The Sunnyvale company, still blemished by the ouster of dishonored CEO Scott Thompson, is trying to adorn a shiny disposition in search with sourcing superior-quality digital images from Getty’s network of professional photographers most recent collections plus an upgraded user interface design with added features to Yahoo Image and Video Search.
“Of course we also help people find top grade images of the very latest headline news, sports and entertainment events within minutes of being taken,” says Yahoo’s Multimedia Search team in a blog post.
Thanks to an expanded association with Getty, Yahoo will provide searchers with access to more than 20,000 new photos everyday and connect them with relevant images linked with the latest news stories. Getty photos will be pulled into the Yahoo search experience within minutes of being taken, the company said.
In fact, according to Yahoo, this collaboration will help them deliver “a more timely experience, supported by the most recent, and often never-seen-before content.”
Besides, the prettified image and video search experience also provides searchers with a full screen viewing option that is supported across web and mobile devices thanks to the adoption of HTML5 technology. The search results pages feature a new tiled thumbnail viewing experience that displays larger content upon roll-over. In video search, a preview of the video will start playing when the user hovers over it.
On the other hand, Yahoo is now indicating high-quality images and video in results with an “HQ” badge. The media company is even letting searchers filter results for the most recently uploaded photos from Getty.
“We have introduced two prominent filters on the left rail to help you find the highest quality and most recent images,” the team mentioned. “For images, the HQ badge identifies photos with at least 2 megapixels and a 1024 x 768 aspect ratio. For Yahoo! HQ videos, we use adaptive streaming technology to optimize your viewing experience by continuously adjusting the quality of the streamed Yahoo! hosted video to match the capabilities of your network and device. The Latest filter allows you to discover the most recent photos and videos available on the Web, so you can always keep up to date.”
Also, as part of the video experience, there is a new ‘search while you watch’ option. This empowers you to to search for a video while you are already watching one, without going back to the search results page.
Interestingly, it is a nice feature, but the continuous scroll is missing in this section. Once you get to the bottom of the results Yahoo returns, you have to click to see all results, and that takes you away from the video you are watching. So, if you do not find what you are looking for in those top results, the feature is useless.
Nevertheless, the amplified partnership with Getty adds a new level of commitment to the relationship between the two companies. The duo have previously worked together in 2008 when they connected to bring Flickr photographers and their best captures into the Getty fold.