Yahoo has rolled out the Search Assist feature to Image Search. For example, a search for images on barack obama will return images within the actual Search Assist bar. Here is a screen capture:

To generate search assist image results, go to Yahoo Image Search and begin typing. If the query is popular enough and can be refined, Yahoo will show images within a different refinement category. So in the example above, the first image on the left, is a refinement option to see [barack obama family] pictures.

In addition, after you search, you can click on the little up arrow under the search box, to open up Search Assist. This feature, i.e. opening the search assist box after a search, is new.

Yahoo also said they will be launching Search Assist for Images on Yahoo.com soon.

Yahoo’s Search Assist had an impressive launch in July 2007. They then rolled it out in the UK a few months later.

Related Topics: Search Features: Query Refinement | Yahoo: Search

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz