Yahoo searches while you type, saving countless nanoseconds wasted by pushing a Submit button.
Yahoo Debuts Instant Search
Editor’s Note: Now, being the top result on Yahoo means being the focus of Instant Search. How will Instant Search change your SEO initiatives? Communicate with us on WebProWorld.
“You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya punk?”
— Dirty Harry (1971)
Clint Eastwood asked the question first; Google let’s you act on that lucky feeling by hitting a button. Now, Yahoo dispenses with the question and the button, by searching while you type.
It’s in beta, but the Yahoo! Instant Search page offers another take on the ‘search-engine-anticipating-my-request’ bit. AOL Search does something similar with its Smartbox Suggestions technology.
Typing in the Yahoo Instant Search box will start its back-end search off on a quest to anticipate your query. The page returns different results as you build your keyword. I decided to test it with the now-popular hobby ‘scrapbooking’.
Instant Search gave me a box of financial information, linked to Yahoo Finance, for Royal Shell when I typed in ‘Sc’. Adding three more letter changes the suggested destination to Scrap.org, the “bi-monthly publication of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.”
Extending that to “scrapbook” brought a link to a Japanese page hosting the ScrapBook Firefox extension. The snippet of text accompanying that mentions how the New York Times discussed ScrapBook on April 7th; that text appears high up on the web page (SEO readers: take note of that).
Finishing off the word ‘scrapbooking’ pulls up Scrapbooking.com, an appropriate destination for people who not only need to stick pictures in books, but do so with the right paper, the right tape, and all the other little extras one needs to preserve those precious memories.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
