Yahoo! Mindset: A Yahoo Research Experimental Search Engine

I just learned about and discovered an experimental search engine by Yahoo! Research called Yahoo! Mindset. According to its website Yahoo! Mindset applies a new twist on search that uses machine learning technology to give you a choice of viewing options for search results. The choice is between having Yahoo! Search results sorted according to whether they are more commercial or more informational (i.e., from academic, non-commercial, or research-oriented sources). They term this concept as intent-driven search.

The Yahoo! Mindset search page is typical of most search engine web pages today, sparse and simple. The search results are returned in typical Yahoo style but now you have a slider at the top of the page that allows you to adjust the results according to whether you want more commercial results (shopping) or more informational oriented results (researching). In theory depending on which way you and how much you drag the slider the results are supposed to be tailored to the level you choose. In practice however when I tested it I found this aspect of the search engine disappointing. You can try it out for yourself and see what you think. I know it’s still in beta and it will be improved so I am not criticizing it too much. I think it has a lot of potential and its good to see Yahoo! is trying new things out, innovating and working on new things for the future.