∞ Yahoo! Search Trends: Halloween 2011

From YsearchBlog.com

With “Halloween costume idea” searches up 351% this monthon Yahoo!, everyone from grandma to the family dog are getting prepared to trick-or-treat this Halloween. From Pam Am Stewardesses to Charlie Sheen, Halloween searches range from traditional to pop culture driven, and one thing that is certain is #winning the Halloween race means finding a costume that hits home with you. Yahoo! searches reveal what’s piquing the interest of Americans this Halloween season.

Mon-10-2011 | ❤ 45
We knew that Yahoo moble search was indexing mobile applications. In fact Yahoo even signed a deal with GetJar. It seems though that the desktop version of the search engine will soon return iPhone and Android applications. Via M. Smith

We knew that Yahoo moble search was indexing mobile applications. In fact Yahoo even signed a deal with GetJar. It seems though that the desktop version of the search engine will soon return iPhone and Android applications.

Via M. Smith

Wed-27-2011

Weekly Yahoo! Search Trends – November 19, 2010

Fri-19-2010

Yahoo! is currently testing real time search assist.

From SearchEngineland : 

Now In Testing With Select Users

Shashi Seth, senior vice president of Yahoo Search products, told me about 5% of Yahoo’s users are currently being opted-in to the new experience and that Yahoo is also testing various versions of it.

Testing will likely continue for a month or two until a final product is rolled out to the public, Seth said. Later this week, Yahoo plans a blog post with more details about the service.

To learn more read the whole article

Wed-17-2010

∞ Yahoo! Introduces Clues

From the Yahoo! Search blog : 

Yahoo! Clues is a new beta service that gives you a unique “behind the scenes” look into popular trends across the millions of people who use Yahoo! to search each day.

With Yahoo! Clues, you can discover and compare trending information for search terms of interest to you, or explore popular trending search terms on Yahoo!

You can see search volume charts, demographic graphs, maps, or even related searches specific to a demographic group. We’re also experimenting with an interesting feature called “Search Flow,” which offers a unique look at people’s search patterns and the next most probable search term people try after searching for a query.

Tue-16-2010

★ Yahoo! Search gets more localized



From a not yet published article on the Y! Search blog !

New and Improved Sketch-a-Search:  New to the desktop and iPad, and improved for the iPhone, these first-of-their kind apps will allow you to zero in on where to eat by drawing on an area map and filtering restaurants by cuisine, ambiance, and ratings. The latest iPhone and desktop versions will even show you reviews of Zagat-Rated restaurants in the location you’re investigating.

OpenTable App: Book a reservation without leaving the Yahoo! Search results page through Yahoo!’s new partnership with OpenTable, a leading online provider of real-time restaurant reservations. You’ll be able to see a restaurant overview, pricing information, parking locations, open tables, and complete a reservation–all in one place.

We are also excited to preview a couple new features we’ll be testing over the coming months, including:

Restaurant Comparison Quick App:  No more bouncing from site to site trying to find a restaurant that meets your needs. This new app will consolidate key comparison points like price, distance, cuisine type, atmosphere, and ratings into a single side-by-side view so Yahoo! Search foodies can quickly find their new favorite restaurants.

Rich Search Assist: In our quest to provide answers, not links, Yahoo! will start testing a beta version of a more intelligent and content-rich Search Assist (a technology Yahoo! pioneered). Whether you’re looking for a game score, the closest Starbucks, or even a new digital camera, the answers – or direct links to them – will be available in the new Search Assist window as you type.

Tue-16-2010

Weekly Yahoo! Search Trends – November 12, 2010

Sat-13-2010

∞ Rakuten Says Google-Yahoo Japan Tie-Up Is ‘Dangerous’

I wish Yahoo! and Google would work together on other stuff than search and advertising and bring high quality products productive product together for a better interoperability.

From Bloomberg : 

Rakuten Inc., the Japanese Internet shopping site operator, said a local web-search partnership between Yahoo! Japan Corp. and Google Inc. will have “superpowers,” making it “dangerous” for fair competition.

Yahoo Japan, operator of the nation’s most-visited Web portal, said in July it will use Google’s search and advertising technology to replace its current system as early as this year. Rakuten last month asked Japan’s Fair Trade Commission to review the search partnership, saying the deal may deter competition.

If the companies were to change the search results to favor their products, “they will have superpowers,” Rakuten President Hiroshi Mikitani said at a briefing on the company’s earnings in Tokyo today. “I think it’s very dangerous.”

Tue-9-2010

∞ Yahoo! Awarded Patent for Abbreviation Handling in Web Search

From ismashphone : 

Yahoo! has been awarded a patent for handling abbreviations in web queries. The idea is to build a dictionary or abbreviations related to query terms. Below is a description of the patent’s functions:

A method for handling abbreviations in web queries includes building a dictionary of a plurality of possible word expansions for a plurality of potential abbreviations related to query terms received or anticipated to be received by a search engine; accepting a query including an abbreviation; expanding the abbreviation into one of the plurality of word expansions if a probability that the expansion is correct is above a threshold value, wherein the probability is determined by taking into consideration a context of the abbreviation within the query, wherein the context including at least anchor text; and sending the query with the expanded abbreviation to the search engine to generate a search results page related to the query.

Mon-11-2010

∞ Yahoo! Search BOSS V2: A Paid Service with Web, Images, and News

From the Yahoo! Search Blog : 

The new BOSS V2 platform will initially offer a cost-per-query model. The cost will depend on the type of services used – web, image, news, etc. – and will likely vary from $0.40 to $0.75 CPM (cost per 1000 BOSS queries). Shortly after the BOSS V2 release, developers will also have the option to monetize their search experience through the combined marketplace resulting from the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance. In addition, we plan to offer a nominally-priced version of BOSS for academia and non-profit organizations (…)

- BOSS will continue to be a RESTful API for web, image, and news search. Core web and image results will eventually be powered by the Microsoft search platform. In 2011, Yahoo! plans to expand upon these offerings. -

- BOSS plans to provide full flexibility to blend, stack, and re-rank results. You know your users best, so we will give you the ability to display exactly what they need. We also aim to continue enhancing the BOSS offering by providing additional vertical search services in the future.

- We will require developers to access BOSS V2 via the Yahoo! Developer Network standard oAuth-based authentication.

-BOSS V2 will provide a self-service payment model. We plan to offer developers the ability to add credit-card authentication at sign-up and to check usage, billing, and other information on a completely redesigned dashboard interface.

Fri-8-2010