Good tool - Submitted this to digg - hope it spreads the message and gets you thousands of new users.

- This is going to be especially helpful to those who are not yet sophisticated searchers.

How did this work out when debuting it on AlltheWeb?

http://digg.com/tech_news/YAHOO_Debuts_AJAX_Search_Suggestions_While_You_TYPE

Could be a good tool for disable persons with with poor manual dexterity.

Gotta love the suggestion tool. Always a good way to develop an initial keyword list..

I be doing anything special to "enable" the feature? It's not working in Safari.

Tried it. Very good indeed! This feature should have been implemented a long time ago.

I want to permanently disable this. I click disable. Every time I open yahoo, it is enabled automatically. How do I stop this?

Regarding the previous commenter's inability to use the disable feature - I suspect that your browser may be set to discard cookies. We remember that you have disabled the feature by setting a cookie, so if you aren't accepting cookies, we can't keep track of the fact that you turned suggestions off.

I have internet privacy set to medium and the search feature re-enables each time yahoo is launched.

Fix this ASAP or you lose me to google.

Awesome feature; Yahoo! Search is becoming great every day.

Regarding the previous commenter's inability to use the disable feature - You should enable "Accept Cookies in your browser"

One major issue I have found in this is that it seems to be based on terms people have searched for and not actual relevent results. So say in the past an employer searched for your name, now your name will be a search suggestion if someone types something close to it. Better yet if someone searched for your name plus other terms...like "bob smith beer", or "bob smith drunk"...now Yahoo Search will suggest those terms anytime "bob smith" is typed in to the search box (even though there are no relevent results). Many people do searches like I mentioned above on their own name to make sure there is nothing on the internet that say a prospective employer could find. Now a search you did yourself could come back to kick you when yahoo suggests it to anyone who types something close to your name. If I were an employer and I was typing in someones name...and yahoo suggested their name plus say beer, or drunk...I would think twice...even if there were no relevent results. This may not be a big deal to people with common names...but if you have a pretty unique name it could suck bad.

Google's tool seem to suggest terms based on how many times a keyword appears in their directory. This on the other hand seems to suggest anything that someone may have randomly typed in over the past. I think it is a good tool...but the basic logic where it pulls results from is way off.

I want to permanently disable this feature. I have my Internet Explorer browser set to accept all cookies, yet when I click "disable" it only lasts for that session. When I exit out and relaunch my browser, the Yahoo search history is re-enabled again. That is problem one.

Problem two is that there doesn't seem to be any way to delete the Yahoo search history permanently, as can be done in Google. Please advise.

Regarding the various comments on difficulty turning it off - it looks like there may be a bug here. I have spent more time looking into it after seeing several comments here and elsewhere, and I was able to replicate the issue under some circumstances. We will start working on a fix immediately - our apologies for the inconvenience.

Regarding search history - we don't keep a search history, so I suspect you may be referring to the browser feature which remembers what you've typed into a search field. If this is the case, you can find helpful instructions here:

http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-25.html

If this is not the case, reply back here and let me know so I can investigate further!

I am not referring to the search feature. If you are typing in a name, it will show that name, plus suggest other terms.

As a pretend example. Type in "John Doe", and it can reply with things like-

John Doe
John Doe beer
John Doe drunk

It does it to someone I knows name...not to a such a negative effect..but in a similar way. When you click the suggestions in question, it takes you to irrelevent links that will just have 1-2 of the words in them and nothing to do with the actual person. That leads me to beleive that these are terms people have searched for in the past, and Yahoo has flagged them as key words. That being said, just because people search for their names (or their names plus other terms)...that does not mean that Yahoo should make them keywords/suggestions. In this day it is important to keep personal info offline, and many people are very diligent about it searching for their names (and terms related to it) to see what is on the net. Little did they know that Yahoo was making your name, and terms keywords as you searched for them. Now it is regurgitating these past keywords anytime you type in something close to the name as search suggestions.

Great!
Its one more great user friendly feature on Yahoo.com.
Keep it up Yahoo!

Punit Chahar
http://webmarketingtrends.blogspot.com/2007/07/yahoo-introduces-search-suggest.html

Kevin,

Regarding your comment about search history, I and several friends from work are unable to delete (not just disable) the search history that appears in the Yahoo search box on the Yahoo home page. I am well aware of Auto Complete options, deleting cookies, temp internet files, etc. Doing that clears history from the Google search, but not from Yahoo. This seems to be the case since the recent "improvements." To me, this is an even bigger problem than the "disable" bug that we are dealing with. I appreciate your willingness to pass this information on to the developers, and hope you can encourage them to do a better job in testing the product before it is realeased.

For some reason its not working for me :(

John -

Regarding the search history feature, I am somewhat confounded because we have never launched a search history feature on www.yahoo.com. There is not and never has been any such functionality on www.yahoo.com.

Let's connect via email to discuss this, as I am interested to know what might be causing this problem for you. You can reach me at search_suggestion_feedback@yahoo.com.

I too am really annoyed that I cannot permanently disable the search suggestion feature, but I do see that you now recognize that there is a bug. It makes one wonder how did a bug as obvious as this escape your testing prior to pushing it on us. It is sort of like the keeping a user logged in for up to 2 weeks feature. Why do we have to discover things after you have dumped them on us rather than giving us the ability to initially enable a feature if we desire to use it? Users don't mind making choices, but you are not letting us choose. You make us wonder and question what other things you may be doing ...

Update - the bug has been fixed, and you should be able to properly disable the feature. Please let me know if you encounter further problems with this.

Software is inherently complex, and while we do everything we can to find and fix bugs prior to launch, things will slip through. We always strive to fix any problems as quickly as possible - our users are very important to us, and we will do everything we can to make your experience on Yahoo! a good one.

I think what Kevin is missing is that this feature in it's functionality is very similar to "search history". What it appears is happening is that when you search on Yahoo, they make the terms your searching for keywords, regardless of whether or not there are actually relevent results. This new search suggest feature basically pulls up any similar keywords from yahoo's database, which will include any terms you (or someone) has searched for in the past that Yahoo has now flagged as a keyword. As the user above mentioned...if you (or someone) has searched for your name, or your name, plus say a term like beer...and yahoo has decided to make these keywords (how I have no clue)...now Yahoo will suggest "John Doe Beer" everytime "John Doe" is typed in (even though there is nothing the results). Just using the above users example to clarify.

Could you imagine getting called in your bosses or the HR office because he typed your name in yahoo, and it suggested he also search for yourname and the term beer or whatever else there is?

It worked perfectly fine for me and I am somewhat satisfied with relevant searches it shows..

Good Job!

I find this annoying and a privacy concern. If you type in name, address, phone# especially on a public computer information will pop up on the drop down list. I don't have yahoo toolbar installed and long list of searches stayed in my computer. Why not have an option to delete/remove history searches. Not just an option to disable the search. So if you type in SS# it'll stay in my search history and if you forgot to disable the option? There's no way of deleting.

That is what I am saying...if you have searched for your name, name plus other terms, or social... on yahoo in the past, there is a chance that Yahoo will flag it as a keyword and suggest it anytime someone types something close.

for search and know more about work from home opportunity yahoo is best.....

i think thats a cool new improvement to yahoo search.

Frankly, I like it. Found it easy to use. Thanks.

I'm glad to see it works also in Opera.

Very useful feature.

If this "bug" has been fixed, you couldn't prove it by me. Auto suggestions still reappear every time I restart IE.

Pretty bold to put this on the main page. Well done!
Disable seems to be working fine for me in Firefox 2.

RJB - please feel free to email me at search_suggestion_feedback@yahoo.com if the disable feature is not working for you, and I will try to get this resolved.

yes, with regards to gem's above post, i typed my sisters name and some of her personal information showed up...does yahoo have the ability to edit this or change it or is it autogenerated?

And if they do have the ability, whom would one write/call to for assistance ?- because i would like it removed quickly..

I share the privacy concerns with the previous posters.

Sometimes, just for fun, people type the names of people they know to see what they might be famous (or infamous) for. We’ve all typed in names of old friends from college just to see if they could be found. When I do this I often add suffixes to aid in the search. For example: recently I was wondering if an old friend was still studying monkeys, so I type monkey after the name. Having monkey after your name doesn't seem so bad. But what if you were out to slander someone and typed in "driving while intoxicated." The millions of John Smiths out there wouldn't have to worry. But what about the person with the one in 10 million name?

I first became concerned when my work at home business computer was coming up with the same auto complete search selections as the family computer that my wife and kids use. I was outraged and concluded that Yahoo had somehow detected that the computers share a common router since when I work from home I use my wireless router. Later I discovered that the computer of my elderly parents, who live 75 miles away, have the exact same search suggestions. The only conclusion I could think of was that yahoo has been able to detect some commonality with my pc's and theirs because we share emails and/or because I once logged onto to my ISP from their computer so I could receive emails while visiting.

The search selection names that come up on my parent's computer are people with exceedingly unique names. They’re the names of my neighbors, my wife's girlfriend who lives in California, an old buddy of mine who lives in British Columbia, etc.

Working out the bug so the feature can be turned off begs the question. The keystrokes are recorded and they are distributed in a targeted fashion for commercial purposes without consent. This I suspect happens even if the feature is disabled permanently. Yes, it’s not the government. But its only ok if everyone is aware that it’s happening so that they can choose a search engine that pledges not to operate in this exploitative manner.

I'm done with yahoo and I will do my best to expose this practice.

P.S. Wasn't it nice once upon a time when you could research whatever you pleased in a public library without a record being kept. Now-a-days, not only does the Patriot Act allow library records to be turned over to the authorities, but the authorities and everyone else has access to your search record on Yahoo.

Hello My dear friends..........

Yahoo offers you a new search technique "Search Suggest". It is very useful in searching through yahoo.com.

http://prashantpracheta.blogspot.com/2007/07/yahoo-provides-new-feature-search.html

Hey Kevin,
Try and type your own name in the search box. All you have to type is "Kevin akira", and it puts your full name there, plus several suggestions like "yahoo 360 kevin akira" that would lead someone basically to this blog. Someone has not even typed in your full name...and yahoo has already provided suggestions that will lead to this blog. Apparently people have searched for the term "yahoo 360 kevin akira", so Yahoo has decided that is now a keyword..and it will suggest it every times someone started to type in your name.

Put yourself in the users shoes here Kevin. What if instead of suggesting this blog, Yahoo was suggesting something private, or negative everytime your name was typed in? What if it was suggesting it not because there are actual results for that bad term...but simply because someone had searched for the term in the past (and yahoo made it a keyword)? Wait till someone gets in trouble at work because their boss/coworker typed in an employee's name...and some negative terms got suggested.

This brings up another question...if Yahoo is making names keywords...could someone buy your name, and advertise with it through Overture?

The worst part is, I am willing to bet that people with this issue are afraid to come forward and fight it because it kinda puts you on the hotseat explaining why that term is there in the first place (even if you did not type it).

I think this is a neat feature...but until the privacy issue is fixed...it should not show up by default on the main page.

BTW, this blog has a bug. if you preview your post...it will not let you hit post because it claims you are spamming the blog (even though you just previewed the post).

so Yahoo has decided that is now a keyword" --does this mean yahoo a person has decided or yahoo autogenerated? thnx

xl555 you hit the nail on the head! Someone in my family lives in fear every day now because now it leads anyone directly to her and her past (from many years ago)..whereas before it was deep down in the search results. I would hope they can respond here soon and give some insight on how to fix this issue! It's really sad what we have to deal with right now for the past week.

Nice article!

I've already known this feature.
I like it very much.

Search Suggestion is also usuful for keyword researching.

This tool is horrible. The keywords that show up in the drop down box reflect only what Yahoo! users use in their searches, not what is relevant in search results pages. I do not see how this tool can help users locate relevant information. In my opinion they should scrap it, because they will continue to lose their customer base to Google. What a pitty.

I feel as though I have been stripped of my privacy...totally exposed! This could cause some major personal problems for people. Get rid of "Search Suggestion" before the sun goes down today...please!

Yeah i wish they would..however, now the admins aren't even posting here anymore..?

Yes this is good feature of yahoo, i also use this feature recently

1> how does the information get generated?
2> Is it yahoo search users or is it autogenerated?
3>How often does it update?
4>where is Kevin Lee to answer any more questions or and yahoo admins? thxn

Not a bad feature.

Interesting titbit ---Try typing "maps" on Yahoo and the first suggestion which comes is "Google Maps" followed by "Yahoo Maps". Why would you guys want to show Google above your own?

PLEASE GET RID OF SEARCH SUGGESTION OR LET US PERMANENTLY DISABLE - IT'S OBTRUSIVE!

So I guess we should assume that Yahoo is just gonna ignore the privacy issues? Very disappointing that they cannot recognize the tool has a major design flaw.

yeah, going on day 3 without a word..:-(

Yahoo has been pretty late in implementing this feature, since Google has already launched similar service called Google Suggest Labs way back. But it is a useful service nevertheless. We are looking for something new and innovative from Yahoo.

They have abandoned us! check out the website..click my name i guess

It doesn't seem to work with accented characters (eg: typing "Jose" you get suggestions, typing "José" you don't)

Thank you all for your continued feedback and questions. I wanted to answer a few of your questions. Regarding specific details of how the technology works - it is based on all of the searches that Yahoo! users have done. (Note that there is no personally identifiable information used.) The suggestions are refreshed fairly often to remain current and up-to-date.

Regarding the privacy question - the system is designed to resist attempts to insert useless terms into the suggestions. There may be cases where users are actually searching for, and finding, legitimate search results based on a query which is not flattering to the subject - say, "paris hilton jail". In this case, the suggestions are only a reflection of what users are already looking for, and will only appear if they are in fact the most common terms associated with that name. If you believe that a suggestion is not legitimate, for the time being, please contact us at search_suggestion_feedback@yahoo.com.

Thank you for responding- Lets say there is a scenario in which a user would like to get the suggestion changed and that the pages are outdated and just need uncached, is an admin able to do this manually? thank you

I think this should be intergrated to http://search.yahoo.com :)
Tim

i am tring to get news feeds having hard time getting all email accounts to work together

Hi Kevin,

I think Yahoo did a good job here, maybe a bit late compared with Google, but on the other hand very user-friendly and a good initiative regarding misspelling and filling in popular search results.

The new feature is AWESOME! I'm sure it took a lot of work to incoporate it and hope you and all your team members get rewarded. Good work ;-)

I think this feature is GOLDEN. Not annoying at all, like the "did you mean..." thing. (I think of that as like, that friend who always corrects you when you should say "whom" instead of "who". Nobody likes that guy.)
I also find it really interesting to look at what comes up in the box. Inevitably there is the phrase I am looking for, but frequently I see something else that is really intriguing and search for that as well.
Not to mention, I always find myself doing multiple searches on the same topic, because I just can't think of the optimal way to say what I am searching for. This new way is much better, because now I see it in the drop-down box and think, "YES. That is exactly what I was trying to say."
My only complaint on this is that it only comes up on the Yahoo! Front Page. Once I'm already on the Search Results page, I frequently end up performing another search and wishing it was present there as well.
Thanks! I am planning for a four-month trip to Europe and North Africa, doing constant constant searches on every detail. This tool has actually been very helpful in my Internet adventures.

I cannot disable this feature permanently. It is August 7, 2007 and the bug is not fixed on my work or home systems. I do not like this and am tired of having to re-disable it every time I open Yahoo.

Please email me if there IS a fix to shut it off completely.
Shipper

I want to permanently disable this. I click disable. Every time I open yahoo, it is enabled automatically. How do I stop this?

yeah, going on day 3 without a word..:-(

Yahoo's service is great and it's about time that the big guys are realizing that AutoComplete is a necessity for sites.

If you'd like a feature similar to Yahoo's for your site, BUT with the ability to display relevant contextual advertisements (similar to AdWords) in the AutoComplete box than go to www.predictad.com

If Yahoo doesn't get rid of this search suggestion crap, I'm getting rid of Yahoo. No matter what I do, it won't go away.

If the auto search is not done away with I'm outta yahoo for good
this facilty is unbelieveably usless and so unsecure that anyone using my pc or a public pc can leave tracks of what they have searched for or what sites they have been on
how dare you yahoo force this upon us

Gotta agree, I don't like it. Would prefer the option to read 'click here to ENABLE auto search'...not 'DISABLE'.

Would like to see it go or change...or I'm outta here!

search = complete (in above post) :D

Can I disable YAHHO jump? It is so snnoying to force me to view 3 screens before I can get to the website I actually want

Yahoo's service is great and it's about time that the big guys are realizing that AutoComplete is a necessity for sites.

Thanks ;)

I cannot disable this feature permanently. It is August 7, 2007 and the bug is not fixed on my work or home systems. I do not like this and am tired of having to re-disable it every time I open Yahoo.

Please email me if there IS a fix to shut it off completely.

Yahoo's service is great and it's about time that the big guys are realizing that AutoComplete is a necessity for sites.
So thanks :)

Its one more great user friendly feature on Yahoo.com.
Keep it up Yahoo!

Its one more great user friendly feature on Yahoo.com.
Keep it up Yahoo!

I also find it really interesting to look at what comes up in the box. Inevitably there is the phrase I am looking for, but frequently I see something else that is really intriguing and search for that as well.

Can I disable YAHHO jump? It is so snnoying to force me to view 3 screens before I can get to the website I actually want

yes, with regards to gem's above post, i typed my sisters name and some of her personal information showed up...does yahoo have the ability to edit this or change it or is it autogenerated?

Keep it up Yahoo!

Keep it up Yahoo!

thanks for the great blog

Thanks for the article! great!

thanks good information

Thanks, your sites best information...

Thanks for Nice article!

I've already known this feature.
I like it very much.

Please teach us good information again!

Its one more great user friendly feature on Yahoo.com.
Keep it up Yahoo!

Its one more great user friendly feature on Yahoo.com.
Keep it up Yahoo!

Thanks

thanks for information

It worked perfectly fine for me and I am somewhat satisfied with relevant searches it shows..

Thank you all for your continued feedback and questions.

It worked perfectly fine for me and I am somewhat satisfied with relevant searches it shows..

Thank you all for your continued feedback and questions.

worked perfectly fine for me and I am somewhat satisfied with relevant searches it shows..

Search suggest is one of my favorite features, I am constantly looking for new games and new grouping of the categories at the top is very convenient and helps me to find material much faster.

Thanks good information!
I hope your trying to keep up with our illustrious "governator".

It’s very good article. Great site with very good look and perfect information.

It’s very good article. Great site with very good look and perfect information.

i think thats a cool new improvement to yahoo search.

i think thats a cool new improvement to yahoo search.

I want to permanently disable this. I click disable. Every time I open yahoo, it is enabled automatically. How do I stop this?

It’s very good article. Great site with very good look and perfect information.

Great comment guidelines. I think you’re on the right track here. Some of those comments should go somewhere else. Thank You

yes, with regards to gem's above post, i typed my sisters name and some of her personal information showed up...does yahoo have the ability to edit this or change it or is it autogenerated?

Taking the example above, what exactly is an 'arnold soundboard'?

The new feature is AWESOME! I'm sure it took a lot of work to incoporate it and hope you and all your team members get rewarded. Good work ;-)

Webmasters may need to study what suggestions are offered by Yahoo during a search and work their SEO around these keywords being suggested.

thanks for all comments.

thanks

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Although Summit has not disclosed the name of the drug now under evaluation

Personally, I only use "may I suggest" for keyword research

thanx for information

This is a great idea, the tool seems like it will work great.

Nice blog.. Bookmarking your site! Nice information!

This helps. Thanks

thank you

wawwoew

This is a great search suggestion.

thanks, got this off of digg (archived) and its really good stuff. Will be using this in the future.

Love the new feature. It's been very developed lately and saves a lot of time as you use yahoo often.

Nice feature. Think I might start using Yahoo's search engine a bit more. Could be useful for doing keyword research as well.

I think this feature works pretty fast.. is it using ajax ?

I like search suggest coz it helps me think of a better term or keyword for the things that i am researching for.

If you are having a hard time looking for something search suggest can help you find it quicker by suggesting common search term that searchers often use.

It's a nice tool and can definitely save you some time

i like blogs so much because Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art art blog, photographs photo blog, sketch blog, videos blog, music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting) and are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging which consists of blogs with very short posts.

I think this feature works pretty fast.. is it using ajax ?

worked perfectly fine for me and I am somewhat satisfied with relevant searches it shows

icon currently in use does a far better job than any of the proposed replacements at stating clearly and unambiguously what it signifies ... THANK YOU

I never use Yahoo keyword tool before, but will try it soon since you recommend it. thanks for sharing!

I love the Yahoo suggest tool, not only it corrects the spelling but also it finds things that I would have not have thought of but was looking for.

It's a nice tool and can definitely save you some time

Thank you

Good read.

I use WordPress as a CMS and Blog. Take a look at my site and you can will see a future of light

One major issue I have found in this is that it seems to be based on terms people have searched for and not actual relevent results. So say in the past an employer searched for your name, now your name will be a search suggestion if someone types something close to it

It's definitely spreading, this is a great tool and information.

I really find this feature useful... its great

This tool is very good and it save me a lot of time.

very thanks

Thanks

good news

thank you for informations

Thank you

I know!

very thanks

useful thanks.

It's a nice tool and can definitely save you some time.