Yahoo! gives a fresh look to its search

By Steve Malone

Posted on 7 Apr 2003 at 16:04

Yahoo! Has unveiled a new look to Yahoo! Search. Gone is the directory listings that have been a feature of Yahoo since the early days. Instead, the company has gone for a much leaner - dare we say - Google-like approach.

The new search is based upon Yahoo!'s traditional directory listings with fall through listings from the recently acquired Inktomi search engine.

Along with the search box, the new page has links directly to popular Yahoo! destinations such as the Web, Directory, News, Yellow Pages, Maps and Yahoo!'s new Image Search library in a horizontal tabbed format. The tradional search directories are now underneath the tabs.

The search directory has added a number of customisable features to its offerings. Visitors are able to search in over 30 different languages, choose the number of results displayed per page or open search results in a new window. Once set, regular Yahoo users can save their preferences through their Yahoo! ID to use Yahoo! Search the way they want from any computer.

Yahoo! has finally cottoned on to the value of the Google toolbar and come up with its own version. Along with offering users one click search of Yahoo, the Yahoo companion also gets you directly to MyYahoo and alerts users when they receive Yahoo mail. According to Yahoo, the companion will work with any browser.