• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, July 7, 2009

In the latest salvo in the search wars, Yahoo unveiled a new tool Tuesday to help users organize and save information from research conducted using the Web portal's search engine.

The Yahoo Search Pad will let people automatically save search results to a notepad that stays with them when it detects that someone has initiated research. In addition to capturing links and Web sites, the Search Pad allows users to add notes, cut and paste text, and share collected information with others via email and other means.

"Yahoo Search Pad helps people make decisions, save their work, and share the best with friends and colleagues," said Larry Cornett, vice president of consumer products, Yahoo Search, in a statement. What sets the Search Pad apart from similar tools like Google Notebook is its automatic prompting of users when it perceives it might be needed.

It's designed to kick in when someone is doing more extensive research, such as around a health-related topic, a trip or a major purchase. After noticing that a user is going into "research mode," it asks them if they would like to launch Search Pad. If so, the service will open a file and start adding links and thumbnails.

The new feature is being launched as Yahoo and Microsoft increasingly seek to challenge Google's dominance of search with new search-related offerings that go beyond text links. Yahoo has previously added images and video to search results and introduced initiatives like SearchMonkey, opening up Yahoo Search to third-party developers.

And the launch last month of its new search engine Bing has already helped Microsoft take market share in search, however small, from Google. The search giant had a .3% drop in share in June, according to research firm NetApplications. Meanwhile, StatCounter found that Bing increased Microsoft's share of the search market by 1% to 8.23% in the U.S.