Author: Dinesh Dhiman
The erstwhile Internet search leader Yahoo has updated its search results, refreshing the way search results are displayed on the site and adopting a Google-like navigation bar in the process. Did somebody say ‘copying’? Ouch!!
The new look Yahoo is devoid of any clutter that became characteristic of its search in the past. Meanwhile, it has started looking oh so familiar with the Google search result page, something that has become synonymous to Internet search lately.
Talking of the changes, the search results have moved way up, near the top. Yahoo branding has become smaller and there is a login button adjacent to the search bar. You would find a top navigation bar with links to Yahoo home, mail, news, Flickr and other Yahoo products. A simple web search would throw up videos, images, and news besides web pages’ links. And there are links to other services depending on what you are searching for.
For instance, a search for ace tennis player Maria Sharapova threw up links to images and videos of the Russian beauty along with links to Sharapova merchandise! The new Yahoo search page appears to be even sleeker than ever, something in line with the bevy of changes its charismatic CEO Marissa Mayer has unleashed in the past.
The latest change was declared on the recently acquired photo blogging platform Tumblr with a GIF image. As per Yahoo, “Whether you’re searching for that perfect summer vacation spot or a nearby Ethiopian restaurant, finding what you’re looking for should be fast and easy. And, we think that it can also be beautiful. Today we’re excited to introduce a new, modern design for web search in the U.S. that puts your results front and center.”
“When it comes to search, nothing should stand between you and your results. That’s why we’ve placed search results higher on the page. And thanks to some under-the-hood performance improvements, many of you will notice that the page also loads faster.
We’re also introducing a new navigation bar at the top of the page so you can easily browse other Yahoo! sites. Over time, we’ll be rolling out the navigation bar across more Yahoo! properties,” reads the blog post.
Back end changes
There have been some changes to the backend as well. As per Yahoo, these changes should help in faster load times. Well, honestly Yahoo has been out of flavor for some time now and not many people would have noted how fast it is as compared to earlier. But yes, the search results throw up in a flash, something that should please everyone. Yahoo plans to put up links to its other services soon, which Google had done much earlier.
Yahoo has been rolling out changes at a rapid pace (Read: Yahoo Shutters Mail Classic, Forces New Mail That Scans Emails For Targeted Ads). It gave its homepage uplift sometime back and redesigned its email service as well, though its ad-supported version pissed off some of the users. Yahoo, whose search is powered by Microsoft owned Bing, is doing whatever it could to regain its past glory.
However, the search market share of Yahoo in percentage points is hardly into double figures. It would need to do much more than that!