Yahoo Testing New Search Results Page

I’m not sure anyone would notice in all of the Google Penguin news and discussion, but Yahoo appears to be testing a new search results page.

I’m able to see the new interface when logged in and using Firefox, but I still see the old/current interface when using Safari and logged in to a different Yahoo account. Some other Search Engine Land editors are also seeing the new interface now.

A Yahoo spokesperson gave us their boilerplate response when asked if this is just a test, or if it’s rolling out now to all users.

Yahoo! is continually developing and testing new product concepts in an effort to offer the most delightful experiences for users and advertisers. We don’t have anything new to announce at this time.

What’s it look like? It’s much cleaner and linear, in my opinion, with all content sitting on a light purple background. Compare the current and the new below:

Current/Old Yahoo Search Results

New Yahoo Search Results

There’s a new navigation menu at the very top of the page, with links to other Yahoo properties like News, Sports, Weather and others. The search verticals — images, news, video, etc. — have been moved over to the left column rather than sitting in tabs above the search results. The “related searches” and “also try” links are gone, at least in this query. And the URL of each search result has been moved up, right under the title.

What you can’t see: On several searches that I tried, the new layout defaults to showing 20 search results — which is something Yahoo used to do years ago, too.

There are also some cosmetic changes at the bottom of the page.

Current/Old Yahoo Search Footer

New Yahoo Search Footer

Most of that is minor, as you can see.

Tecno-Net posted a video earlier this week showing additional minor changes to image search, news and other search verticals.