14 DAY TRIAL // Yahoo! is like a drifting ship whose crew does everything just like it used to do, perhaps things will return to normal. Shaken to its foundations by the series of events that have marked the past two months, like the Microsoft bid, the departing of young talent, the cleansing within its ranks and the lawsuits that have been thrown at it, the company is still wobbling on the right path.
The Search Assist that was rolled out back in October for the US market is finally available for other countries as well, and it's not one day too soon, either. The means of helping searchers formulate their queries whenever there's some doubt in their minds and explore similar concepts was a big breakthrough for Internet search in general, and was meant to shift balance on the global scales for Yahoo! in particular. Unfortunately for the Sunnyvale-based company, their product did not have such a big impact, mainly because it was only meant for the United States.
But no longer a search for 'spurs' conducted in England will suggest hitting the San Antonio Spurs' page, but instead the query will point you in the direction of the Tottenham Hotspurs. That means that the international versions of Search Assist have been customized for each of the countries added, to reflect local search behaviors and tendencies.
Available in 16 markets and 8 languages, Search Assist will soon be enriched with more, if we are to believe Ya-Bing Chu of Yahoo! Search, who posted about it on the official blog. Right now, the countries who have Assist support are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, UK and Vietnam.
The search battle between Yahoo and Google just got a bit more interesting with this release, and the only thing left to see is whether the Mountain View-based company will do something about this massive roll-out or just dwell on its dominating share of the market.