Yahoo! has just unveiled a new beta, Yahoo! Contextual Search or Y!Q as they call it. This new product offers results from your search along with related search terms right underneath the search box. If you go to the beta search and do a search for “baseball” for instance, not only will you receive results for the keyword term baseball, but related search terms such as “Sammy Sosa” and “Chicago Cubs.” If you choose to download the Y!Q DemoBar you get related search results for any Web page you’re reading.
Apparently this new search tool was developed by Yahoo! resident genius, Reiner Kraft, who was responding to a challenge by another team member when he developed the prototype.
Why is contextual search important? It helps to bridge the gap between query and intent when doing searches.
Contextual search has been around for a while, though, so Yahoo! will need to prove themselves that their tool is better than their competition’s. For instance, if you do a search for “baseball” on Teoma, you’ll see a panel on the right side for Refine which offers options like “Baseball Tickets,” “Baseball Cards” and “Cub Report Transaction.”
So, it really comes down to this. Which tool is better at guessing the intent of the searcher? If Yahoo! is a better guesser then people will hail their new tool as a success. If not, then it is simply another attempt to keep up with the Search Engine Jones and the mark of a follower in the industry instead of a leader.
They’re defining “context” to be a few keywords. Check out Aware – it defines context as a group of documents and terms that originate from the user. And it lets them control how the context is shaped.