Yahoo isn't giving up on search. It is, however, giving up on trying to catch Google by offering users just another set of "ten blue links," Vish Makhijani, general manager of Yahoo! Search told InternetNews.com.

To that end, Yahoo today re-launched its search, replete with special features designed to improve the experience and better enable rapid, accurate searching. Chiefly, that will be due to the new Yahoo Search Assist feature and efforts to integrate audio, video and photos into general Web search results.

Makhijani characterized Search Assist as a "step beyond" pre-filled search queries; It's a drop-down menu that allows searchers to narrow and broaden their queries by topic and concepts, delivered via an AJAX interface. There's also a new feature called Yahoo! Search Shortcuts, which integrates ratings, reviews, photos, and official websites into a box at the top of a search results page.

The new features are supposed to differentiate Yahoo from crowd of search engines that are starting to look all the same.

Full article: internetnews.com 

Labels: Ajax, feature, photo, search, Web, Yahoo

An adult photo publisher Thursday sued Microsoft for copyright infringement, saying the software giant's MSN Search engine displays thumbnails of pirated versions of the company's copyrighted pictures in search results, and that those results include links to the full-size pirated versions.

Never mind that a federal appeals court less than three months ago tossed out an earlier victory in a similar case that the company – California publisher Perfect 10, Inc. -- brought against Google and Amazon.

"Microsoft is showing tens of thousands of extremely valuable celebrity images, along with Perfect 10 images, without authorization, which it obtains from hundreds if not thousands of pirate websites," Norm Zada, president of Perfect 10, said in a statement.

Full story: internetnews.com 

Labels: Copyright, microsoft, photo, thumbnails

This morning Google added Street View, an all new way to browse Google Maps. Launching with five major cities, Street View joins satellite and traffic maps as new ways to view geography. When in an area with a Street View, users can toggle the mode to navigate within a 3-D photograph using their mouse or keyboard shortcuts. Users get their own "person" that shows which direction you're looking at.

You can also just click and drag them to new locations. The experience is a mix between Quicktime's VR environment and Microsoft Live Labs' PhotoSynth project since users can zoom in closer in any shot. Google describes it as "immersive photography."

Read more: webware.com 

Labels: city, Maps, photo, street