Yahoo Will Launch Desktop Search...Eventually
Nothing's better that to announce something that will happen in the future. You get the publicity without actually having to deliver the goods. That holds true with Yahoo's announcement that they plan to launch a new desktop search tool in January.

According to the AP...

Unlike Google's desktop search tool, Yahoo's won't operate within a browser. The distinction means that Yahoo's desktop searches won't be co-mingled with online searches conducted at its Web site.

The product, licensed from a pioneering startup named X1 Technologies, seeks to cure a common computer-induced headache by making it as quick and easy to find digital information offline as it has become online.

What is interesting is that Yahoo and X1 contend that separating web and desktop search is the way to go, as "one quest focuses on recovering old information while the other strives to discover new information." I would argue that is partially true, but probably just a little spin to support the structure Yahoo is using. In my experience, web and desktop search often merge...just the other day I used GDS to search for information online, only to discover, I had found that very information a few months back. It saved me from having to browse a lot of web sites.

So why the pseudo-announcement? Ask Jeeves is planning to launch their desktop search next Wednesday (with MSN Search not too far behind), and with Google already in the arena, and Copernic kicking butt, Yahoo needed something to keep shareholders feeling warm and fuzzy over the Christmas holiday. ;-)

Hat-tip Cindy.
Andy Beal | permalink | +marktd |