Yahoo to overhaul search despite pending Microsoft deal , Michael Liedtke, AP via Globe and Mail (Aug 25)
Yahoo says it intends to improve the user's search experience with some redesign of the search results - mainly by being more "social".
"Toward that end, Yahoo plans to devote the left column of its search results to other popular services like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and even Google's YouTube. Click on any one of the icons there, and information from that service matching the search keywords will appear instead of the regular search results at the centre of the page.
The feature will enable users to look at Facebook's personal profiles, Twitter's message updates, Yelp's restaurant reviews and YouTube's video clips without having to leave Yahoo.
By drilling deeper into destinations filled with personal information and images, Yahoo is betting its search engine will gain a reputation as the best place to research and discover things about people. "
ResearchBuzz commented on the design result - Yahoo Launches “New Search Experience” for Some Reason (Aug 25)
"Yahoo’s doing some interesting stuff here. First of all the search pad tool, which allows you to aggregate data from different result pages, has a more front-and-center presentation. Yahoo’s also giving some prime real estate to third-party data sources like Wikipedia and Loney Planet — pretty bold and not a bad idea! Related concept searches are also available on the left side bar, along with some related searches in an area underneath the query form. (This box is hidden by default.)"
Postscript Sept 3
Yahoo’s New Search Clothes — But Will It Help? (Probably Not) by Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land (Aug 24)
Yahoo has been improving search as some services - delicious and Flickr - and most recently in web results. The new design is only for selected users. Danny Sullivan lists the changes and has screenshots.
+ Three columns
+ Site filters
+ Video on the page
+ Social media
+ Related concepts = concept drilldown
+ Cool apps
Will it make a difference? Danny Sullivan thinks not - "The problem for me remains that the “central place” idea of Yahoo isn’t new. That’s like circa 1997. It’s called being a portal. And while Yahoo’s been successful as a portal, search success has been slipping away over the past few years. There’s absolutely no reason, none, to believe giving up its own search technology will somehow translate through user interface magic into new gains in search."