Over the last couple of years, there has been an ongoing shift in computing usage patterns as people increasingly spend more time on mobile devices. Some users are even spending more time searching and browsing the web on their phones and tablets than ever before. This shift has led to the need to rethink everything – from the most basic conventions of how a user searches the web, to how content and results are presented, to accessing that content across multiple devices. With a mobile-first focus, we set out to completely re-think and re-design how users search and browse the web.

In a blog post a few months back, I wrote about why Yahoo! Search is ready to fight, touching on our focus to innovate on the user experience and build the best technology platforms that leverage the latest and greatest in open source technologies. I talked about what to expect over the next 18 months – a search experience that shifted from a destination to a companion, from more links to better information, from fragmented devices to seamless connectivity. I’m pleased to present our first major step in that direction.

Yahoo! Axis in Action

Meet Yahoo! Axis
Yahoo! Axis is a completely new way to search and browse the web. By supercharging the browser with a visually rich search experience and seamlessly connecting that experience across all of your devices, we are delivering an experience that will change the game. In its simplest form, Axis is a mobile browser available for iPhone and iPad, and a desktop plugin available for your favorite HTML5-enabled browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari) that removes the friction from getting you to the content you want.

Yahoo! Axis is available on iPhone and iPad, and desktop browser.

Yahoo! Axis provides a seamless experience across devices

A New Mobile Browser
On the iPad and iPhone, we built a fully featured mobile browser that integrates the search experience directly into the app. No matter what page you’re on or what you’re doing, you can easily reveal your search results or search for something new – without ever having to leave the page. We are also moving away from the plain ten blue links to give you a richer, more visual search experience by surfacing the page previews of results instantly as you type, letting you see the page before ever clicking on it. Through our combined search and URL box, you will instantly start seeing the page previews of results and sites as you type, whether you’re researching how to train for the next triathlon or simply just trying to get to Twitter. We decided to remove all the noise so you can focus on what you really want.

That’s not all. You can also search for images and enjoy a wholly new bookmarking experience that includes page previews of all your sites. We’ve also added useful features like Pinterest integration and sharing, and made using tabs even easier.

Sleek design across iPad and iPhone devices

A New Kind of Search
On the desktop, we built a browser plug-in that works with all of your favorite HTML5-enabled browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari) that delivers that same visually rich companion search experience. Axis on the desktop is a small search box that sits in the lower left corner of your browser window that goes with you where you go. Simply start typing into it and it expands into a visually rich and powerful search experience providing the same visually stunning page previews, instant answers, and rich images. With Axis on desktop, you get all the benefits of this new search and experience, while still using your existing browser. Download it today for your favorite browser, and check it out.

Yahoo! Axis available on the desktop across a variety of operating systems

A Personalized & Seamless Experience
One more thing, we decided to make it easy to connect all of your devices together. With Axis, simply start browsing on one device and seamlessly continue onto another. You can access a site you bookmarked from your iPhone on your iPad or Desktop. You can go to your own personalized home page, which can be customized to display your favorite sites or articles, no matter where you are or what device you’re on – it always is with you. With Axis, you no longer need to suffer from a fragmented experience – we wanted your data to be about you, not your device.

Axis is the only mobile browser that connects with any major desktop browser. You can move seamlessly from your iPhone to your iPad and always pick up where you left off. Just because you use more than one device doesn’t mean you should have to start over every time you switch devices.

Take your Yahoo! Axis homepage from device to device

Changing the Game
Axis is the first of its kind to challenge the status quo of the typical search and browse experience; a results page, ten blue links, clicking back and forth between links and the results page, the need to start over when you move to another device. With Axis, never again will you have to stop what you are doing to enter a search and go to a search results page—search is now transformed into a true companion, not a destination. You are no longer forced to dive into a sea of blue text links, now just enjoy visually rich page previews of results that will help you get to your destination effortlessly. You no longer need to start over when moving to a different device, now just simply pick up any other device and seamlessly continue what you were doing with no effort.

Axis is the first time the search experience evolves from a destination to a companion. It’s the first search experience to provide visually rich page previews of results instantly as you type. It’s the first mobile browser that connects with any major desktop browser. Axis is the first browser to really change the game.

With the introduction of Yahoo! Axis, we are stepping outside the box to give the world another option – a new, different and exciting way to explore your interests and the web. Axis offers a fundamentally new and dramatically different experience that we think will change the game. Starting today, search and browsing will never be the same and we’re excited to offer you a better way. Think of this as a sneak peek of what’s to come; we’re planning for Yahoo! Axis in more markets, on mobile devices, and with more killer features in the coming future. Try it out – we’d love to hear from you.

Axis on.

Ethan & the Axis Team

Recently, Yahoo! Search scientists built a new search platform from the ground up with machine learning technology that improves Yahoo!’s vertical intent triggering system and, as a result, our ability to better anticipate the needs of the individual user as he or she searches online. With this new platform, our search algorithm has the ability to adapt to what users are really interested in, by continuously monitoring how they engage with the search results. The system then continuously and automatically improves itself to provide the most engaging web search experience.

This technology was recently launched for news and movie search queries, two categories that tested extremely well with the technology. For example, with breaking news search terms constantly changing, humans can’t instantly track which queries are now breaking news stories. The intended result for a user can change for the same search query on a daily or even hourly basis. The technology can determine what the users are looking for and bring it to the top. And the key results that may have been at the top this morning, can be moved to the middle of the search results page at the end of day if user behavior determines other content is now more relevant.

Based on the positive feedback we’ve received in testing this platform for news and movie searches, we plan to roll out this new technology to support shopping, local, travel and mobile searches in the coming months, as well as other experiences across the Yahoo! network.

–Yahoo! Search science team

Until the games begin, you will see the following “Tournament Pick’em” display on top of the results page for all general NCCA March Madness searches.

Once the tournament begins, all general march madness searches will provide the latest scores and stats. During the bulk of the tournament, four scores will appear at once.  When the early games are completed, they are sent to the “back of the line” in the module and the closest upcoming game (in accordance to the tip-off time) appears on top of the search results. Here is an example of how it will look like:

You can also search for your favorite college basketball team in the tournament and see the last game score and upcoming games (when dates are available). For example, when searching for the latest news on Harvard’s entry into the bracket, you will see a search result display highlighting the latest on this team. The best way to trigger the module is to search for the college name plus basketball (eg Harvard basketball).

Be sure to check out what we are doing across Yahoo! on Yodel Anecdotal. Enjoy the madness!

– Chia-Chen Chang, Brian Davis and the Yahoo! Search team

• Given that Yahoo! operates #1-#3 properties in 20+ segments, we want to bubble up and re-circulate premium content in response to search queries.
• We also believe at Y! Search that 50% of search queries have an “answer” and the other half are tail queries with blue links in responses.
• We know the most likely intent of the user. We also have search history as context, and on mobile additional elements like location, form factor and device browser, so we can customize the experience for the user.

Based on these fundamental design principles and constraints/guidelines, mobile web experiences that we have built for Yahoo! Search, do the following:

• Provide a great “answer” for top intents, such as entertainment and sports
• Take into account explicit or implicit local intent, which is the case for over 50% of mobile queries

For example, if you searched for the Academy Awards before the winners were announced, the top search result was a list of the nominees. Then, as the awards were being announced, the mobile page was updated in real time to see the winners.  We know that most likely, this is the information people are looking for.

For the sports fan, if you’re searching for a team, you’re most likely looking for the previous game score, the next game date/time, or the overall status of the team. Understanding the content for that query helps deliver the right thing in one screen, which is key for mobile.  For every additional click you ask someone to make, 50 percent of users don’t click — they just leave.  So the less you ask them to do, the better.

On the Yahoo! Search app canvas, we can also get location per session and deliver “NearMe Now” buttons which provide one-touch local destinations such as coffee shops, restaurants, movies and ATMs. Similarly we have the ability to input the query through a voice interface, and we receive the keywords through a speech to text conversion engine we work with on the back end.

To summarize, here are some considerations for “Web vs App” canvas:

▪   Video/Audio manipulation

▪   Offline storage and delivery

▪   Partner support for your landing page

▪   Notifications and push

▪   Location

▪   Voice/Maps based engagement

▪   Leverage device features (E.g camera, accelerometer)

– Anand Chandrasekaran, Yahoo!Mobile Search product team

Did you know?: Of the total searches on Yahoo! this year (past 365) for The Hunger Games, Twilight Breaking Dawn: Part I, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II, The Hunger Games has gotten 42% of the total number of searches.

People often say, “the book was better than the movie,” and that may be one of the reasons that searches on Yahoo! this month for the Hunger Games books are over 5 times higher than searches for the movie tickets.

• Yahoo! searches for the second book in the trilogy, Catching Fire, are spiking this month; however searches for the third book, Mockingjay, are gaining almost twice the online buzz.
• In the last month searches on Yahoo! for author, Suzanne Collins have spiked 58%, however they are still 45% lower than searches for Twilight author, Stephenie Meyer.

The Hunger Games vs. Vampires & Wizards: Curious if The Hunger Games will surpass the excitement associated with Twilight and Harry Potter?  We decided to compare the online buzz around The Hunger Games to the latest Twilight and Harry Potter movies, looking specifically at the 30 days before the release of each film, and the results may surprise you.

According to Yahoo!, the top searched Hunger Games Actors this month are:

1. Elizabeth Banks
2. Jennifer Lawrence
3. Woody Harrelson
4. Josh Hutcherson
5. Liam Hemsworth
6. Lenny Kravitz
7. Willow Shields
8. Isabelle Fuhrman
9. Leven Rambin
10. Wes Bentley

Fan Craze: From fashion trends to movie questions, Hunger Games fans are turning to Yahoo! to make sure the “odds are forever in [their] favor” that they’ll be the first ones to get the inside scoop on the anticipated film.

According to Yahoo!, the top Hunger Games fashion searches include:

• Hunger Games nail polish
• Hunger Games pins
• Hunger Games apparel
• Katniss braid
• Hunger Games jewelry

According to Yahoo!, the top searched Hunger Games questions include:

• When does The Hunger Games movie come out?
• What is The Hunger Games about?
• What is my Hunger Games district?
• What happens at the end of The Hunger Games?
• Why does President Snow smell like blood?
• What is the next book after The Hunger Games?

Planning a story about The Hunger Games closer to the premiere on March 12 or the nationwide release on March 23? We are happy to pull additional data for you based upon the stories you have in the works.  An example of additional data we can look into:

• Hunger Games Character Trends
• Hunger Games Party Trends
• Hunger Games Soundtrack
• Hunger Games Tickets vs. Book Trends

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Quick Tip: Love Yahoo! Search Trends? Explore them for yourself on Yahoo! Clues.

What is Yahoo! Search Data?

Yahoo! aggregates the billions of searches performed every day across Yahoo! properties to give the pulse on what people are thinking and talking about. We sift through billions of Yahoo! searches to uncover trends, burning questions, popular personalities and hot ideas. Yahoo! has been extremely successful in sifting through searches for trend-spotting, historical insight, forecasting projections, and big-picture analysis. Billions of searches are conducted on Yahoo! each month.

Yahoo! Search Data on Twitter: @yahoosearchdata

Yahoo! Search on Twitter: @yahoosearch

As the nation awaits Super Bowl 46, people are heading to Yahoo! to get the inside scoop on one of the most popular sporting events of the year!  Yahoo! searches this week for “Indianapolis Super Bowl 2012” are up 1,743%.

Who Will Win? If online searches were an indicator of who might win this year’s Super Bowl, the Patriots would come out on top – the New England Patriots had 50% more searches this year on Yahoo! compared to the New York Giants.

Brady vs. Manning: Whether it’s his endorsement with UGG or his relationship with Gisele Bundchen, Tom Brady has dominated searches this year compared to his NY Giants counterpart, Eli Manning. Yahoo! searches this NFL season for “Tom Brady” have been two times higher than searches for “Eli Manning.” Additional Brady vs. Manning searches on Yahoo!:

• In the regular season, Tom Brady got four times the number of searches on Yahoo! compared to Eli Manning.
• Since the post-season play has begun, Eli Manning has received slightly more searches on Yahoo! than Tom Brady.
• Yahoo! searches for “Tom Brady and Gisele photos” are up 397% and searches for “Tom Brady baby” are up 1,109%.

Ladies Love Manning: This month on Yahoo!, women are certainly buzzing more for Eli compared to Tom. Yahoo! searches by women for “Eli Manning” this month are up 268%.  And, speaking of love, the players’ love lives are certainly a topic of interest this month on Yahoo!: Searches this month on Yahoo! for “Eli Manning girlfriend” are up 1,201% and searches for “Eli Manning wedding” are up 308%.

Player & Coach Showdown:

This year on Yahoo!, Bill Belichick got over five times more searches compared to Tom Coughlin.

• Yahoo! searches this month for “Bill Belichick” are up 730% and searches for “Tom Coughlin” are up 550%.

Offense vs. Defense: Does defense really win the game or is it more of a team effort?  When it comes to Yahoo! searches for players, offense gets just as much search play as defense.This year, Rob Gronkowski received over four times the searches on Yahoo! compared to Hakeem Nicks.

According to Yahoo!, the top searched receivers this week are:

1. Wes Welker
2. Rob Gronkowski
3. Victor Cruz
4. Aaron Hernandez
5. Hakeem Nicks

Kids Rush to Search: Of the searches for “Ahmad Bradshaw” this week on Yahoo!, 27% are coming from kids aged 13-17; however compared to “Brandon Jacobs,” this is a small percentage. Of the searches for “Brandon Jacobs” this week on Yahoo!, 52% are coming from kids ages 13-17.

Super Bowl Questions: From game time to point spreads, each year, people turn to Yahoo! for all of their Super Bowl related questions.  Some of this year’s most searched questions on Yahoo! include:

Q: When is the Super Bowl 2012? A: Sunday, February 5, 2012
Q: What time is the Super Bowl? A: 6:30 p.m. EST (kickoff)
Q: Who is playing in the Super Bowl 2012? A: New England Patriots vs. New York Giants
Q: Who will win Super Bowl 2012? A: We’ll just have to wait and see!
Q: Where is Super Bowl 2012? A: Lucas Oil Stadium; Indianapolis, IN
Q: Who is singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl? A: Kelly Clarkson

The Fun Behind the Bowl: From parties and friendly wagers to commercial hype and half-time performances, for many Americans, the Super Bowl is about more than a football game – it’s about having fun!

Half-time Performers: Although Madonna will rule the half-time stage at the Super Bowl, searches for Nicki Minaj, who is also reported to be performing, this week on Yahoo! are slightly greater than those for Madonna. This year on Yahoo!, Nicki Minaj received 45% more searches than Madonna.

Dipping Into the Fun: Super Bowl parties typically start early in the day and continue well after the final whistle, and oftentimes involve snacking throughout the day.  The snack favorite for many people? Dips!

According to Yahoo!, the top searched “dips” this month are:

1. Buffalo chicken dip
2. Spinach dip
3. 7 Layer Mexican dip
4. Spinach artichoke dip
5. Crab dip
6. Taco dip
7. Guacamole dip
8. Chicken wing dip
9. Cheese dip
10. Shrimp dip

Cooking Up a Win: In addition to dips, many people turn to Yahoo! to find a new recipe for the Super Bowl – searches this week for “Super Bowl recipes” are up 210%, with 70% of the searches coming from women. The top states searching for “Super Bowl recipes” this week on Yahoo! include: Missouri, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, and Florida.

According to Yahoo!, the top searched “recipes” this week are:

1. Chicken recipes
2. Crockpot recipes
3. Meatloaf recipes
4. Chili recipes
5. Banana bread recipes
6. Soup recipes
7. Super Bowl recipes
8. Beef stew recipes
9. Vegetarian recipes
10. Meatball recipe

Quick Tip: On Yahoo! Recipe Search (recipes.search.yahoo.com), once you land on the search results page you can filter by “occasion” on the left side of the page and “Super Bowl” is a filter option. For example, the “Chicken recipe” search results filtered by Superbowl can be found here!

Commercial Laughs: Whether you’re a football fan or not, it’s likely that on Sunday you’ll at least spend some time scoping out the commercials. Searches this week on Yahoo! for “2012 Super Bowl commercials” are up 732%. From Bueller to Beckham, this is the one time when most Americans will be glued to their seats during the commercials.

Watch Super Bowl Commercials on Yahoo! Screen

• With all of the excitement around the Honda commercial that riffs off of Matthew Broderick’s famed role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, searches for the movie this week on Yahoo! are up 1,274%. Also of interest this week on Yahoo!: “Ferris Bueller commercial,” “Ferris Bueller quotes,” and “Ferris Bueller soundtrack.”
• Additional Super Bowl commercials piquing interest in search this week include: “funny Super Bowl commercials,” “cost of Super Bowl commercials,” “top 10 Super Bowl commercials,” “Super Bowl commercial transcripts,” and “new Super Bowl commercials.”

Friendly Wager Anyone?: Yahoo! searches this week for “Super Bowl point spread” are up 591% and “2012 Super Bowl odds” are up 432%.  Also, searches for “Super Bowl 2012 predictions” are up 836%. Of the searches for “Super Bowl bets” this month on Yahoo!, 78% are coming from men.

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Quick Tip: Love Yahoo! Search Trends? Explore them for yourself on Yahoo! Clues.

What is Yahoo! Search Data?

Yahoo! aggregates the billions of searches performed every day across Yahoo! properties to give the pulse on what people are thinking and talking about. We sift through billions of Yahoo! searches to uncover trends, burning questions, popular personalities and hot ideas. Yahoo! has been extremely successful in sifting through searches for trend-spotting, historical insight, forecasting projections, and big-picture analysis. Billions of searches are conducted on Yahoo! each month.

Yahoo! Search Data on Twitter: @yahoosearchdata

Yahoo! Search on Twitter: @yahoosearch

At Yahoo!, we’re focused on creating deeply personal digital experiences and there’s no doubt that one of the biggest, if not the biggest, priorities for us is to bring those products and ideas to the mobile user, whether they’re using feature phones, smartphones or tablets.

We’ve got some amazing mobile experiences, from News, Sports and Finance, to Mail, Messenger and entirely new products like IntoNow and Livestand. Our commitment is to deliver these products in ways that help all of our users (and advertisers) enjoy engaging and seamless experiences across all the devices they use.

Our plan is to keep moving, to keep innovating, and to continuously measure and scrutinize what’s working and what isn’t – so we can make room for great new products. In that spirit, today we’re decommissioning several of our current mobile apps. We will be sending a notification later today that thefollowing apps will no longer be supported:

We’re moving forward with a “mobile first” mindset. You can expect to see more new Yahoo! mobile products in 2012, especially in areas ripe for innovation that build on Yahoo!’s strengths, such as companion experiences for TV like IntoNow, new ways to experience personalized media like Livestand, and some of our most popular and useful mobile apps like Yahoo! Mail, Messenger, Sportacular and Flickr, which are already being used by millions of people around the world. And we’ll be building these experiences with disruptive technology that’s going to change the mobile game well beyond Yahoo!.

For apps such as AppSpot and Sketch-a-Search, we decided to integrate the key features you know and love into the Yahoo! Search app. For example, we recently announced the app search feature in the Yahoo! Search app for iPhone. Stay tuned for moreupdates to the mobile search apps for both iPhone and Android.

With more than 700 million users around the world, we’ve got a huge and growing audience. We’re going to bring them the Yahoo! they love on every device in their life.

Stay tuned for a lot of action from Yahoo this year. 2012 has just begun and we’re just getting started.

– Yahoo! Mobile Team

As you consider stories focused on the news that comes out of this year’s Macworld, we wanted to share a few tidbits about what people are searching for online related to this year’s show.  So, what is captivating the attention of Apple addicts and pushing them toward Yahoo! for more information?

Macworld/iWorld 2012: Let’s face it, with people gearing up for the latest Mac news, Yahoo! searches for all things “i” continue to dominate, with 64% of searches this month for “Macworld” coming from men. And, beyond Macworld, people are turning to Yahoo! for info on everything from Apple products to details on legendary founder Steve Jobs.

All Things Apple: When it comes to Apple’s latest and greatest, fans are usually only kept satisfied for a few short hours before they begin scouring the Internet for information on the next version. Product searches for Apple this month on Yahoo! include:

·       Jailbreak: Yahoo! searches this month for “how to jailbreak iPod touch” are up 866% and searches for ”jailbreak iPhone 4″ are up 1,085%.

Steve Jobs: It has been almost four months since the world lost tech visionary Steve Jobs, and all eyes are on Apple to see how the company will push forward without the creative genius that brought the company back from the brink of failure with the creation of the iPod. As a result, people are still turning to Yahoo! for information on the beloved innovator who changed so many lives. Searches on Yahoo! this month for “Steve Jobs Apple” are up 4,527%.  Additional Steve Jobs searches that are piquing people’s interest in search this week include: “Steve Jobs Grammy,” “Steve Jobs doctor,” “Steve Jobs last words,” “Bill Gates and Steve Jobs,” “Steve Jobs first inventions,” “the Steve Jobs betrayal,” “Steve Jobs book,” “How Steve Jobs revolutionized technology.”

Regardless of what is revealed and debated at this year’s Macworld event, one thing is for sure, Mac fans will be sure to keep on chattering long after the doors close at the show!

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Love Yahoo! Search Trends? Explore them for yourself on Yahoo! Clues.

[Photo: Yahoo! Homepage circa 1995]

With more interactive ways to consume content in the form of images, videos, apps, music, social media feeds, maps and shopping, people are demanding more from their search results. Weeding through a page of blue links is no longer the answer. There is an amazing wealth of data and content available, and Yahoo! has access to much of that content because of its focus on properties like Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, omg!, Yahoo! Local, etc. Of all search engines, Yahoo! has the best content available, and we are just starting to utilize this content in both Yahoo! Search and in new and transformative products like Yahoo! Search Direct.

We also believe that search engines must act as a companion across all devices, not just a destination experience. Today a user might have to stop reading an article, open a new tab or window on their browser, go to a search engine and type in a query. This kind of behavior is truly disruptive to the user experience. We firmly believe that search engines will have to evolve to become companions and helpers, and also guide people to unearth information and content they may not even know they are searching for.

Not only is the content experience changing, but the devices on which people search is changing. We envision mobile search will surpass PC search by 2016. The typical everyday query is no longer tied to the online search box. People expect better answers, whenever and wherever they want, from their PC, mobile phone or tablet.

[Photo: Example of the current Yahoo! Homepage on the iPad]

Finally, this new landscape of search makes it hard to measure what is a search. We need to rethink traditional measurement methodologies. Monitoring the growth of search in these newer, more interactive experiences requires new metrics, tracking and counting systems to be able to compare new “modern” search experiences in a way that accurately reflects how people search today.

The next chapter of search is about ubiquity and promoting the most immediate and relevant discovery of information – and that’s just what we’re working on here at Yahoo! Search. Check back here on the Search blog as we have some exciting new products to unveil in 2012!

–Shashi Seth, Senior Vice President, Search & Marketplaces, Yahoo!