It’s been pretty busy at Yahoo lately, a new My Yahoo, new Local, and now, new My Yahoo search beta. (As of 9 pm PST 10/04/04, it’s not quite live…)
This release marks a major step in Yahoo’s commitment to the concept of what I’ve dubbed the PersonalWeb – it supports the creation of a “personal web index” (via “saving searches), search “communities,” annotation, and sharing of search results. Interestingly, the beta also lets you block sites, a form of refinement that may prove important as this whole field starts to march forward. So does all this sound familiar? Yup, it should, you’ve seen versions of this movie before, and quite recently – A9 last month, Ask Jeeves even more recently, the sale of Furl to Looksmart, and reliable sources tell me more is on the way. (IE: Watch this space).
From the PR info I was sent:
My Yahoo! Search is an extension of Yahoo! Search, to help users better find, manage, and share search engine results…. Yahoo! understands that users want greater flexibility and control of their media and information, and is committed to providing a personal search experience that can be tailored to meet the highly specific needs of the individual.
This is a developing story, and I am sure many others will cover it before I can pull away from Web 2.0 again….Yahoo’s blog post is here…