2006年VOA标准英语-Google and Yahoo Still Remain Popular

By Barry Wood
Mountain View, CA
01 December 2006
 
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Silicon¹ Valley rivals Yahoo and Google are located only minutes from each other at the southern end of the Silicon Valley not far from San Francisco, California.  VOA's Barry Wood visited both companies and found them determined² to retain their enormous popularity with Internet users.

 
Google is a stunning³ success. It was founded in 1998 by two graduate students who developed a unique way to organize material on the Internet. Today Google dominates Internet search worldwide.  And it has become very rich.

The company is moving into new areas--email, video, maps and digitizing the world's books.

 
Adam Smith
Adam Smith is the Product Manager for Google Book Search. "Our overall objective is to make the full text of all the word's books, in all languages and cultures, searchable, as Web pages are searchable today."

Smith says this controversial project poses no threat to authors and publishers. "From Google's perspective this actually increases the value of books. We can connect you to books you may never have known existed."

Yahoo and Google both emphasize youth, informality and freedom, and having fun while you work. Yahoo, which is three years older than Google, has been losing advertising⁴ revenue to its rival and is well behind in Internet search.

 
Tapan Bhat
Yahoo front doors vice⁵ president Tapan Bhat says Yahoo leads in e-mail and is the world's busiest Internet portal. "The Yahoo home page is the most visited page on the Internet."

Despite having home pages in 21 languages, Tapan Bhat says there is a remarkable⁶ cross-cultural similarity in what users want from the Internet. "When we ask people what they want as an ideal page that helps you start on the Internet, they said these three things--connect to people and information they care about, be part of their daily routine, and tell them what is happening."

Jeff Bonforte is Yahoo's director of real time communications. He says Yahoo instant messaging has 70 million users, most of them outside the United States. "I was in Viet Nam earlier this year. Every machine I looked at had Yahoo Messenger installed on the desktop⁷. Every machine, every café, every office."

Instant messaging, he says, is booming, particularly video. "Because instant messenger is a discreet⁸ relationship between two parties. I know you. You know me. I call it a dashboard, I keep a dashboard of family and friends on my desktop at all times."

Google has raced ahead of Yahoo. Its shares sell for more $500 and its market value is four times greater than the combined worth of Ford⁹ and General Motors.

1 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

2 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

3 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

4 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

7 desktop   

n.桌面管理系统程序；台式

参考例句：

• My computer is a desktop computer of excellent quality.我的计算机是品质卓越的台式计算机。
• Do you know which one is better,a laptop or a desktop?你知道哪一种更好，笔记本还是台式机？

8 discreet   

adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的

参考例句：

• He is very discreet in giving his opinions.发表意见他十分慎重。
• It wasn't discreet of you to ring me up at the office.你打电话到我办公室真是太鲁莽了。

9 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。