Yahoo’s Mindset, currently in Beta and part of Yahoo’s research labs, shows us where the future of search may be.
Through a slider bar, Yahoo Mindset allows searches to choose their mix of commercial search results vs. informational search results. Try running a search for “san diego hotels” and slide the bar around to see how this affects rankings.
On on end, you’re presented with sites specifically allowing you to search for and book hotel rooms. On the “researching” end of the spectrum you get visitor guides and hotel recommendations from the local newspaper, and tourism related Websites.
The future of search results may therefore be to fold: commercial & informational, with two sets of completely different Websites being listed in the Top 10, for the exact same keyword, depending on how they relate to what the searcher wants.
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The idea is great and I’m sure they could expand the spectrum to cover more than 2 areas. The little testing I did didn’t work to well though, websites showing up in ’shopping’ that should have been in ‘researching’ and vice versa, but it’s still in beta so I guess it will improve :)
August 17th, 2005 at 3:49 pm
Pretty cool idea, and I can see how it can be a valuable tool. The results I came up with for Atlanta Hotels was pretty accurate in my opinion.
August 17th, 2005 at 3:59 pm
I have played with it a little, and I think the concept is great. Sure the results need a little work, but it will get better.
August 17th, 2005 at 6:10 pm
Wonder if we will discover a process of to optimize for both results?
August 17th, 2005 at 6:50 pm
No doubt, the idea will help seachers to easily find what they need. The name just suits it, “Mindset”.
August 18th, 2005 at 2:29 am
Its the very usefull research done by Yahoo !! Expecting many more with information based on the local IP . Like If I am searchin from Mumbai The search results would have been with the MUMBAI specific results….
Its all in the MINDSET
August 18th, 2005 at 3:01 am
Excellent search features like MindSet will eventually force a change in SEO as we know it. Sure, we can tell our clients we’ll get you top rankings in “commercial”, “informational”, “local”, or “shopping” results, but good luck tracking all of that effectively. Top rankings are going out the window to be replaced by site performance. Bringing in targeted traffic and increasing sales matters more than being #1 for keyword X.
August 18th, 2005 at 10:18 am
Rather than comment in depth, I’ll refer to my comments from May… there’s a whole lot of this kind of thing in development across the search engines.
August 19th, 2005 at 7:50 pm