Yahoo! Telemundo Launches Search Assist - ew search feature makes web search effortless for U.S. Hispanic consumers

Yahoo! Telemundo today launched Search Assist, the most advanced assistance technology available on the Web, as well as the integration of video and photos within the search results, making Web search an effortless task for U.S. Hispanic consumers. The new Yahoo! Telemundo Search was designed to better understand user intent and provide them with the results they are looking for in just one search.

Recent research conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Yahoo! on the state of the Web shows that consumers are suffering from “Web Search fatigue.” The study revealed that 99 percent of online adults use a search engine to find information on the Internet, with a mere 15 percent of people finding what they’re looking for with their first search and typically needing to conduct three to four searches.

“The new Yahoo! Telemundo Search was created to optimize user experience and get consumers what they want on the first search query,” said Jose Rivera Font, vice president and general manager, Yahoo! Hispanic Americas. “Consumers want answers and they want them quickly, so the changes we’ve made are focused on getting people to the best answer - whether it be a Web link, photo, video or video clip - all in one search.”

Search Assist goes beyond basic search “suggestions” and gives consumers real-time query suggestions as well as related topics and concepts, which is especially valuable when a person is searching for an unfamiliar topic.

Yahoo! Search Assist is there for consumers when they need it and can be turned off when they don’t. As a user types in the search box, it predicts when the person needs help with their search and opens a drop down menu of suggestions and related concepts (see diagram 1*) that enable further exploration around their search topic.

In addition to the new Search Assist feature, Yahoo! Telemundo Search has also introduced multimedia integration including video and photos (see diagram 2*) directly in the search results — allowing consumers to get their answer - whether it’s a Web link, photo or video clip — without leaving the page.

The Search Assist feature also includes YouTube and Metacafe videos indexed by Yahoo!. In addition, consumers can use shortcuts if they are only interested in accessing videos on these particular sites. To do this, they should type in the search word followed by the site they want to look in, like site:www.youtube.com or site:www.metacafe.com. For example: “caída de edgar site:www.youtube.com”. When the consumer finds the video they are looking for, they will see a still photo of it and a direct link to play the video.

Similarly, Yahoo! Telemundo users can also integrate images in their search results by adding the word ‘imágenes’ after their keyword search. For example: “Shakira Imágenes”. (see diagram #2*)

The Spanish-language versions of Search Assist, available in Yahoo! Telemundo, Yahoo! México and Yahoo! Argentina, are tailor-made to reflect local search behavior, language and tendencies. So when you search for ‘Ricky Martin’ on Yahoo! Telemundo Search, Search Assist won’t suggest “photos, lyrics, songs, music” like it does in the U.S., instead, it will offer most suggestions in Spanish like “fotos, biografía, videos, conciertos”.

As part of the new Yahoo! Telemundo Search, consumers will also see new Yahoo! Search Shortcuts, with the most useful information found on the Web, including information contributed by other online users. The new shortcuts were designed to help consumers save time when searching for popular categories such as images, news, weather, maps, and directions (see diagrams 3-6*).

Since its initial launch in October of 2007, Yahoo! Search Assist is now available in 15 countries, including Argentina and Mexico, and in seven languages.
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