Yahoo Tests Customizable Alpha Search Engine

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Yahoo Incorporated is quietly testing a search engine which users can customize by adding, removing and rearranging components. Yahoo Alpha, which is hosted on an Australian domain, offers a default results page with a list of Web sites on the left hand column and six specialty search result boxes on the right hand column. To customize the layout and search sources, users need to log into Yahoo. Yahoo Alpha seems targeted at end users interested in creating a search page tailored to their interests. Apparently, inserting a search results page from any Web site that syndicates its content via Really Simple Syndication is another possibility. Users can share their Yahoo Alpha search pages with others.

The specialty boxes display results from three Yahoo search engines: the Flickr photo service, the Answers question-and-answer service and Yahoo News. It also returns non-Yahoo results from Google's YouTube video site and from the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia. Finally, it has a box for displaying search ads from Yahoo's online ad network. When asked for comment and details about Yahoo Alpha, which is in the beta stage, the company would provide only the following statement: "This is a very early prototype and we are always testing new products and services to get feedback from our users on improving the user experience."

View: Yahoo Alpha

News source: PC World

(1 reply) #1 The Tjalian on 05 Apr 2007 - 22:55

Does anyone find the idea of the phrase "Alpha is in Beta" somewhat Humorous, or am I being too nerdy for my own good?

#1.1 redeemed on 06 Apr 2007 - 02:51

Humorous definitely!! I lol'ed when I saw that :woot:

(7 replies) #2 psyko_x on 05 Apr 2007 - 22:57

everyone copies google's page styling jesus. how about something innovative??

#2.1 Xtreme $niper on 06 Apr 2007 - 00:06

How about not being a Google Troll? How does this look like Google? Get your head out of your butt and contribute something useful to the comments.

#2.2 psyko_x on 06 Apr 2007 - 00:29

Whats a troll again? Sorry it's just that I haven't heard that word since 3rd grade and no one I know in the real world uses words like troll, smurf, leprechaun etc. If you actually do use those words I'm going to assume that you're about 10 years old.

Anyways, the reason that MS and yahoo are copying google is because they're scrapping away the 100 links and graphics they used to have and replacing it with a page that has the a very simple white page with a search box, a logo and the search button. MS's new live.com search copycats even more than this yahoo one I think.

#2.3 Lare2 on 06 Apr 2007 - 00:37

I agree with you. All sear ch engines (specially msn) has gone from having a lot of crap on their frontpages to a more simplified ones.

While google on the other end has always been dedicated 100% to searches without the crap.

#2.4 NightmarE D on 06 Apr 2007 - 00:45

Actually I remember Yahoo having a very plain look back in the day

Yahoo 1996
http://web.archive.org/web/19961017235908/...www2.yahoo.com/

MSN 1996
http://web.archive.org/web/19961022175327/http://msn.com/

Not a whole lot going on there. A lot of search engines started off with a plain look. Google does it and everyone thinks they were the first when they weren't. Google's result pages also look similar to Yahoo's.

#2.5 Xtreme $niper on 06 Apr 2007 - 01:02

Oh come on don't give me the "no one uses 'troll'" crap. That's probably the first time I've used that word on the Internet, so it goes to show how much your comment just seemed like a blind shot at Yahoo.

Yahoo has had a "Google-style" search page for a long time now. It can be found here: http://search.yahoo.com/

I just hate it when people praise Google as being the creator of all things, when really all they are is another web company in competition.

#2.6 psyko_x on 06 Apr 2007 - 01:42

Nightmare D I really hope that's a joke. I can't imagine someone actually using 10 year old web pages as support in this discussion. Every webpage was sparse back then because most people used slow dialup.

Xtreme $niper, that search.yahoo.com page has been around but is still relatively new. It's also a copy of google's page.

I NEVER said google is the creator of all things. wtf??? What does google do? What do people know the company for? Web searching. It's what they do damn well and it's with their search engine and webpage that they exploded in popularity. What the hell else did they create that everyone uses so that I would actually call them the creator of all things? Don't put words in my mouth. Are you a "Yahoo Troll"? lol

#2.7 Xtreme $niper on 06 Apr 2007 - 14:40

I didn't say you specifically said that google is the creator of all things, but it's usually what's going on in the minds of people who constantly defend Google and their simple website design.

I'm not a "Yahoo Troll" because I use both Google AND Yahoo to do my web searches. I'm a member of both websites services and I like both a lot. I just think Yahoo deserves some credit for the innovations they have been coming out with recently. The entire concept of this search engine was put aside to make a comment about how it looked like Google's home page, which if anything it looks more like Windows Live Search than Google. There is no massive logo lingering up above, and that's a pretty big difference. All I'm saying is Google didn't patent the word "simple", so get over it.

#3 +Lexcyn on 05 Apr 2007 - 23:10

I like this page. The font the use is a nice contrast when you're searching. Also, that logo is wicked.

#4 bluewind_89 on 05 Apr 2007 - 23:53

This is what I got after searching for "hiya":
No Results

The web is so large
Almost boundless in its scope
Emphasis: "Almost"

#5 Jugalator on 06 Apr 2007 - 00:05

Error: Bad Feed
We're very sorry.
Gremlins have stolen our ram.
We sure will miss them.

lol?

#6 Nxqd3051990 on 06 Apr 2007 - 00:09

The first try is very bad T_T

nXqd

#7 v0ltage789 on 06 Apr 2007 - 00:21

I like it

#8 NightmarE D on 06 Apr 2007 - 00:24

I like it. Working fine for me and seems very fast.

#9 redeemed on 06 Apr 2007 - 02:56

Australia=

#10 Dakkaroth on 06 Apr 2007 - 09:12

What a nice surprise.

#11 chris4 on 08 Apr 2007 - 17:34

I like it - But think I'll stick with Google

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