Yahoo! Inc. has announced the launch of its new Yahoo! Search. Building on the back-end technological improvements Yahoo! Search made in October 2002, and leveraging the assets of the Yahoo! network, the new Yahoo! Search is designed to provide a better search experience to users through several enhancements such as a cleaner, easier-to-use interface and faster ways to find relevant information. Users can access the new search product at http://search.yahoo.com as part of a rollout that will be completed over several days.

New features include: Cleaner, Easier-To-Use Page Design--A redesigned look and feel with a cleaner interface. Includes an extended search box, improved and more accessible related searches on targeted queries to help users refine their search, a simple horizontal search tab menu to search the Web, Directory, News, Yellow Pages, and Yahoo!'s new Image Search, clearer demarcation of page sections, and reduced dependency on graphical ads and overall greater relevancy of ads and sponsored results. Shortcuts to Information--Searches for maps, yellow pages, weather, news, and dictionary definitions return answers more quickly. For example, typing in an address will produce a map of the location within the search results page in addition to Web results related to that area. Search Start Page (http://search.yahoo.com)--Designed to complement the Yahoo! home page, the start page gives consumers a clean and centralized place to find search-oriented content. Customized Search Preferences--Search in over 30 different languages, choose the number of results displayed per page, open search results in a new window, and more. In addition, users can now save their preferences through their Yahoo! ID to use Yahoo! Search the way they want from any computer. Enhanced Yahoo! Companion (http://companion.yahoo.com)--Yahoo! Companion, a search toolbar that enables users to use Yahoo Search from any browser, includes new search features such as the ability to search within a web site and highlight search terms on the page. Additional advanced features--Access to cached search results, new icon next to each search result link for the option to open a new window, ability to narrow searches by domain, update time, country, and more.

Consumers will be able to access an online tour of Yahoo! Search's latest improvements at http://search.yahoo.com/tour. In addition, as part of its continued improvements to Yahoo! Search, the company is accelerating its efforts to integrate Inktomi's search technology both domestically and globally to improve Search as well as its vertical properties across the network, in areas such as Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Yellow Pages, Yahoo! Personals, and Hotjobs.

(http://search.yahoo.com)