A Yodel Anecdotal post describing the move encourages readers to examine the 2009 Toyota Prius page.  Lesley Kao writes, "You’ll find the page is now cleaner and easier to use, especially for reviewing the specific trims available.  Selecting the Touring package allows you to then drill down to more detailed information including bigger photos, virtual tours, comprehensive user reviews and expert reviews from partners like The Car Connection, as well as pricing data, including our new streamlined price with options functionality."

 Yahoo Autos

Kao then continues, "We’re also pleased to introduce hundreds of new vehicle videos through WheelsTV as part of this launch – like a virtual test drive to save you time before you hit the dealerships."  And in the event you’re not in the market for 2009 or 2010 models, much of the same stuff is supposed to be available for cars from 1997 forward.

The overall result is nice enough, putting Yahoo Autos more or less on par with most other vehicle research sites.  It lacks knockout features, though, so the update may not attract a lot of new users.  Also, even some of the current offerings don’t work so well.  Look up the Lotus Exige (a $60,000 sports car), for example, and Yahoo Autos not-helpfully reports that people who visited the page also viewed the $350,000 Lamborghini Murcielago and the $20,000 Mazda6 sedan.

We’ll see what happens, then.  At least the major car companies haven’t made any headlines so far today.

Of course, “interested in” is not the same as “committed to,” and in an email to WebProNews, a Yahoo spokesperson readily admitted that “only 7% of those surveyed actually own an AFV.”  Still, this market segment appears ready to enjoy a constant expansion as people shop for new cars.

Automakers are, if anything, behind the curve.  On the American front, the Chevrolet Volt is still years away from production, and Tesla’s electric car efforts seem to have stalled.  Even industry leaders Toyota and Honda only have a few hybrids in their lineups.

The Yahoo Autos study didn’t see the interest in fuel-efficient vehicles going away, though, so consumers should still be ready whenever something interesting is released.  And since Yahoo went to the trouble of surveying 2,949 people, we’ll note that the Yahoo Autos Green Center is standing by in the meantime.

Andrew Gerhart first noticed the problem on Monday.  Gerhart collected screenshots to prove his point, and as he notes, Yahoo Autos is clearly in violation of Yahoo’s own policy regarding “search content quality.”

“Normally, I could care less if someone is spamming or using shady techniques,” Gerhart writes.  “BUT, I don’t feel that this applies to the search engines.  They are the ones placing the ‘quality guidelines’, penalizing websites, banning websites, and trying to enforce the rules that they’ve made up.  And they penalize and ban websites for less than what Yahoo! is doing above.”

Gerhart continues by asking, “How is that fair?  With one hand you’re going to ban a site and in effect reduce their revenue and with your other hand you employ the same strategies (or worse)?  Come on now.”

I should pause here to say that every fault Gerhart found with Yahoo Autos is a real one – a discussion in the WebmasterWorld Forum corroborates everything, and Search Engine Roundtable adds, “Tim Mayer of Yahoo! has confirmed on [the] May 22nd edition of The Daily Search Cast that Yahoo Autos has changed the page since this has been reported.”

But there’s one other interesting angle to this story, and it relates to Gerhart’s position as Director of SEO for Primedia Automotive.  As WebProNews reported, Primedia started a “Ride of the Month” contest last week, and that contest will involve a game for Microsoft’s Xbox 360.  So it seems that someone with ties to Microsoft is pointing out problems with Yahoo.

Interesting, yes, but again, it doesn’t in any way counterbalance the fact that Yahoo Autos was cloaking.