Fewer clicks, more answers…
These days, search has become such a fact of life, that everybody I talk to takes it completely for granted.
But it seems like every week I’m reminded why its so much fun working on a search engine that is used daily by millions of people, and most importantly by friends and neighbors and that lady in the store down the street. Take, for instance, last week …
I was out for coffee at the local Starbucks when the guy ahead of us in the line had lost the piece of paper with directions to the restaurant he was meeting friends at … and I was extremely happy to show him this:
So not only did it take me just one search to get the address and phone number, but now he has the listing and directions right on his cell phone … :)
What was that? It is a new feature in our abstract generating algorithm that tries to guess the most used information about that page, and promotes it into the summaries for search results. Not only do we try to figure out the most used information on the page, but we also integrate relevant features from other parts of Yahoo!. For instance, in the example above, you can see that we have found Maps & Reviews on Yahoo! Local, and also found that Yahoo! Local can send the address and phone number to your mobile phone – so thats there too! But of course, its not always just content from Yahoo! – we also use content from the site itself if that’s more relevant – try searching for Wal-Mart or 511 or FedEx …
Whaddyathink? Go ahead! Try it out. And perhaps next time you need directions for that restaurant, or suddenly crave some ice-cream (or coffee), or want a quick look to see if you won the lottery, and maybe (just maybe) see if the lottery money somehow made it into your bank account Yahoo! Search might have the answer right there for you.
Kalpana Ravinarayanan
Product Manager, Yahooo! Search
Fewer clicks. Fewer, not less.
A. I like your Captcha. You’ll probably fool some humans too :) but I like it.
B. Your search team has done some inspired work lately. Not only what you mention here, but I’m more and more impressed with Yahoo! search in general.
C. You may need a captcha on that phone thingie. You don’t want bots spamming cellphones.
D. I wish all your teams were as inspired as yours. You NEED a competitive toolbar to Google. I tried yours a few times over the years and HAD to turn it off. I tried the YPN beta but had to shut it down in less than a day. The basics should be there before you release a beta.
This sounds like an overkill, why in the world am I going to use it? This is like Gillette coming out with a five blade razor.
Try the Firefox Yahoo Toolbar. It’s still in beta but very much in the streamlined spirit of Mozilla.
This is a time-saving addtion :-) -
one concern, however, when doing a search on Mindset and Instant.search – the options are different from the default Yahoo Search…
http://mindset.research.yahoo.com/search.php?p=walmart&prssweb=Search+the+Web
http://instant.search.yahoo.com/
Remeber, AllTheWeb – this would be a perfect engine to add ALL of those Beta Features to as a default Search (mindset, Instant and others).
Consider making AllTheWeb the “Techie” engine
Well said. I totally agree with you. The point you are making here does make sense. And all those who oppose your views actually lack the basic essence of the subject. You must keep doing the good work.
This is a great resource for web masters and designers. It makes getting clicks and visits easier without trying to trick the search engines or the use of any other underhanded means. It is well worth a read.
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This comment says a lot about Anderson and the kind of person he is. The sheer simplicity of the seven clearly outlined components of a content site is indeed the work of monkeys. Thanks to Nathans lack of egotism and his new ebook we can all share in better search results. Nathan holds nothing back as he goes into on-page and off-page optimization factors. Anderson reveals twelve points that any SEO would charge thousands of dollars to reveal.
Just when you thought that the book was worth every minute spent signing up to his exclusive opt-in list, Nathan goes on to reveal the seven components of a content site as in a very well defined and easy to understand writing method. This portion of his new ebook clearly explains that the following seven components are general characteristics of a content site.
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