The newest beta candidate of the Firefox 2.0 web browser has been online for only a day, but Yahoo has already made one of its technologies available to it.
It…is…alive! A Live Search, that is, available from Yahoo for Firefox 2.0 beta 1 testers. Live Search may be viewed at the AlltheWeb search engine, now owned by Yahoo.
When using Yahoo Search in the top-right search box on Firefox 2.0, a list of suggested completions for what has been typed will appear below the search box.
(Here’s a secret tip for you, dear reader. The search suggestions also appear for Google and Answers.com when they have been selected as the engine for the Firefox 2.0 search box.)
The user can then click on one of those Live Search suggestions to initiate the search for that term. Yahoo fans who have tried out the company’s Instant Search (Motto: “Why feel lucky when you can be right?”) will recognize the behavior of Live Search here.
Yahoo Search engineering manager Ralph Rabbat posted news of the Firefox 2.0 – Live Search hookup at the Y!Search Blog:
…Live Search also shows you related search terms you might not have thought of but find useful. For example I typed nih and it shows what NIH stands for: National Institute of Health, but also “Not Invented Here”. Interesting.
I find these suggestions to be extremely helpful. Live Search returns the queries I have in mind with fewer letters typed, and sometimes teaches me a thing or two.
Live Search is also useful for figuring out spelling mistakes. It can even predict whether I’m in the process of making a spelling error before I’m even done. Try “wethe” It shows weather (with the correct “a” between “w” and “e” before I type the final “r” of the word. Live Search also includes Also Try and acronym expansion.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
