Yahoo! Inc., the leading global Internet communications, commerce and Media Company, recently announced the phased rollout of new search functions for the company’s free Web-based e-mail service. New features include the ability to search e-mail header, body, and attachment content; display snippets or short excerpts with highlighted matches on search terms; view thumbnails of all the pictures and documents saved in their e-mail account.
As expected, search will be a more integral part of Yahoo!’s network, with search boxes following a user throughout the site. The search itself has a variety of new features, including special search functions for products or images. In addition, the search ties more closely with the Yahoo! network, offering up Yahoo! content rather than just links to Web sites.
The new search functions will be available to a subset of Yahoo e-mail users, with general availability coming within the coming months. The rollout comes after Yahoo announced plans to overhaul its free Web-based e-mail service to make it work more like a desktop e-mail program.
Yahoo!’s goal is to provide the highest quality search experience on the Internet, said Jeff Weiner, Yahoo!’s senior vice president for search and marketplace. The new Yahoo! Search marks the next step in building an innovative and integrated search platform that leverages the most relevant, comprehensive content from across the Web and innovative search solutions using leading search technology and content on Yahoo!.
Yahoo!’s search moves will only fuel more speculation that it increasingly sees Google as a rival. Fellow mega portal MSN officially declared Google a rival this week, when it confirmed it was making a major effort to beef up its investments in search.
By offering this, Yahoo! hopes to take advantage of both its tools and personalization — both of which give it an advantage over a search at a site like Google.