Yahoo rethinks Search: Web of Objects

Yahoo realized that it can no longer compete with its standard search with the likes of Google and now Microsoft is going to release their revamped search engine. Yahoo in turn responds with their own revamped search, their strategy makes use of "Web of Objects". In a presentation, Yahoo says that it search engine will be the end of the "10 blue links" that accompany every search result, instead "Yahoo’s looking to transform search results from a list of Web sites to results that try to fulfill the apparent intent of the searcher with actionable information."

The so called "Web of Objects" is information that users can do something with after typing in a query. Instead of receiving just links following their results, they will be given specific information gathered from different sites and developers that are working alongside Yahoo. This new search function can be thought of as something similar to WolframAlpha, with its specific results, except on a broader scale than just computed values. An example taken from this article shows that when "Star Trek" was searched, the result was a list of local theaters where they’re playing along with a button to buy tickets

Anyone think that such a new search feature will make Yahoo more useful and become a direct competitor to Google or is it more of a complimentary search feature. Will Google's PageRank search algorithm and only linked results make it obsolete in the near future. In a relatively short span of time, we see that wolframalpha and now Yahoo are working on return actual answers to peoples query, not just a ton of links they need to read through. They are working to become what askjeeves tried to do early on, actually answer your question.

This web of objects sounds a lot like the semantic web idea, which intends to use a formal description of items to provide a user experience of searching through content rather than simply web pages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_web

Although they're not identical as the semantic web relies more on formal descriptions of objects, they still share a similar goal of providing more direct answers to users, instead of simply redirecting them to a web page, costing them more time and effort. I think the following, by Ricardo Baeza-Yates, raises some interesting points about the web of objects, namely that the aim is to "provide a more coherent search experience." I think this makes the web of objects a direct competitor to Google.

http://thenextweb.com/2009/04/16/ricardo-baezayates/