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Earlier this week we heard the news of Jerry Yang resigning as CEO of Yahoo, the result of a painfully disappointing year for the company that saw failure after failure.  They have watched their grip on Internet search slip through their fingers and they are in danger of slipping into the worlds of anonymity and the pages of history.  However, things are looking good for Yahoo fans with two positive pieces of news.

One Search

They are both an attempt to fight back at Google’s search domination, both in the mobile phone and PC sectors.  The first is a deal sealed with T-Mobile with the “One Search” button.  Yahoo have been poor at closing deals recently; however, this catch is definitely one that should help them in the future.  T-Mobile has agreed to put the One Search button on their phones, thus allowing users to quickly get to a search engine and helping Yahoo by making it theirs.
This kind of quick search has been available for a while, but only as a download and it would appear that phone users are reluctant to download it.  By making it available on the front screen of all T-Mobile phones Yahoo hope to boost traffic.
There is a fair degree of strangeness here, though.  T-Mobile has recently released the G1 handset (which uses Google’s Android), something that has undoubtedly increased interest in Google and they reportedly have a strong relationship with them.  T-mobile has refused to comment on whether or not the G1 will have this button!

Glue search pages

The second release is Glue search pages.  This was first tested in India in May and the beta was released late yesterday (Wednesday).  The idea of the search is that it aggregates text, images and videos onto a single search page making it easier for users (hopefully) to find information and thus getting more traffic for Yahoo.

“This iteration of the beta is centered around gathering insights about how people use topic pages focused purely on helping people discover information and browse through images, videos, articles, etc.,” said a Yahoo spokeswoman

Will it work?

The beta will be released as a standalone program first before becoming part of the overall online search engine.  The idea is that it will give more diverse and all encompassing results which will hopefully attract users away from Google’s honeypot.  But will it work?  I fear it may bee too cluttered and take too long to load, a problem Yahoo already suffers from in comparison to Google.  Nevertheless, the future is looking slightly brighter for Yahoo.
Source [InfoWorld]