preview new yahoo search

[younghistorians]

Looks like something out of the Google labs:
http://mysearch.yahoo.com/

[daamsie]

That's a fantastic feature! I'm really starting to become a Yahoo! fan. The whole portal approach of my.yahoo is tempting me more and more.

I wonder what the 'save' to my web function means for SEOs. I wonder whether it uses the same ranking rules as it would for other pages. For instance, I saved a page on my site to test: http://www.travellerspoint.com/keyphrase-test1.html - this page has only one word on it in the alt text of an image 'widgeterie' . When I search for 'widgeterie' in My Search, it doesn't find it - it only finds it if I search by text in the title bar. My question would be; does this mean that Yahoo! NEVER takes the alt text of images into account? If the algorithm was decided to be similar, SEOs could easily test on page optimisation by adding pages to their My Yahoo to at least make sure the words were being recognised - then add a few competitors pages for that keyword / phrase and you might know who's got the better on-page optimisation. A great propect!!

[dejaone]

Yeah, the UI is pretty much like google's. I get only a few visitors a day from Yahoo.

[Tid]

Well MSN is also in big time
http://techpreview.search.msn.com/

[TwisterMc]

Looks like Yahoo is dong an A9 type search.

[clubbin714]

Looks good. I also like what yahoo is doing in the search arena. Dont count them out yet.

[eCommando]

I like MSN results.

[TwisterMc]

Kind of helps with tracking your sites too as it puts a red arrow in search results if you've saved a site. ;)

[mopacfan]

Yahoo sucks. Plain and simple. (my opinion of course) Although I have to admit, it looks like they may be finally figuring out that the portal crap is just that, crap. I don't want a search page filled with all the other extraneous garbage that yahoo thinks I need to see. Just give me a search box and some simple navigation tools.

[TwisterMc]

One persons trash is another persons treasure. ;)

[mopacfan]

One persons trash is another persons treasure. ;)
So True...

[exam]

I personaly don't like the portal look, nor do I need all that info that is presented, but I know people who do like it, they check stocks, scores, weather etc all from the same place. I like to find my own info, but that's not everybody, (maybe not even the majority)

[younghistorians]

Even though they try to make My Yahoo completely changable, it still doesn't feel that way. It would be cool if you could change the stylesheet to your liking.

What Yahoo services do you guys use?

I've only been using Yahoo Mail (occasionally), Fantasy Sports, and Weather.

[daamsie]

I've got RSS feeds from my forum and various news sites running through there, plus a currency converter, some political cartoonists and the weather in a few different places.
I actually have my own desktop aggregator + Sage in Firefox, but I'm kind of testing which I'll end up using most.. I actually don't care all that much for all that stuff, but something like this personal search would possibly get me back on a more regular basis. If only they had more up to date results!!

[mopacfan]

What Yahoo services do you guys use?
Mail, and only for use when signing up for questionable or spamy offers such as rebates, surveys, etc. This way I can just go in and empty the bulk folder once a month.

[longcall911]

I wonder if Yahoo! will ultimately collect stats on which pages people save, and which ones people block for specific search terms. Right now, SEs rely on mathematics and basic computer logic to 'guess' at what people really want when they enter a search term.

Saved and/or blocked pages are those that have been reviewed by a human and deemed relevant or not, to a search. Now, since not every Joe Surfer is a good judge, I wouldn't weight that factor too heavily. But, I do think it is potentially very valuable information to any SE.

Just in case, I saved all of my sites and blocked my competitors :-)