Yahoo! News — New Yahoo!
Do you Yahoo? You may want to see what we’ve launched last night (click on the image below to try it out yourself). It’s come a long way since the first-ish pass.
I love that a search for “dreamlogic” brings up “wife+chris” on the first Search Assist drop-down panel. The subsequent panel (shown below) reveals “political scandal” and “music please”. Too cute! :)
Some blurbs:
Yahoo! Search – Daily News Briefing – October 1, 2007
REFILE-Yahoo Seeks To Make Its Web Search More Predictive, By Eric Auchard, Reuters News, 10/02/2007
Yahoo Inc is making Web search faster by introducing new ways of predicting what users are looking for, while seeking to keep pace with rivals by including video, audio and picture results as answers to text searches. The company said the new features it announced on Monday were aimed at better understanding the intention of users conducting particular types of searches and to get them to the information they desire within a single search. Yahoo is seeking to stem the steady gains Google, the dominant supplier of Web search, has made in market share for most of the past two years. Market research firm ComScore said Google’s share grew to 56.5 percent of the U.S. Web search market in August, up 1.3 percent from July. In addition to the new Search Assist feature, Yahoo Search has also combined searching for links to video, audio and photos with traditional text links it has long offered. Google Inc , IAC/InterActiveCorp’s Ask.com and Microsoft Corp introduced similar features earlier this year on their rival search services.
Digest, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 10/02/2007 (No Electronic Version Available)
Yahoo Inc. today will unveil a retooled online search engine. As part of its makeover, Yahoo will suggest ways to phrase a search request as a user types into the query box. It also will provide a list of related concepts and produce more links to photos, videos and music on the main results page.
Yahoo Upgrades Its Search Engine Firm Out To Close Gap vs. Google, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10/02/2007
Yahoo Inc. has retooled its online search engine to make it more helpful and engaging, joining an industrywide wave of improvements that so far haven’t dented Google Inc.’s dominance. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company regards the upgrade to be announced today as the most significant change to its search engine since it reclaimed control of the underlying technology almost 3 1/2 years ago. As part of its makeover, Yahoo will suggest ways to phrase a search request as a user types into the query box, it will provide a list of related concepts and it will produce more links to photos, videos and music on the main results page. The search engine also will pull information from Yahoo’s calendar service, Upcoming.org, to highlight local events when they’re relevant to a request. Many of Yahoo’s new features are similar to improvements that Google and Ask.com introduced during the spring and Microsoft Corp. matched just last week.
Yahoo, Telefonica Enter Pact, The Wall Street Journal, 10/02/2007 (Subscription required)
Yahoo Inc. has agreed to provide its mobile Web-search services to customers of Telefonica SA, marking Yahoo’s largest search-service transaction with a wireless carrier. The pact gives the Sunnyvale, Calif., company access to more than 100 million cellphone users in Europe and Latin America. Telefonica, based in Spain, will provide Yahoo’s oneSearch, email and Flickr photo-sharing services to its users. Financial terms weren’t disclosed, although Yahoo said the two companies would share advertising revenue. The agreement significantly advances Yahoo’s effort to get its services — and accompanying advertising — on mobile devices, which are increasingly coveted terrain for Yahoo and rival Google Inc.
Yahoo Search Overhaul Makes It Universal, Dow Jones News Service, 10/02/2007
Yahoo Inc. late Monday introduced a newly-minted Yahoo Search, as the operator of the Internet’s No. 2 search engine once again tries to gain ground on rival Google Inc. The most significant of new Yahoo Search wrinkles is Yahoo’s embrace of “universal search,” a results-blending concept that’s caught on at the other top search engines. The changes come as Google continues to dominate the Internet search market in terms of the number of people using its search engine and sales of advertising alongside search results. In August, the number of times Google’s search engine was used in the United States jumped by one-third from last year to encompass 53.6% of all U.S. searches, according to the Nielsen Co.Yahoo’s search engine ended August with a 20% share, on 9% annual growth in searches.
Yahoo! Juices Its Search Engine, BusinessWeek Online, 10/02/2007
For years, no matter which search engine a Web surfer might use, the results always looked the same: page after page of underlined blue words. Sure, the same search through Google and Yahoo! might return identical Web links in a slightly different order. Or Microsoft’s engines might display a link not listed by its rivals, or lack one they suggested. But the experience has been largely indistinguishable. Now Yahoo is trying to differentiate its search results by displaying, in addition to the usual list of links, excerpts of information found on some of those Web sites. The new engine, unveiled Oct. 2, also will present relevant photos and videos, as well as full explanations from partners and Yahoo-owned properties such as Yahoo! Finance, Y! Local, the social search site Answers, and photo-sharing site Flickr.
Yahoo Upgrades Online Search Engine, AP, 10/02/2007
Yahoo Inc. has retooled its online search engine to make it more helpful and engaging, joining an industrywide wave of improvements that so far haven’t dented Google Inc.’s dominance. If nothing else, the improved search engine should boost Yahoo’s employee morale because it backs up co-founder Jerry Yang’s vow to re-establish the company’s reputation as an Internet innovator, said Standard & Poor’s equity analyst Scott Kessler.
Telefonica, Yahoo In Deal Making Onesearch Main Search Service On Telefonica Mobile Portals, AP, 10/01/2007
Telecommunications company Telefonica SA and online search provider Yahoo Inc. said Monday they entered an agreement making Yahoo’s oneSearch the main search service on Telefonica’s mobile portals in 15 countries in Europe and Latin America. OneSearch will make it easier for Telefonica’s customers to find relevant search results on their mobile devices by providing access to news, financial information, weather, Internet images, as well as Internet and mobile Web sites on the first screen.
Yahoo To Unveil Refined Search Engine; Today’s Technology Overhaul Includes New Features To Help It Catch Market Leader Google, Los Angeles Times, 10/02/2007
Yahoo plans to unveil a revamped search engine that it says delivers faster, more relevant and engaging results than market leader Google, which handles more than half of the Web’s search requests. Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li said Yahoo’s improvements were significant.” Yahoo is taking search to a different level primarily because they are doing what I call ‘mind reading’: anticipating what you are going to do,” she said. For example, when users type search terms, Yahoo will offer suggestions for more refined ways to search for the information. Yahoo is the latest search player to overhaul the way it presents search results in an effort to chip away at Google’s lead. Ask.com, owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, relaunched in June with a dramatically different looking interface, and Microsoft Corp. last week showed off its new method for displaying search results. Doug Leeds, vice president of product management for Oakland-based Ask.com, dismissed the Yahoo changes as “catch-up.”
News Highlights: Top Equities Stories Of The Day, Dow Jones News Service, 10/02/2007
Yahoo roles out a newly minted Yahoo Search, as operator of the Internet’s No. 2 search engine once again tries to gain ground on leader Google. Changes come as Google scores in terms of people using its search engine, advertising.
A Gentle Assist From Yahoo Search, The San Francisco Chronicle, 10/02/2007
Yahoo is offering users a little help with its revamped search engine, as the company joins a wave of major Internet companies that have polished their results pages. Hoping to give users information more quickly, Yahoo will offer suggestions in real time as users type their queries.
Think of it as a hint so users don’t have to think so much about how to phrase their searches. Yahoo is trying to add some intelligence to the system. So as not to be annoying, it will kick in only when it senses hesitation.
Yahoo Improves Search Engine, Financial Times, 10/02/2007
Yahoo will introduce on Tuesday an update to its search engine that promises more relevant answers to queries and integrates audio, video and photos into its results pages. The Silicon Valley company trails rivals Google, Microsoft and Ask in launching major search upgrades this year and the improvements come as a new executive team is trying to boost sagging morale.
Yahoo Re-Launches Search, InternetNews.com, 10/02/2007
Yahoo isn’t giving up on search. It is, however, giving up on trying to catch Google by offering users just another set of “ten blue links,” Vish Makhijani, general manager of Yahoo! Search told InternetNews.com. To that end, Yahoo today re-launched its search, replete with special features designed to improve the experience and better enable rapid, accurate searching. Chiefly, that will be due to the new Yahoo Search Assist feature and efforts to integrate audio, video and photos into general Web search results.
Yahoo Search Just Got Smarter, TechCrunch.com, 10/01/2007
Yahoo is adding some major features to its search engine today. For instance, images from Flickr and playable videos are now embedded in the main results page. Yahoo has really nailed guided search with this release—as long as what you are looking for can be found somewhere else within Yahoo. That’s my one pet peeve about Yahoo’s new search upgrade. All of these shortcuts are helpful, but they are not all objective. Most of them (the search widgets, not the keyword assistant) point back to Yahoo.
Search Optimization Guide For The New Yahoo! Search, SearchEngineJournal.com, 10/02/2007
A major player in the search industry has finally made a change worth calling revolutionary. This morning’s release of The New Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Search Assist tools provide users with what they need most — a faster and more intuitive search experience.
Yahoo Search Launches Google Killer: Search Assist, Videos, Flickr Integration, SearchEngineJournal.com, 10/02/2007
Yahoo! Search, over the past 5 years or so, has been trying hard to step out of Google’s shadow, a shadow that Yahoo cast upon itself when they made Google their search technology provider in 2000. Since, we’ve seen the acquisitions of Inktomi, Altavista & Fast’s AlltheWeb, and how they’ve morphed into Yahoo Search Technology; the company’s search engine.
Yahoo Upgrades Search Experience, Launches ‘Search Assist’ & Multimedia Content In Results, SearchEngineLand.com, 10/02/2007
Most of the pieces have been sneaking out over the past month or so. But today Yahoo is formally announcing a range of search upgrades, more Shortcuts, integration of video and photos directly in search results and Search Assist. Search Assist, which Danny wrote about at length previously, is the centerpiece of the announcement. Search Assist is currently available in the U.S. and will soon be rolled out in the U.K.
Yahoo Search Gets Blended, Helpful, SearchEngineWatch.com, 10/02/2007
Yahoo today launched what it’s calling the “new Yahoo Search.” The biggest changes are the introduction of Search Assist, a pre-search query refinement tool that Yahoo has been testing since July; and blended search results that include more photos, videos, and Shortcuts. Search Assist refines queries by providing related topics as searchers type to assist them in finding the right search term. It’s similar to Yahoo’s Search Suggest feature, which as the name implies suggests alternate queries, but Search Assist goes further by offering related topics as well as specific suggested queries as searchers type. This kind of recommendation and discovery tool is part of the Ask 3D interface, which offers pre-search query refinement suggestions and post-search related categories.
Yahoo Making Big Improvements In Search, CNet Blogs, 10/01/2007
Yahoo is making important improvements to the user interface and the output of its search engine. It will now suggest complete search queries for you as you type. It makes entering queries a lot faster and improves the likelihood that you’ll spell your query correctly. Google offers a similar feature in its downloadable add-on, Google Toolbar, but not yet on its Web site.
