July 14, 2009

Get your own online research assistant
Yahoo! tool helps you gather, share info

The new Search Pad beta, a Yahoo! Search feature that lets people capture, organize, save and share information they find while researching online, provides a new search experience for people conducting extensive research in categories such as academic, health, jobs, travel, or shopping.

Today, people conducting online research often use cumbersome methods for capturing the information they find in search results, pasting snippets into separate documents, taking handwritten paper notes, bookmarks, and/or sending themselves emails with links. Search Pad simplifies this task by automatically recognizing when people are conducting research, and allowing them to easily capture information and websites found in their search results. Once activated, Search Pad automatically saves recent items, including links in one integrated notepad that stays with them as they search. People can edit their notes and then print, save, email, or share their Search Pad documents with family, friends, colleagues or anyone else, eliminating the need for others to do the same research.

“At Yahoo! Search we are committed to understanding people’s intent and building the right tools to help them complete their most important tasks online,” says Larry Cornett, vice president of consumer products, Yahoo! Search. “With Search Pad, Yahoo! is providing an elegant solution that understands when valuable research is being conducted and offers a way to effortlessly gather information in one place. Yahoo! Search Pad helps people make decisions, save their work, and share the best with friends and colleagues.”

Available only on Yahoo! Search, Search Pad has a host of features that make search and research as meaningful and manageable as possible:

1) Automatic Research Detection: Understands research intent to initiate note-taking;

2) Simple Collecting: Tightly integrated into the search experience; once research begins, it automatically collects visited websites and thumbnails;

3) Organize: Easily manages research into a coherent document for quick reference with capabilities that include free form note entry, drag & drop, auto-attribution of the URL for pasted notes, and save/delete of notes and documents;

4) Share: Provides simple and useful ways to share work with friends and colleagues via print, email, publish, and a number of social networks.