Yahoo's Y!Q Contextual Search Beta

skeptic1 writes "Just days after Microsoft unvieled its new MSN search, Yahoo released a new search tool called Y!Q that allows users to search within the context of the web pages they are currently viewing. It's not the typical textbox input search, and you don't even have to leave the current page you're on to use it. The current release is only the beta version."

Comments

Is that useful?

[BigDogCH]

Cant you already use google, specify the website or domain, and input your search request? Also, could anyone explain when this would be useful? Why not just go to the site, and search there?

Re:Is that useful?

[FreshlyShornBalls]

I think the point is that the functionality is what's new....the idea that the search "pops-up" on the same page withouth having to open a new window.

Certainly not something that would make me switch to using Yahoo! instead of Google, but.....I can definitely see it being useful to a lot of users.

Re:Is that useful?

[FinalCut]

I think it could be useful. First off I like the fact that you get the little popup div inline with what your reading so you can quickly determine if any of the search results will really help you with what your reading.

Secondly, I can see alot of blogs using this - I already added it to mine. I discuss alot of technical topics that not everyone who visits might know about - but they might want to learn more about. I don't go into any great detail on most of the topics so the inline search might help my family figure out what I'm talking about when I post a "geek" entry.

So now I have google and yahoo search integrated into my site. Theres nothing wrong with options.

Firefox support

[digitalgimpus]

Yes, Yahoo does support firefox.

But the idea isn't very original. The functionality belongs to Firefox and has been around for quite some time. The default search engine is Google on Firefox.

So yes, by default you get G!Q installed, Yahoo wants you to "upgrade" to Y!Q.

Re:Firefox support

[pHatidic]

The website says the demobar requires windows 95 and better. Does that means it runs on OS X and Linux?

Re:Firefox support

[kaustik]

In firefox, with a default install, you can highlight a phrase, right click, and choose "Search the web for xxx"
It searches Google.

Re:Firefox support

[Blue-Footed Boobie]

When I search the web for "xxx" I don't get anything even close to what I wanted!!

Tinfoil hat time...

[kuwan]

So will Yahoo! use this "service" to track what web pages you view and what you're interested in when you view them? A quick preview of their terms of service links to their privacy policy which states:

Yahoo! collects personal information when you register with Yahoo!, when you use Yahoo! products or services, when you visit Yahoo! pages or the pages of certain Yahoo! partners, and when you enter promotions or sweepstakes. Yahoo! may combine information about you that we have with information we obtain from business partners or other companies.

So Yahoo! will be tracking what you view and what you search for when you view it.

Downloader beware.

--
Join the Pyramid - Free Mini Mac | Free Flat Screens

Re:Tinfoil hat time...

[spac3manspiff]

Amazing how yahoo has really gone under the radar,
remember the controversy that stired up when google came out with gmail?

Re:Tinfoil hat time...

[ColdGrits]

So no different from the information Google already collects about you every time you use Google to do a search, then, it seems.

Re:Tinfoil hat time...

[Dan East]

Don't forget all the prolific Google AdSense content embedded directly into so many web pages. Google is in a better position to track a web surfer than any other entity, with the exception of spyware running on the actual client machine.

Dan East

Firefox

[hamlet2600]

Highlight the text in a webpage, right click. You get "Search for " Sounds like the good folks at mozilla already have this feature. And the tags on the page described just seem like useless overhead.

Re:Extension?

[Dhalka226]

Googlebar. You can highlight words, right click, Googlebar items, Search for selected text.

I'm running the Googlebar extension version 0.9.0.30 if it makes a difference.

I didn't read the article, so I'm hoping that's the sort of thing you were referring to.

You search in context

[ackthpt]

While they track your search in context to sell as marketing data. Lovely.

this guy searches site frequently for Tex Ritter, Cool Whip and Kazoos, I guess we could sell that to goatse.cx guy...

I can't wait until the next party and people.....

[ip_freely_2000]

...try and verbalize "Y!Q"

or maybe I'll just skip that party.

Re:Extension?

[Disperz]

Yes, it already exists.. It existed the moment you installed Firefox. Just highlight the word, right click, and go to "Search Web for 'highlighted content'" It's right above that, if installed, dictionary extension you were talking about.

Re:I can't wait until the next party and people...

[Tackhead]

> ...try and verbalize "Y!Q"
>
>or maybe I'll just skip that party.

You think you've got trouble. I was at this party, and the guy was telling me about Y!Q.

Fortunately, I was raised by a !Kung tribe, so I was able to understand it when this guy started talking about Y!Q.

Unfortunately, DNS (which was not invented by the !Kung), I couldn't even guess what the domain name for the Y!Q search engine was supposed to be.

So I thought I'd just google for it. Heh.

I really shoulda skipped that party.

Don't we already have this?

[akeyes]

If I remember correctly, my browser already has this feature built in, I think I can get to it with a simple CTRL + F Now, where can I get some real news?

Re:Extension?

[orasio]

In Firefox running on xfree or xorg, without extensions, you can highlight the word, middle-click in the google box, press Enter.

Also, highlight the word, Ctrl-C,K,V, Enter does it, even more efective.

Just kidding, but the real issue is that Firefox already has all the searching functionality I can use right now.

Re:I can't wait until the next party and people...

[hanshotfirst]

"Yick"
"Why Bank?"

I didn't read the article, and will continue to use Ctrl-F to search within the context of my current web page. No Yahoo required.

Re:I can't wait until the next party and people...

[Reignking]

Why bang Q? He's omnipotent, that's why.

Read the back story...

[jzawodn]

It's a shame the poster didn't link to the info we posted on the Yahoo! Search blog last night. I think it answers some of the questions coming up here. Then again, this is Slashdot! :-)

Has anyone actually tried it?

[jwakko]

I get the feeling that all the other posters pointing out that firefox already supports "highlight and search" don't get the point. I think the novelty here is that you can highlight huge sections of text, send it to Y!Q, and it will find other pages that are related, given that context.

After playing with it, I can see some how Y!Q is different - I went to a random article on Google news, highlighted an entire paragraph of text, and sent it to Y!Q. It returned a bunch of pages related to that original news article. When you do the same thing with Google search, not surprisingly, it only returns one page.

So, yes, Y!Q does something different. I don't know if it's entirely useful, but it's not entirely redundant, either.

Re:sounds like GuruNet

[slyguy135]

Answers.com is free now.

Obligatory Bookmarklet

[hacker]

You can do this with a simple bookmarklet:

javascript:Qr=document.getSelection();if(!Qr){void (Qr=prompt('Keywords...',''))};if(Qr)location.href ='http://google.com/search?query='+'%22'+escape(Qr )+'%22&num=100'

Stick this on your Mozilla/Firefox toolbar (all on one line of course), highlight a word or words, and click it.

It also works if you click it without highlighting text. It will pop up a dialog where you can enter terms you want to search.

Simple!

del.icio.us integration?

[TuringTest]

For all those folks comparing it to Firefox "Search web for selection", this is a very different beast. What Y!Q does is adding metadata to your query, so that only pages are listed which both

1) contain the terms you selected and
2) are related to the metadata of the original website.

I wonder what the results could be if this technology were merged with masive metadata with distributed generation.