Time for a change of scenery: I’m joining Yahoo!

April 1, 2006

in Google/SEO, Weblog/blog

By now, you’ve probably seen Jeremy Zawodny’s post: he’s joining Google, and I’m leaving Google for a new job at Yahoo! This is part of Yahoo!’s acquisition of all Web 2.0 companies (I did a panel at the Web 2.0 conference, and I recently found out that I’m included in the acquisition). Jeremy is being modest; it’s basically a blogger-for-blogger swap, but he’s got more than three times as many readers on Bloglines, so Google is contributing about 2,500 computers to even out the deal. It’s basically one computer per Bloglines subscriber, so the terms of the swap were “Google gets Jeremy, Yahoo! gets Matt + 2,546 computers,” I believe.

We had a hard time deciding what to do with our blogs, because people come to my site to hear more about Google, and people go to Jeremy’s blog to hear a little more about Yahoo! To make it easier on our readers, we’re swapping blogs too: I’ll be posting over at Jeremy’s blog, and Jeremy will start posting here. I know it sounds complicated, but I’m sure people will get used to it. Just remember: before, I posted on http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ about Google. Now, I’ll be posting on http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/ about Yahoo! See you over there!

Note: I just saw that Scoble is coming to Google too. So we may have to work out some sort of round-robin blogging arrangement; maybe I’ll spend 20% of my time up in Seattle with Microsoft.

{ 47 comments… read them below or add one }

Paul Anthony April 1, 2006 at 1:57 am

I would have fallen for that…only for March 31st Blog being titled April Fool…

peter April 1, 2006 at 2:00 am

WOW If it wasnt today I’d be taken in and beleive it – I am a sucker :)

Stuart D April 1, 2006 at 2:07 am

LOL! I knew you could rely on Cutts for a decent fools joke… luckily… I was well on guard and expecting such malarky! well.. done… me :D

Mike April 1, 2006 at 2:12 am

Jeez, what a LAME April Fool’s joke. Zzzz…

Ken Prevo April 1, 2006 at 2:21 am

Man! are you lucky!!! You are getting out just in time!

http://www.theregister.com/2006/04/01/china_buys_google/

Harith April 1, 2006 at 2:49 am

WOW…

Jeremy “rel=nofollow” Zawodny’ joining Google :D

Mikkel deMib Svendsen April 1, 2006 at 3:07 am

What a shame, Matt – Google really needs you these days :)

Anyway, welcome to Jeremy – loking forward to hear all your insight on Google …

Amrit April 1, 2006 at 3:11 am

Oh! I only know it’s 1st April when such things begin to happen around me :-) .2,500 computers! Wow! And here I am worrying about how to get that one computer I need.

Daniel April 1, 2006 at 3:34 am

come on, you can do this april fools better. something like “new: google searches all your missing socks” or “altavista buys google”.

JohnMu April 1, 2006 at 3:46 am

Finally.

Dean Clatworthy April 1, 2006 at 3:49 am

Hehe nothing’s got me yet apart from:

http://www.cosforums.com – a friend owns it and it has over 80k members and almost 1million posts ;)

Julian April 1, 2006 at 3:52 am

If it wasn’t today, I woud’ve unsubscribed already after reading this.

Rob Said April 1, 2006 at 5:15 am

The UN have a 1,000,000 euro reward for anyone who can find an American that knows how to do a decent April Fool’s joke.

Ne1home April 1, 2006 at 5:53 am

Who gets to feed the cats?

PS. Do Y! really pay better?

gmf April 1, 2006 at 6:12 am

Had me going for a second, then realized the date too! har har!

You know the sad part? I was hoping it was true as Google needs more(better) competition!

What a Maroon April 1, 2006 at 7:08 am

At least now Matt can cash in his GSUs.

Ant Onaf April 1, 2006 at 7:13 am

I knew this was a big April Fool’s joke. + 2,546 computers, how lame is that? Why would any large corporation make a deal for computers, we know Google value you much more than that! Good try, but we are on to you. I see Jeremy and Scoble are both on board, you guys are too hilarious.

Hagrin April 1, 2006 at 7:23 am

Yeah, compared to the Google Romance pages, this was a snooze fest. :)

I think a Jeremy and a tasteless plane crash joke would have been slightly better or a FUD article about the Government getting all of your search data or sponsoring the Big Daddy data centers. Now, THOSE I might have ctually believed before I realized the date this morning haha.

Ronald de Gunst April 1, 2006 at 7:32 am

What’s the date today? 1 A..

Gary R. Hess April 1, 2006 at 7:39 am

None of my April Fools jokes have worked just yet… good thing it’s just the morning, so there is still plenty of time left!

Alan April 1, 2006 at 7:46 am

All the best to you…:) Good Luck

Rich April 1, 2006 at 7:48 am

That’s way too confusing! I would recomend that Matt legally change his name to Jeremy Zawodny and Jeremy legally change his name to Matt Cutts.

Josh April 1, 2006 at 8:03 am

CYA MATT ALL US 1337 Se0 HAZ0rS R g00na M155 U :-)

ClickyB April 1, 2006 at 8:25 am

Damnit…

Google said I could have you come work for me – for a couple of IBM laptops and a Commodore 64…

Then they said the laptops didn’t boot-up fast enough :(

Stephen April 1, 2006 at 8:38 am

Matt

Good Move – Google is really a sinking ship at the moment and Yahoo results are much much better than Googles.

Past 12:00 here – so definetly not kidding.

Steven Hargrove April 1, 2006 at 9:07 am

Goodnesss……nooooooooooooooooooooooo lol

i dont get the switch, i thought you wee all hot about Google?

german April 1, 2006 at 9:58 am

Yahoo is having me nr 1 on my keyword since last summer.
Msn is having me nr1 on my local search.
Altavista , AOL and any other are having me Nr.1

If surely people follow Google forums, it is not because about the person who is talking, it is because other search engines are not so hard to get through (or not making life soooo complicated).

I will stay here, wether it is an april joke or not.

HaHa April 1, 2006 at 10:43 am

Matt,
you really should leave the jokes to someone else.

Brian April 1, 2006 at 3:20 pm

Who says Americans can’t pull off an
April Fool’s joke
?

David Stansbury April 1, 2006 at 5:35 pm

I am ashamed to say that I fell for it, for about 2 minutes. Good grief, I need to lay off the Dayquil.

Interesting with the new Google Romance announcement. I was commenting in jest before! http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-page-creator/#comment-15550

Alin April 1, 2006 at 10:14 pm

cool. YaGooHooGle!

Cyanbane April 1, 2006 at 11:09 pm

MC: You are sure nobody’s follow’ us?
JZ: As I told you, it would be absolutely, totally, and in all other ways inconceivable. No one from G knows what we’ve done, and no one at Y! could have gotten here so fast. – Out of curiosity, why do you ask?
MC: No reason. It’s only… I just happened to look behind us and something is there.
JZ: What? Probably some local fisherman, out for a pleasure cruise, at night… in… eel-infested waters…

vardhman April 2, 2006 at 12:59 am

Reading it on 2nd April makes you feel its April 1 today :) Nice post btw.

ELIAS KAI April 2, 2006 at 3:50 am

Well MATT,

Was this April fool to let the move up on what MSN Spoof had _?

Well done…. April Buzzor

Kango April 3, 2006 at 8:26 am

Here’s a good one for 1st of April:
“Google’s fix all canonical and supplemental results problems.”

Bigfinger April 3, 2006 at 1:09 pm

Personally I liked the Google Romance April 1st joke better but hey… not too bad an effort to standardize the 3 big SE’s on something at least!

caraie April 3, 2006 at 9:32 pm

hehehe, nice try

Ian Mansfield April 4, 2006 at 3:44 am

Blimy !

I lose internet access at home for a few days, get a bad head cold and when I come back, everything is swapped around.

I almost feel like I should apologise to everyone !

TV Shows on DVD April 4, 2006 at 8:38 am

hehehhe aprils fools day….nice!

Gary R. Beal April 6, 2006 at 9:01 am

Yet another STILL baffled by this crusty April Fools Joke…lol

http://www.seoproject.com/news/cutts-zawodny-googleyahoo060406.shtml

Dave April 7, 2006 at 9:38 pm

I laughed when I read it (smile)

TheoryMaster April 8, 2006 at 6:50 pm

I am waiting for your 1 April, 2007 prank

SEARCH ENGINES Web May 26, 2006 at 7:17 pm

Now, #1 in Yahoo for the term SEO

They really enjoyed your stay.. LOL

search.yahoo.com/search?p=seo

Tom Jackson December 30, 2006 at 5:03 am

Oh, man. I thought for a split second Matt Cutts no longer at G – where we gonna get the inside info from. Then I saw the date.

Tom

http://tomjacksononline.blogspot.com

Xeon - Habitaquo April 7, 2007 at 3:52 pm

Huh… Many blog tagged this as: Ohh! Cutts was hacked: LOL :D — bad blogs :)

Dugger May 11, 2007 at 2:00 am

what was the joke for Apr 2007 ?

Guess, Matt may join U.S. Air Force, to bring more results ;)

Jessica December 24, 2008 at 6:56 am

For what its worth, google likes this site. In my google webmaster tools, It’s showing over 100 backlinks to mattcutts
That’s incredible indexing!
Best regards, Jessica@ makemoneykingdom.com
Jessi194@ yahoo.co.uk

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