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Yahoo! Releases New Search Tool

Posted by Zonk on from the yahoogle dept.

rcrc writes "Yahoo! Research Labs has recently released a new search tool that gives the opportunity to the user to choose whether they are looking for informational sites, or shopping sites, based upon a slider bar. This tool is currently in beta and more information can be found in the FAQ." From the article: "With the slider in the middle position, only the default Yahoo! Search sort is used. When the slider is at either end, only the secondary commercial/non-commercial sort is used. But when the slider is anywhere in between, Yahoo! Mindset presents a blend of the two sorting systems."

4 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. Blend? by Tharkban · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What's the point of blending the two techniques?

    Anyone have a clue?

    I would use one or the other but I can't think of any situation where I would prefer blending to doing two different searches.

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    Tharkban (It is a signature after all)
  2. Fancy sorting my TLDs? by GillBates0 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Wonder what made Yahoo decide on choosing these two terms as ends of the spectrum. IMHO, it excludes a variety of other intents that people use search engines for.

    It also looks like their engine gives a higher weightage to .com sites when the slider is towards "Shopping", and to .org, .edu, .gov sites when it is towards "Researching". For most purposes, I would go with the slider at the extreme end towards "Researching", so I can exclude spam/advertisement sites. But sadly, it looks like that would skip over *many* useful sites which end in .com .

    For example, http://howstuffworks.com/ seems to be categorized as a "Shopping" site, presumably due to it's suffix, and doesn't turn up with the slider at the "Researching" end.

    Needs more work, IMHO.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  3. Re:yahoo! Next by IAmTheDave · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yahoo is definately taking Google's approach to opening betas to the general population. I think it helps drive adoption by making users feel they're getting the inside scoop.

    Nonetheless, cool stuff.

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    Excuse my speling.
    Making The Bar Project
  4. Re:yahoo! Next by Council · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Instead of 'rating' they should offer you two movies and ask 'which do you prefer'. This is a much better way to do it -- you'll notice that all the movies average out to a 'B' rating. It's extremely difficult, for me at least, to rate movies on a simple absolute scale. I tried the Yahoo one, but then realized that I was just rating the vast majority of movies "decently good". Yet I can almost always tell you which of two movies I prefer.

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    xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.