Yahoo pokes new improvements into search

Sunnyvale (CA) - Following a sweeping upgrade at Ask.com and recent enhancements at MSN Search, Yahoo has unveiled a new set of search improvements.

As part of the updates to Yahoo, users will now receive real-time suggestions as they enter search terms, and the results page includes Web pages, video, and images in one spot. Additionally, any search that returns with a local event, Yahoo’s online calendar service will be integrated into the results to allow users to earmark specific dates.

Earlier this year, Ask.com completely revised its look, allowing users to customzine the site’s home page and view all kinds of media results in one page. Microsoft launched similar updates to MSN Live Search last month.

Yahoo said its updates are better, because it has the ability to provide more content. For example, its image sharing site Flickr has direct ties to Yahoo Image Search. However, Yahoo’s latest upgrade is really just a lagged reaction to improvements made to MSN and Ask.

All three are in a war to grab market share away from Google, which manages to retain a huge lead despite a somewhat non-glamorous online portal.

According to Comscore’s latest data, Google controls about 57% of the online search market, followed by Yahoo at 23%.