a word from any of the editors to acknowledge my submission or give any reason for not including it, it just doesn’t show up. It seems the volunteers doing the Asheville section of the directory are far more responsive to submissions than some of the other sections.

Yahoo. Here is arrogance at its highest level. From Yahoo’s own submission page: “Your payment and participation mean that within 7 business days Yahoo! will review your site and consider it for inclusion in the Yahoo! Directory… Important note: Use of the Yahoo! Express program does not ensure that your submission will be accepted for inclusion in the Yahoo! Directory or that it will receive the site placement or description that you request.” What is the cost for this review, with “no guarantee of inclusion?” $299.00! … Per year!!! Sorry, but I don’t give $299.00 to anybody for (very possibly) nothing. Because Yahoo charges so much for mostly nothing their directory is also very old and very incomplete.

Enter Microsoft. This is the behemoth that many seem to hate for its arrogance. But wait! Their directory seems really complete and includes a site that I just created less than a week ago! And I didn’t even submit it to MSN or anyone else because it is really not complete yet. This is awesome! Given a choice, I would have never chosen Microsoft to put these other search engines in their place. But, I have to admit that, they have done an awesome job of producing results that are fresh, complete and relevant. Isn’t that what we are all looking for in a search engine?

I can usually bash Microsoft with the best of them but, this time, I have to sing their praises instead. Hopefully, by the time they get arrogant and complacent (in this area), one of the others will get the message and give them a run for their money. Competition is good, wherever it comes from, if it helps to create new and better products for us all to use.