The Answer Is Out There

Seth said to me that for about 50 percent of the top queries on the web there is a “definite answer” and that Yahoo will strive to provide that within Search Direct. In other contexts it will provide a range of choices to users.

Seth predicted  that “in a couple of years we may walk completely away from the SERP as we know it.”

It struck me, however, that Yahoo was not eliminating the SERP but shrinking and compressing it down to this miniaturized  format. Seth didn’t disagree with my characterization.

Search Direct Will Look Different on Tablets

Seth clarified that when expressed on tablets or mobile devices it could take very different forms. He suggested for example that on a tablet there might be a much more “magazine-like” experience. He said they’re experimenting with different UIs and content presentations now.

I asked about the algorithm. During the press event Yahoo said that this was an algorithm distinct from Microsoft’s organic search algorithm.

Seth told me that right now the links and content being shown in the right part of the box are the URLs that are the “most clicked” throughout the Yahoo network. He also implied that it might get more nuanced over time. And he added that rankings can change moment to moment because it’s dynamic.

Search and Display Hook Up

We also spoke briefly about the advertising angle here. Shashi Seth said that Yahoo’s agency and brand advertising partners have been very intrigued and excited about bringing more brand advertising to search. He said that there are some discussions going on now and that in a few months Yahoo users would see the results as ads roll out.

Seth made the larger point that Search Direct represents the convergence of search and branding and of search and discovery. Yahoo is trying to provide specific answers, as well as expose adjacent and related content.

It’s both “push” and “pull.”

The Yahoo Search Blog gives a hint at what’s to come, using the search query “lady gaga” as an example. The new search experience includes a content box above the organic results with vertical content tabs for news, events, albums, images, video, and Twitter. There also appears to be a list of related entertainers atop the content box.

Likewise, Yahoo says news-related searches will also show articles, photos, videos, and tweets grouped together.

Yahoo has also been pushing its “Trending Now” content lately, and that will continue in the new search experience. Those trending lists will lead to search results with slideshows and article content that explain why a word or phrase is trending.

Greg Sterling is at the Yahoo Product Runway event, which is still ongoing, and will have a deeper look at the company’s plans soon here on Search Engine Land.

The example given was searching for [netherlands vs] and as you type, you will see it show [netherland vs brazil], which is today’s match. Here is a screen capture:

But when I test it with the New York Mets, who play Washington today, it gets it wrong:

Either way, this type of query suggestion is useful and handy.

Google

Google seems to have been the last to rollout its World Cup information. Earlier today, I wasn’t seeing anything special for searches like world cup schedule, but Google is now showing a list of upcoming matches.

Still, Google is offering far less than Yahoo and Bing (see below) when it comes to World Cup information in search results. Searches such as us vs england and brazil soccer offer nothing new specific to this year’s tournament. Instead, on certain searches involving the term “world cup,” Google has changed the “Gooooooogle” image at the bottom of the search results to “Goooooooal.”

Google also announced earlier this week that there’s new Street View imagery around seven new football stadiums in South Africa, the host country.

Postscript, June 11: Google has announced several online/search features to help fans follow World Cup results.

Yahoo

Yahoo got out in front early on this, announcing a new set of World Cup shortcuts a full month ago. Those shortcuts are all now live. Searches like world cup schedule, us vs england, or germany soccer produce a variety of different shortcuts with World Cup information.

Since announcing these shortcuts last month, Yahoo says it’s already seen a 150% uptick in search volume around the World Cup — and a 25% increase in engagement with the shortcuts.

Bing

Bing wrote about its World Cup plans yesterday, which include a variety of Instant Answers and more. Searches like world cup schedule and germany soccer show similar information as in Yahoo’s shortcuts.

Unlike Yahoo, Bing shows no Instant Answer for individual match searches such as us vs england. But Bing has created separate visual search galleries for World Cup teams and players — but these are only available for users in the US, UK, and Canada. Here’s a look at the Australian team’s page:

Bing has also created an app for Bing Maps that offers live World Cup information, but I’m unable to find that in Bing Maps at the moment.

Twitter

While some are wondering if Twitter is going to be able to survive the global onslaught of World Cup-related tweets, Twitter is pretty much saying “bring it on.” Twitter has announced a special mini-site that features tweet activity around the World Cup in general, with specific pages devoted to individual matches.

Fans can also visit their Twitter settings: design page to get a World Cup-themed Twitter background, and if you tweet with the hashtag of participating countries, Twitter will automatically add a “hash flag” to your tweet, like this:

Twitter has also published a list of suggested accounts that World Cup fans might want to follow directly during the tournament, and created a Top Tweets World Cup account that algorithmically chooses and shares interesting World Cup tweets.

Search Activity

Experian Hitwise has shared some of its data related to World Cup search activity. The press release focuses on the most searched-for players, but I’m more interested in the fact that Yahoo’s World Cup 2010 site received the second-most traffic from World Cup search last week in the U.S. FIFA.com was first at 50%, with Yahoo second at 11% and Wikipedia third at 8%.

Hitwise also says U.S. searches for the term “world cup” have increased 216% in the last two weeks, and the number of terms with “world cup” increased 226% over the same period.

Already in place is a general World Cup shortcut, and once the matches begin, Yahoo will have specific shortcuts for countries, groups, and individual matches, like these examples from Yahoo’s announcement:

These shortcuts will be available on 27 Yahoo sites around the world. Yahoo is also adding World Cup flavor to its toolbar. In addition to tournament coverage, toolbar users can customize the Yahoo toolbar in the colors of their favorite team.

Google and Bing haven’t announced any similar World Cup search coverage yet, but I expect they will in the near future.

The TV shortcut shows the title and a short synopsis of the next episode, along with video clips and links to see photos, the show’s schedule, and an episodes list. All of this content comes from Yahoo TV.

Although my LOST example above doesn’t show it, Yahoo will occasionally show links in the left column for related actors, shows, or movies. I’m guessing the query [lost] was a little too generic to prompt that.

There’s also a new celebrity shortcut that focuses on well-known actors and actresses. It’s fairly similar to Yahoo’s recently announced news shortcut in that it offers tabs to see news, photos, video, and Twitter updates about the celebrity.

If the celebrity has a Twitter account, that third tab will change from “Twitter” to “Official Tweets” and will display his/her Twitter stream.

Attempting to generate enthusiasm, he pressed on without slides: despite the popular misconception, Yahoo is not out of search, echoing statements made by CEO Carol Bartz and others on past company earnings calls. He would not have come to Yahoo six weeks ago if the company wasn’t committed to search and there wasn’t a great team there, and so on.

The power came back on and Seth was able to show his slides. There’s lots of innovation on the front end and with the user experience still to be done. The purple boxes below indicate Yahoo’s “contribution” to search after the Microsoft deal closes.

Seth then spoke at some length about Yahoo’s leadership in Asia and its mobile OEM and operator relationships in mobile around the globe.

Prabhakar Raghavan, SVP, Yahoo Labs/Search Strategy came next to again express the concept of the “web of things” vs. the “old” idea of the “web of objects” (documents). People don’t care about the index size anymore; they care about the right information or “answer.” He made the remark that 99 percent of search queries on Yahoo “have a noun” in them. This indicates that people are looking for information about the real world. The era of 10 blue links is dead, and so on.

Raghavan went on to detail Yahoo’s formidable academic and research successes: the top three texts about search are all by Yahoo scientists; the top prizes (papers) at all the 2009 and now 2010 (so far) data mining conferences have been won by Yahoo.

Larry Cornett, VP Consumer Products took the stage and reviewed many of the search innovations and rollouts of the past six months: Search Assist, Search Pad, breaking news/Twitter, richer Shortcuts, contextually relevant filters and refinements, multimedia search, etc. Cornett also previewed some future innovations and tools coming.

Cornett showed “search a sketch,” a novel mobile search tool enabling users to draw custom area on a smartphone map and search within that area. Similar to Yahoo Local’s radius search online, it was an impressive. He explained philosophically that Yahoo would take a very different approach in mobile vs its competitors who are largely reproducing the PC experience on smartphones.

David Pann, Search Advertising VP ended the formal part of the meeting with discussion of some improvements on that side of the house, including a Google campaign import tool.

At the end of the presentations, I had the feeling that “we’ve heard much of this before” and got the sense that much of the audience remained unconvinced that Yahoo would continue to be competitive in search. However the Q&A portion of the discussion and the informal lunch discussions thereafter were both useful and more convincing.

Candidly Seth acknowledged the search share losses that comScore and Hitwise have reported. He attributed some of those losses to toolbar and default search deals that Yahoo no longer had or that others had aggressively grabbed away. Overall I was impressed with the candor and frankness of Yahoo’s discussion in response to question after question that in one way or another was highly skeptical of Yahoo’s prospects — including mine.

I said: “many in this audience want Yahoo to be competitive and succeed but remain skeptical that you can.” Larry Cornett responded that he was at Apple during the “dark time” before the return of Steve Jobs, when critics were calling for the company to shut down. He likened the media perceptions of Yahoo Search now to that period in Apple’s history and promised that Yahoo Search would “be back.” He added that many of Yahoo’s innovations were being freely copied by its competitors but in more superficial ways.

At the end of Q&A other Yahoo research scientists were introduced:

• Yoelle Maarek, Senior Director at Yahoo Research in Israel
• Ricardo Baeza-Yates, VP of Research for Europe and Latin America
• Preston McAfee, VP and Research Fellow at Yahoo Research in Burbank, CA

I spoke at some length with Maarek, who was previously at Google. She contrasted the environments and spoke about why she left Google and came to Yahoo. She spoke about greater openness and “humility” at Yahoo and of the opportunity to work with the Yahoo Research team, which she greatly respected. I also spoke a bit with Tim Mayer, who remains at Yahoo and expressed confidence in the product and the team.

I came away from the Q&A and these more informal discussions much more “convinced” than during the formal presentations that Yahoo would in fact continue to innovate and would retain and perhaps gain new search talent. The challenge is resources and mindshare, given how Google dominates the news with each (almost daily) product announcement.

But it would appear that Yahoo will continue to do interesting and innovative things in search — and the industry wants and needs them to.

Google

Yahoo

Bing

No doubt each search engine will keep those updated all weekend long, and will show the game score as it happens on Sunday.

Bing and Yahoo also shared some info about what fans have been searching for this week in the lead up to Sunday’s game. Bing says that the Dallas Cowboys were the most searched-for team during the season, but searches for both the Colts and Saints skyrocketed more recently:

Although not the most searched throughout the year, after the Indianapolis win against the Jets, all eyes were on Peyton and his team with searches for the Colts increasing by more than 350 percent whereas searches for the New Orleans Saints increased by slightly less at 257 percent.

Yahoo shares a list of Super Bowl-related search trends, including:

• Users are searching for the Saints 53 percent more often than the Colts on the Wednesday before the big game.
• Almost 92 percent of song searches were for the Who Dat song.
• The Saints are ahead with queries for wallpapers, but more users overall are looking for Colts logos. Interestingly, people are interested in the logos of the opposing team. In Louisiana, searches for the Colts’ logo had a one day jump of 150 whereas Indiana jumped 67 percent on “Saints logo” searches.

When you search for the name of a business, or a local business category, Yahoo will show the local shortcut if it believes the search has local intent. For me, typing “pizza” into Yahoo’s search box returns a map with local results.

Google started doing the same thing this spring, and Bing also offers the same feature, so Yahoo is playing a bit of catch-up here. But Yahoo’s results will, in some cases, be better because, when available, it uses the location that users provide via their Yahoo Profile; Google and Bing both rely more on IP-based targeting, which is far from accurate for some users.

One other improvement Yahoo has made over how Google and Bing implement this is the inclusion of neighborhood filtering. A person in Seattle who’s looking for pizza will get the option to narrow results by neighborhood.

Perhaps the main innovation here is the inclusion of content and information right inside the Search Assist dropdown. For example, do a search for a company’s stock symbol, and Yahoo will show real-time stock prices and a couple related links before you even execute the search.

Yahoo says similar features are available for queries related to sports, travel, and movies.

Search Assist can now also help users reach other Yahoo properties more quickly. For certain queries, Yahoo will show quick links to Yahoo News or Yahoo Images. For other queries, Yahoo will show deep links to other Yahoo properties, like Flickr or Yahoo Mail. Type “mail” while you’re viewing Yahoo Sports, for example, and you’ll get quick links to send an email, visit your in box, or create a new email address.

The new features aren’t available yet in the main search box on Yahoo.com, but are accessible in the search box of nearly all other Yahoo properties.