Sunnyvale, California — Yes, Yahoo still has a search engine, the Internet company on its Search Blog announced that it has enhanced its Yahoo Search Assist tool (the search suggestions that pops-up as you start entering a query), now displays real-time search suggestions when you start typing in search queries in either the Web or New search.
“You have probably already used Yahoo Search Assist to conduct your searches quickly, but this latest release now delivers even fresher suggestions, which will be especially useful when there are recent top news or events related to your search topic,” says Yahoo Search Senior Product Manager Linda Wang. “With the new suggestion algorithm we have launched, you will see near real-time suggestions to help you easily find the freshest content.”
“For example, I was wondering which team the Netherlands would be matched with in the World Cup today, so I typed ‘Netherlands vs.’, and the first suggestion is for today’s game,” explains Wang. “Clicking on the first suggestion, I was able to see game information right in the search result page.”
We also tried a few odd searches for news stories today and surprisingly, the suggestion box did an admirable job of presenting what we were looking for to the top.
So for those of you that still embrace Yahoo! Search, this should be a welcome feature that will push real-time searches to the forefront of what you are looking for. Interestingly, this update comes right on the heels of the Yahoo! releasing Android apps (including a search one) and looking to buy back billions of dollars of their stock. Obviously, Yahoo! is making moves, and it will be very interesting to see what is next.
Interestingly, the near real-time suggestions are available for Yahoo News search in addition to Yahoo Search.