Yahoo Fine-Tunes Its Search Engine
News Friday, March 25, 2011
Since Yahoo surrendered its search engine to Microsoft two years ago as part of a major overhaul of its business, it has been trying to innovate on top of Microsoft’s technology to keep people coming to its site.
The latest effort was announced Wednesday when Yahoo introduced a refinement that gives users answers to their questions without having to click on the search results. Search Direct, as the product is called, provides weather forecasts, celebrity biographies and news reports before users finish typing the question.
If it sounds familiar, that is because it is Yahoo’s response to Google Instant, which automatically pulls up search results as people type their queries. Yahoo’s version goes a little bit further by presenting edited information and images just under the search box instead of a page full of links.
Shashi Seth, senior vice president for Yahoo’s search and marketplaces, said that the new service helped users find what they were seeking much faster because they did not have to click away from the search page. “People are looking for answers, they’re not looking for links,” he said.
The latest effort was announced Wednesday when Yahoo introduced a refinement that gives users answers to their questions without having to click on the search results. Search Direct, as the product is called, provides weather forecasts, celebrity biographies and news reports before users finish typing the question.
If it sounds familiar, that is because it is Yahoo’s response to Google Instant, which automatically pulls up search results as people type their queries. Yahoo’s version goes a little bit further by presenting edited information and images just under the search box instead of a page full of links.
Shashi Seth, senior vice president for Yahoo’s search and marketplaces, said that the new service helped users find what they were seeking much faster because they did not have to click away from the search page. “People are looking for answers, they’re not looking for links,” he said.
Posted by Bizdom Pandey
on Friday, March 25, 2011.
Filed under
