14 DAY TRIAL // Yahoo is introducing some new search tools for a couple of its sites in a move to reverse or at least stop the bleeding-search-users trend that has been plaguing it for many months now. Who knows if it will work, but it can't hurt either and the new tools look interesting enough. The latest Yahoo search properties to get revamped are Yahoo Sports and Yahoo News Search, both of which are now sporting some new tools and some handy, new features.
While the two search pages are quite different in scope, the layout and tools are very similar. It makes sense too, this wasn't just a one-size-fits-all mentality, the new search features provide useful functionality for Yahoo Sports and Yahoo News Search.
The first thing you're bound to notice, in both cases, is the search filters and popular searches area on the left. On Yahoo Sports, it enables you to narrow down your results to just images or videos, nothing revolutionary here, but it also lists some of the more popular searches on the site at any given moment. This could prove a useful way of getting a fast glimpse of what's going on in real time.
Finally, the left sidebar also lists related searches, like on the main Yahoo search page. This feature is pretty smart and it takes into account several factors like location, the sport in question, a team's main adversaries, and so on. The searches themselves are smarter now and provide contextual information, things like a team's schedule or match results, right inside the search page.
Yahoo News Search also gets a revamped sidebar featuring several useful filters. You can choose to see the news stories from just one source, there are usually plenty to choose from, but you can also focus on a smaller time frame, like the past hour or day. There are a couple of other welcomed tweaks and features, but it's hard to believe that this will somehow stop users from switching to Google or to Microsoft.