Starting today, the Wikipedia Enhanced Result will automatically appear in the search results. Not surprisingly, we’ve seen a handful of Wikipedia Enhanced Results and Infobars built in the past few months. After observing how people used these apps, we gathered the best elements from each and built a new app. If you prefer any of the other Wikipedia apps, you can of course opt to use them instead (by adjusting your preferences here).

This new Wikipedia app includes a photo (if there’s one in the corresponding article), deep links to the first four sections of the article, and a snippet pulled from the article summary. For example, say you’re a mid-century furniture fan and you’re looking to learn more about Eames chairs. A search for Eames chairs will bring up two Wikipedia results for two of their famous chairs. You can use the photo to help you decide which result is best for your needs (this is called result disambiguation by us search geeks) and then click a deep link to jump directly to your answer.

While Wikipedia may be the most well-known reference site on the web, it’s certainly not the only one. In fact, there are SearchMonkey apps for many other top sites, including HowStuffWorks, eHow, CIA World Factbook, Merriam-Webster, and a lot more.

We hope these apps make searching for reference information on the web easier and faster. Let us know if you have any feedback.

SearchMonkey Team

p.s. Today appears to be the 8th anniversary of the launch of Wikipedia. Congrats to Wikipedia and its many contributors!

Chicago will have a lot more than wind to handle next week as Search Engine professionals flurry to the annual Search Engine Strategies Show. Among all the activities at the show, Yahoo! Search will be participating in a variety of panels, covering a range of topics including semantic search, search innovation, duplicate listings, link building, and blended search.

Below is a quick snapshot of where you can find us:

Monday, December 8th
Time: 10:30 - 11:30 a.m.
Session: Universal & Blended Search
Description: This panel will discuss the idea of search multiplicity and recent advancements that will change the world of search and marketing. The talk will also include research data available only at SES.
Yahoo!: Dr. Larry Cornett, VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo! Search

Time: 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Session: Is There Life Beyond Google?
Description: This session will delve deep into the search engine market and explore a variety of alternative and specialty search engines that provide innovative features and attributes not readily available on Google.
Yahoo!: Dr. Larry Cornett, VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo! Search

Time: 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Session: Semantic Search: How Will it Change Our Lives?
Description: This panel will explore the new generation of semantic technologies and projections for how it will change the future of search. Additionally, the session will cover how consumers will benefit directly from new sets of Internet destinations.
Yahoo!: Dr. Larry Cornett, VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo! Search

Tuesday, December 9th
Time: 10:30 - 11:45 a.m.
Session: Link Building Basics
Description: This session will discuss link analysis as an important component for ranking web pages and go over how Webmasters can increase traffic by building quality links.
Yahoo!: Sharad Verma, Senior Product Manager, Yahoo! Search Technology

Time: 4:15 - 5:30 p.m.
Session: Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues
Description: This session looks at the issues of duplicate content and explores solutions for best practices.
Yahoo!: Sharad Verma, Senior Product Manager, Yahoo! Search Technology

Thursday, December 11th
Time: 9:00 - 10:00 a.m.
Session: Think Local: Online Marketing Tactics for Small and Medium Sized Businesses
Description: This session will cover how advertisers can navigate through the sea of local marketing options to most effectively get in front of users.
Yahoo!: Atif Rafiq, Director of Strategy and Business Development for Yahoo! Local

For a complete conference schedule and to learn more about Yahoo!’s whereabouts, visit the SES agenda page.

Hope to see you there. Be sure to stop by the panels and say hi!

Yahoo! Search Blog team

Yahoo! Search will be in Boston this week for the 5th Annual Gilbane Conference. This year’s theme is “Where Content Management Meets Social Media,” covering topics that range from text analytics and semantic technologies to social computing. Yahoo!’s Head of Research, Prabhakar Raghavan, will be giving an opening keynote titled, “The Future of Search,” which will examine how search technology is evolving to deliver a richer, more meaningful experience to end users. Exploring search as a unifying application between Web content and services, Prabhakar will go over open tools for developers, such as SearchMonkey, and discuss how these tools can further enhance the search experience for Web consumers.

If you’re planning to attend the Gilbane Conference this week, be sure to stop by Prabhakar’s talk on Wednesday, December 3rd, at 8:30 a.m. at the Westin Copley Place Hotel.

For a complete list of talks, check out the full conference schedule. Hope to see you there.

Yahoo! Search Blog Team

Las Vegas is about to get even wilder next week for the annual Pubcon Vegas 2008 show. Search and search marketing professionals are heading out to the Las Vegas Convention Center in droves and Yahoo! Search will be a part of the action. Participating in a number of panels, the team here will cover topics such as eliminating duplicate content and the current state of search. Attendees can also learn best practices for organic listings and have their sites reviewed live, at the show.

Wednesday, November 12th
Time: 10:15 - 11:30 a.m. (Salon B)
Session: Local and Mobile Search
Description: This panel will look at local search from the varying perspectives of search engines, wireless audiences and SEO/SEM marketers.
Yahoo!: Shailesh Bhat, Senior Product Manager, Yahoo! Local

Thursday, November 13th
Time: 10:15 - 11:30 a.m. (Salon C)
Session: Getting Rid of Duplicate Content Issues Once and For All
Description: This panel will look at the top issues relating to duplicate content and will explore what can be done to alleviate and address webmaster and site owner fears.
Yahoo!: Priyank Garg, Director of Product Management, Yahoo! Search

Time: 1:30 - 2:50 p.m. (Salon F)
Session: Organic Site Reviews
Description: Get your Web site reviewed live by a panel of SEO experts in a session focused on organic search.
Yahoo! (Moderator): Tim Mayer, VP, U.S. Search Business

Time: 4:10 - 5:30 p.m. (Salon A)
Session: Super Session - Search Engines and Webmasters (a.k.a. The Search Engine Smackdown)
Description: Experts from four major search engines will discuss current status, features and fresh offerings from their engines.
Yahoo!: Sean Suchter, VP of Engineering, Yahoo! Search

For the complete line-up, check out the conference schedule and feel free to stop by if you’re in Vegas.

Yahoo! Search Blog Team

The Web 3.0 Conference & Expo kicks off this week in Santa Clara and the Yahoo! Search team will be there speaking on a couple of panels about SearchMonkey and Yahoo! Search BOSS.

Thursday, October 16th
Time: 2:00 - 2:50 p.m.
Session: Demo Hour: Semantic Search Solutions
Description: This session showcases practical applications for semantic search and the benefits of semantic technologies in improving relevancy of results. In this track, Yahoo! will speak to developers’ and site owners’ use of structured data to make Yahoo! Search results more useful and visually appealing and drive more site traffic with SearchMonkey.
Yahoo!: Tom Chi, Senior Director, Product Management, Yahoo! Search

Friday, October 17th
Time: 1:00 - 1:50 p.m.
Session: Improved Services DEMO Session
Description: This demo session showcases Web 3.0 products that have raised the bar in service delivery to users and/or customers. Yahoo! will share how BOSS is helping developers, startups and large Internet companies build their own search services and move the needle in next-generation search innovation.
Yahoo!: Bill Michels, Senior Director, Open Search Platform, Yahoo! Search

Check out the complete conference schedule for more sessions on next-generation web technologies. And stop by the panels and say hi. We look forward to seeing you there.

Yahoo! Search Blog team

At the Javits Convention Center in New York next week, the Yahoo! Search team will speak on five SMX East panels to address a number of industry topics, including spam, URLs and domains, design techniques, and enhanced listings. Also, the team will offer answers to your questions and give you a behind-the-scenes look at search engines in the “Ask the Search Engines” SEO Track on Wednesday.

Check out our line-up and stop by if you’re in the neighborhood. You can find the team at the Meet & Eat tables during lunch on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday too.

Tuesday, October 7th

Time: 10:45 a.m. - noon
Session: What is Spam?
Description: Search representatives share their views on what search spam is.
Yahoo!: Sean Suchter, VP of Engineering

Time: 1:30 - 2:45 p.m.
Session: Unraveling URLs & Demystifying Domains
Description: This session looks at a variety of URL and domain name issues you should consider to increase your success with SEO.
Yahoo!: Sean Suchter, VP of Engineering

Time: 3:15 - 4:30 p.m.
Session: CSS, AJAX, Web 2.0 and SEO
Description: CSS, AJAX and Web 2.0 dynamic design techniques can cause search engine indexing and ranking issues. This session examines solutions to consider.
Yahoo!: Sharad Verma, Senior Product Manager, Web Search

Time: 3:15 - 4:30 p.m.
Session: Enhanced Listings
Description: Search engines are moving towards enhanced listings. How can search marketers tap into them?
Yahoo!: Larry Cornett, VP of Consumer Products

Wednesday, October 8th

Time: 2:30 - 3:30 p.m.
Session: Ask the Search Engines (SEO Track)
Description: This Q&A panel gives a behind-the-scenes look at how things work in the world of indexing and ranking pages.
Yahoo!: Sean Suchter, VP of Engineering

The Yahoo! Search Marketing team is speaking on a number of other panels as well, so be sure to check out the conference site for more details on their whereabouts. Hope to see you there.

Yahoo! Search Blog team

SMX Advanced is right around the corner and the Yahoo! Search team is in on the Seattle action. If you’re heading to the Bell Harbor International Conference Center as well, be sure to check out our panels.

Tuesday, June 3rd

Time: 1:30 - 2:45 p.m.
Session: Bot Herding
Description: This session looks at some advanced techniques in herding bots and how search engines view cloaking issues today.
Yahoo!: Priyank Garg, Director, Product Management

Wednesday, June 4th

Time: 9 -10 a.m.
Session: Search Friendly Development
Description: Highlights the most important elements to consider for SEO when building a web app infrastructure and provides tactical details about how to implement those elements.
Yahoo!: Sharad Verma, Senior Manager, Product Management

Time: 12 - 1:30 p.m.
Session: Building Search-Friendly Web Applications
Description: This casual tabletop discussion is taking place during lunch at Developer Day.
Yahoo!: Paul Tarjan, Technical Yahoo!

Time: 1:45 - 3 p.m.
Session: Analytics Every SEO Needs To Know
Description: This session focuses on analytics that SEOs should be considering.
Yahoo!: Laura Lippay, Group Program Manager, Search Strategy

For more on Yahoo!’s whereabouts, head over to the YSM Blog. See you there!

Yahoo! Search Blog team

On Nodalities blog today, Paul Miller posts his podcast interview with Peter Mika, a SearchMonkey from Yahoo! Research. Peter’s speaking at the Semantic Technology Conference in San Jose May 18-22, so the two dove into what Peter will be presenting on as well as the innovation and direction behind SearchMonkey. Check out their conversation.

Yahoo! Search Blog team

We’re sending a number of our top technologists up the road to the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco this week. Among the 11 speakers across Yahoo!’s properties who’ll be there, here’s where you can find Ari Balogh, Yahoo! Chief Technology Officer, Neal Sample, Chief Architect of the Open Platform, and Dustin Whittle, Technical Yahoo! and symfony evangelist.

Wednesday, April 23rd
Time: 10:50 — 11:40 a.m.
Location: 2nd Level Lobby
Topic: A Symfony Answer
Yahoo!: Dustin Whittle

Dustin will discuss how to work with open source tools to create a complete framework (PHP, JS, CSS) for the enterprise. He’ll use his experience redeveloping Yahoo! Answers with symfony and Yahoo! User Interface libraries as a case study.

Thursday, April 24th
Time: 10 — 10:15 a.m.
Location: 3rd Level Keynote Ballroom
Topic: Yahoo! and Open Platforms
Yahoo!: Ari Balogh

Ari, Yahoo!’s new CTO, will give a 15-minute keynote presentation on Yahoo! and open platforms.

Friday, April 25th
Time: 1:30 — 2:20 p.m.
Location: Expo Hall
Topic: Yahoo! and Open Platforms — A Deeper Dive
Yahoo!: Neal Sample

Neal will expand on Ari’s keynote by giving a deeper dive into Yahoo! and open platforms.

If you can’t attend the presentations, please feel free to stop by our Yahoo! Developer Network booth (#901) in the Expo Hall. Yahoo! Search, along with a number of other product teams, will be on hand to answer questions and do demos of our latest products.

Yahoo! Search Blog

The largest annual consumer technology show in the world is happening next week and Yahoo! is in on the Las Vegas action. Yodel Anecdotal is covering Yahoo!’s presence at the show, including Jerry Yang’s talk on the evolution of Internet technology and its impact on consumer technology products.

And, if you’ve stayed close to Yahoo! oneSearch-related news in the past, don’t hesitate to stop by Yahoo!’s tent at the Central Plaza (CP3). You’ll be able to demo the company’s mobile products and speak with other representatives.

Good luck in Las Vegas…

Yahoo! Search Blog team