Yahoo Korea releases Hub Search

new BETA search looks to be Yahoo's attempt to do SOMEthing

[GrendelKhan TSU]

so I decided to check out Yahoo korea (Yahoo.co.kr) for something or other and what do you know.... they got a new type a search (BETA) taking up the prime spot (first positoin on the list of types of search)

its called HUB search. I haven't spent any time on it yet...but a quick look reveals something akin to thebrain from way back and other types of visual search where the keyword item shown in the middle with radial out to similiar topics/keywords.

I've been saying for a while that Yahoo needs to come with SOMETHING to save the currently sinking ship..... could this be their saving grace? I'm skeptical but you all can decide for yourselves....

I'll give a better breakdown later...

[edited by: Woz at 1:04 am (utc) on Nov. 29, 2005]
[edit reason] tidying up [/edit]

[bill]

Yahoo Japan was a bit late to the party adding their own search and switching from the former Inktomi results. Could we be seeing something like this in Yahoo Korea, or are we looking at a whole new type of search in addition to the regular offerings?

[bill]

I've taken a quick look. I can't read anything, but I see what you mean. It reminds me of those brain mapping softwares that were all the rage years back. Click on one word to see its relation to other words. That sounds intriguing, but will it appeal to the Korean surfers?

[GrendelKhan TSU]

. Could we be seeing something like this in Yahoo Korea, or are we looking at a whole new type of search in addition to the regular offerings?

the latter.

they were late here too...but it in a different way. Yahoo korea was the only division (that I know of) that was actually using a LOCAL korean company for their search results. interestingly, they were doing well back then... Then later yahoo gave them the boot and switched to their global provider (ink, google, or whoever it was at the time)...now ...I should check but have no idea if they switched again (I've been stuck on Naver, cyworld and google lol). anyway....

this looks like a new attempt a new search. We'll see how popular it gets...but like I said, I'm not to hopefull. I'll do some "quality" tests later...but I have never been able to "get into" the visual search scheme. I love that its "cooler" looks better (so to speak)... but I don't know if people can make the switch from tradition long listings.

Koreans will like that its new and slick...so there will be some early surges in usage....

but it remains to be see whether it actually helps people find info, get better results, or give people whatever value it offers long enough for them to get used to the visual format and covert from the super long combo format SERP that every knows and loves (much pull people away from knowledge search). I haven't seen an promotions about it...so it seems to be a "soft launch", so to speak. But I haven't relaly looked yet... I'll definitely keep an eye on it eitherway.

:)