Ok, so Yahoo's market share for Search is dismal. Actually, everyone's market share for Search is dismal compared to the behemoth that is Google. Why is Google winning so dramatically in the search game, or more importantly, why has Yahoo fallen so far behind? Many theories abound, but regardless of theory, one thing is certain: Yahoo is just not "bringing search" any more like they used to!However, for those of us that use Search for research, Yahoo is preparing a new feature that could (at least while Google is not offering a similar feature) bring some searches back to Yahoo. They are calling it "Search Pad" and describe it in their BLOG as a tool "to help users effortlessly capture websites that they find on Yahoo! Search and organize that information to complete important tasks." Check out Yahoo's article on Search Pad or watch their video demo:
By the way, I completely understand the need for this. Over the last few years as the Internet has become more "my job", I find myself doing research all the time on many topics. I have more-or-less a system of keeping my notes in a document along with URLs, but it's very manual and time-intensive to copy-paste URLs and organize notes. Also, sometimes I get distracted and will forget to include a URL, so my system is definitely not fool proof. Finally my "research" is on my notebook, inside documents and both the location of the files and the fact that it's my own shorthand makes it impossible to easily "share" this research or collaborate on it with others.
Perhaps I need to research for "research tools" (which I've not done.) Who knows, there may be something out there for this - but - Yahoo definitely has something here! Whether or not this is enough to bring "searchers" back remains to be seen.
Actually, Yahoo has yet to release this feature. I hope they do it sooner than later, because in the current environment, every company needs every bit of help they can get.
Who knows? "Search Pad" might indeed motivate me to dust off my old Yahoo ID and use Yahoo for a search or two.
What do you think?
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