Yahoo’s Search Assist There When you Need It
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007;
-- Andy Beal |
Search Engine Land takes a close look at Yahoo’s new Yahoo Search Assist tool. Unlike normal search suggestion tools, Search Assist predicts when you might need a little help with your search and then shows up.
As Danny Sullivan explains…
Ever had one of those moments when you start to type in a query, enter a word and then pause because you’re not quite sure what other words to add to it? Search Assist senses this. It notes that you’ve paused, takes that as a sign you need help and magically makes suggestions appear below the search box. Cool!
In addition, you don’t just get suggestions that contain some of the letters you initially type. Search Assist goes beyond the original word to suggest related topics.
Yahoo Search Assist will be deployed gradually - so don’t expect to see it right away. For those of you interested in how it will look, here’s a screenshot:
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July 31st, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Google has a very similar tool called Google Suggest. I think it’s still in their “lab”. Although, Yahoo’s does look a little more fancy than Google Suggest. I wonder if it slows down the browser. It’s a great tool though. I’m surprised they haven’t released it years ago.
July 31st, 2007 at 1:24 pm
You’re absolutely right and Yahoo has a suggest tool too. This is the evolution of that.
July 31st, 2007 at 2:22 pm
This type of “suggest tool” is great for users. The amazing quality about it is the fact that the suggestions are normally on target. You would think it would come up with a list of limited possible queries that are not helpful for what you are looking for. However, I have tested it out several times knowing ahead of time what I am searching for (which has been fairly specific) and, like magic, it appears as one of the suggestions in the search box. This appears to be another advancement in the continually evolving area of online search engines.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:44 pm
This is a great new tool from a user experience! Too bad Yahoo! is trying inroduce something that seems like it may have been done before? Something like Google suggest and even Ask.com…
August 1st, 2007 at 6:47 pm
I really dont like these tools finishing what I am typing . Distracting at best.
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:58 am
the tool is not so good