• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, February 4, 2005

Yahoo! this week rolled out a contextual-based search tool in beta, which allows users to search without first figuring out which keywords are likely to deliver relevant results. The new service, Y!Q, gives users a way to search for online information related to the content of a Web page they're currently visiting. If users reading particular Web pages click a "Search Related Info" button, Yahoo! will present links to other sites dealing with the same topic as the original Web page. Y!Q does this by automatically coming up with keywords based on the first Web page's content.

Search enthusiasts can try the tool at next.yahoo.com. Y!Q is also available on the Yahoo! News test page. Or users can install a toolbar for Internet Explorer or Firefox, at which point they can highlight text on a give Web page, and see what happens when they click the "related search" button. Y!Q works on sites other than Yahoo's own, and allows users to add or exclude search terms from those generated automatically simply by unchecking the boxes beside each "context selection box." If users find a desired search result as they search, they can also add it to their query by clicking the "more like this" link next to the result URL. Y!Q then combines users' original search context with the information associated with the selected search result, and then adds them to the "context selection boxes."

Since Yahoo! ventured into search about a year ago, it has gone head to head to head with Google-- and, more recently, MSN--as each equates market dominance with the services on offer, and the degree to which they can make search results relevant to individual users.

A smaller search player, Blinkx, launched a contextual, "implicit query" tool in the summer. Suranga Chandratillake, Blinkx CTO and co-founder, applauded Yahoo!'s efforts, but criticized the fact that users have to initiate the contextual search process by highlighting text themselves. "As Y!Q still requires users to actively engage with the content themselves," said Chandratillake, "the level of IQ it can give will be, at best, only as good as the level of IQ you give it to work with." Y!Q's user-initiated tool stands in contrast to Blinkx's service, said Chandratillake, explaining: "Just open any Web page, e-mail, or document, and Blinkx does all the hard work for you--automatically reading the content on the screen, automatically picking out the relevant concepts, and then automatically linking you to the right information."

An MSN Search spokesperson added that MSN also offers its own version of contextual search. "For customers that have downloaded the MSN Toolbar, MSN has offered them contextual search in Internet Explorer since June 2004. Direct access to initiating a context-sensitive MSN Search is available through right-click menus after a customer highlights a word or phrase. This capability has also been available in MSN Messenger since the release of the version 7.0 beta in November 2004," stated the spokesperson.