Yahoo! upgrades search

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 03 October 2007 18:19

Your IT - Home IT

Yahoo! has announced 'Search Assist' which "goes beyond basic search 'suggestions' and gives consumers real-time query suggestions as well as related topics and concepts" and which integrates audio, video and photos directly into search results.

Yahoo! is billing Search Assist as "the most advanced assistance technology available on the Web," and says it was designed to better understand user intent and get consumers to the results they are looking for in one search.

Yahoo! claims, on the basis of research it commissioned from Harris Interactive, that consumers are suffering from "Web search fatigue." The study "revealed that while 99 percent of online adults use a search engine to find information on the Internet, a mere 15 percent of them find what they're looking for with their first search, with most needing to conduct three to four searches."

Vish Makhijani, general manager and senior vice president of Yahoo! Search, said: "We know that consumers want a complete answer, not a bunch of links, and the changes we've made are focused on getting people to the best answer whether it be a Web link, photo, video or music clip in one search."

Yahoo! Search Assist "senses when a consumer needs help with their search and opens a drop down menu of suggestions and related concepts that enables further exploration around their search topic."

Consumers will also see new Yahoo! Search Shortcuts, with the most useful information found on the Web and contributed by other online users. These are designed to help people save time when searching for popular categories such as events, music, movies, travel, sports, health, shopping, businesses and restaurants. Yahoo! Search Shortcuts integrate ratings and reviews, photos, official websites and other useful information, giving consumers a complete answer for their search.

The new Yahoo! Search features are available immediately at yahoo.com in the United States, and Yahoo! Search Assist will also be available in the near future in the United Kingdom. No indication has been given on when, or if, the new facility will be available elsewhere. However Yahoo!'s Australian operation, Yahoo!7, in July launched its own, homegrown search portal , Alpha, which users can customise so as to display, on a single page, the result of a search across multiple sites of their own choosing.