Maybe it really is too early to count Yahoo out when it comes to search.
Today, the company held a press event where it announced a new product called Search Direct, which is supposed to bring searchers the answers theya4ぎa4вe looking for as they type. I didna4ぎa4д go, mainly because I had to meet with the team behind the cool (and well-funded) mobile photo app Color &8212' but also because, well, Ia4ぎa4ёe been to these events before. Yahoo executives take the stage, talk about how theya4ぎa4вe going to turn the company around, and then when it comes to delivering meaningful product or business news a4ぎｦ therea4ぎa4г not much. In fact, I can think of multiple events where all the reporters at my table stared at each other, mouthing, a4ぎAWhat the heck are we supposed to write abouta4ぎ
Now, you could argue that thata4ぎa4г a rather insider-y complaint about Yahooa4ぎa4г PR strategy, rather than a significant criticism of the company. But I think it reflects a larger problem. Since 2009, when Yahoo announced that its search results would actually come from Microsoft, the company has been insisting that ita4ぎa4г still serious about search and that the deal frees Yahoo to focus on improving the search engine rather than the results. In practice, that seems to have amounted to minor tweaks that weren&'t really enough to build a search strategy around.
Search Direct, however, looks to be a significant improvement. Ita4ぎa4г certainly the biggest change to Yahoo Search that Ia4ぎa4ёe noticed in a long time. It obviously owes some of its inspiration to Google Instant, the feature that Google unveiled last year that reveals and revises your search results as you type. But, hey, even copying the competitiona4ぎa4г cooler features is nothing to sneeze at, especially since Yahoo brings its own approach. The company says Search Direct is about finding answers, not links, which means trying to provide content relevant to your search (say, weather predictions for a weather search, or movie times for a movie search) in a little box above your normal results.
Over at Search Engine Land, Danny Sullivan notes that this a4ぎAanswers-baseda4ぎ approach results in fewer practical differences than Yahoo wants us to believe, and that in many cases, Google Instant delivers superior results. Still, I prefer the Search Direct design &8212' Google Instanta4ぎa4г constantly changing results gives me a headache.
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Companies: Yahoo
Companies: Yahoo
Anthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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