Yahoo has announced they have revamped their search interface with a from "to do" to "done" approach. Basically, they have launched Search Assist, something they have been demoing for a while and revamped how multi-media is represented in the search results.
What is search assist, well the link above explains it, but in short, it is like Ask.com's refine search features but a bit more AJAX'ish. If you do a search on anything and click on the little arrow under the search box, it expands to show you those refinements:
Plus now if you search for multi-media related searches, you may get video results that can be played within the search results, like you can with Google results:
My only complaint is, where is star wars kid video? If I am searching for the star wars kid, I suspect to get a video, Google gives it to me. But typically, if you end your search in video, such as Michael Jordan Video, you will get a video result. Interesting how Yahoo is able to embed Meta Cafe's video into their own site, didn't Google have copyright issues with that?
Here is the detailed release as a PDF file [1.1MB], plus there is a ton of coverage at Techmeme, including Greg's coverage and Loren's coverage.
So now the top four search engines have somewhat blended or made their search results more "universal" within the year. A transformation as to what they have been doing in the past, is now the standard (kind of not at Ask.com but they get it done) at the four major search engines. For past coverage of each engine read:
- Google Revamps Search Results Landscape with Universal Search
- Ask.com Relaunches in 3D with Ask X Interface
- Microsoft Launches New Search Index & Algorithms
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.
