| In today's world, many people turn to the internet | | | | music lyrics system. Part of the deal agreed upon |
| to find information about any subject that one | | | | by Yahoo and various record labels include the |
| may think about. One subject that is increasing in | | | | requirement for all lyrics to be in picture format |
| popularity is searching for full music lyrics to all and | | | | versus pure text. This is mainly to prevent users |
| any genres of songs. This is fairly simple to | | | | from copying and pasting the text of lyrics and to |
| accomplish with a simple search in Google, but | | | | prevent online robots from crawling their |
| some people worry that in the very near future, | | | | webpage with the sole intent to steal the text of |
| this may or may not be changing. | | | | the lyrics. This also has a drawback, as mentioned |
| Yahoo recently announced a new feature that | | | | above. Since the lyrics are in picture format, |
| would allow users to search music lyrics from | | | | search engines will not be able to see the text in |
| their site. Yahoo has obtained licensing for tons of | | | | the lyrics, and searches where users enter a |
| artists from many different record labels. In | | | | verse from their favorite song will not return a |
| exchange for the allowed use of the music lyrics, | | | | result from Yahoo's system. |
| Yahoo provides a portion of all advertising | | | | Yahoo's music lyrics search also suffers from the |
| revenue gained from the site to the artists and | | | | fact that the "typical" internet user just doesn't |
| record labels. | | | | know about it. With Google being the current king |
| Some owners of other music lyrics websites | | | | of search engines, a good portion of internet |
| have worried that Yahoo's new system will take | | | | users have no idea that Yahoo offers such a |
| away a large portion of their site's traffic. One | | | | system. These users will continue to search for |
| website I contacted even suggested that they | | | | music lyrics as they always have in the past, |
| would have to take an additional approach, such | | | | through a typical Google search. This, coupled with |
| as offering a new mobile-based lyrics system for | | | | the fact that 90% of search engine traffic comes |
| cell-phone users, in response to the loss of | | | | from Google, will mean that although Yahoo's |
| advertising revenue due to Yahoo's new music | | | | system is a nice approach, many online music |
| lyrics system. Additionally, some lyrics websites | | | | lyrics websites will not be as heavily hit as some |
| are disallowed from posting lyrics to certain artists | | | | once thought after Yahoo's announcement. One |
| or bands due to copyright issues. Yahoo's system | | | | thing is for certain: unless Yahoo takes over as |
| is an attempt to get around this problem and | | | | the king of search engines, most users will |
| offers music lyrics to any song the user would | | | | continue to find music lyrics online in the same |
| want to search for. | | | | fashion they have used in the past, through |
| While Yahoo's approach is an elegant solution, | | | | Google. |
| there are still a couple of drawbacks to their | | | | |