For the first time ever, Yahoo has surged ahead of search-giant Google in customer satisfaction, according to a recent survey. Conducted by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) - which is run by the University of Michigan - the survey shows that while Yahoo gained 4% from last year while Google fell the same amount.

Google had held the top spot in the “Internet Portals/Search Engines” category since 2002. Their drop from the top spot could be attributed to some heat they’ve been taking the past year over their privacy policies.

This 4% is a small drop, and at present Google is still the dominant search engine. It should also be noted that Yahoo is a web portal, providing services and links that extend well beyond simple search queries. Google certainly provides more and more products and tools with each passing year, but the primary focus of their home page is still just search.

However, it is a good reminder that Yahoo, while still the underdog, is still a major player in the world of search, and one of Google’s chief competitors.

What if aarvarks lived on Mars?  And what if they were poisonous aardvarks?  How useful would it be to be poisonous on Mars?  I bet they’d be angry, being all poisonous but having no other Mars citizens on which to inflict their poison. 

I don’t know much about aardvarks, or Mars.  But I want to.  I want to know more.  Where does one go to learn about poisonous animals and what their lives might be like on other planets?

These are the questions that I’m pondering today.  Cantankerous poisonous aardvark abodes on Mars.  What’s on your mind?

There are two questions we constantly get about spam:

1. How do I stop it?

2. Why do people send it?

The answer to the first question is easy: Postini. The second question can be answered very simply: because some people are buying what the spammers are selling. Christopher Smith, the notorious “pharmacy spam king” will now be the proud recipient of “three hots and a cot.” Good riddance.