Yahoo! has a developed a new concept in search engine technology - "Intent Driven Search" - allowing you to sort search results according to their commercial or informational content.

The beta version of Mindset is now online as Yahoo! tests and refines this concept. It depends on machine learning technology to rate sites on a scale to determine if they are primarily commercial or informational.

Sites are rated from -2 (mostly commercial) to +2 (mostly informational) with 0 being a balance between informational and commercial. This was done by manually rating a "seed set" of sites to base the rating algorithm. The software now needs fine tuning and Yahoo! welcomes comments about well it is rating sites.

At first glance Mindset looks like the regular Yahoo! search page. Type in a few keywords and you will get familiar looking results. The twist is the slider bar at the top of the page. Drag it anywhere between "Shopping" and "Researching" and the search results are automatically re-sorted.

This allows users to more easily find exactly what they are looking for. If they want to buy something, they slide the bar all the way to the left. If they need information, they move the slider bar to the right. The results are automatically updated without a page refresh.

This new technology represents the cutting edge of search engines and has the potential to affect the entire SEO industry. Since users are able to target their searches site designers and marketers can tailor web sites to a particular niche.

Mindset should be embraced by online marketers as a way to increase their revenues by targeting specific markets. Pay per click campaigns can become more effective if they can be restricted to commercial search results.

Copyright 2005 by Ross MacIver

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