Google may be outperforming Yahoo Search in terms of market share, but with programs like Search Monkey and BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service), Yahoo is still trying to innovate in the search space. Today, Yahoo announced a new feature that integrates Yahoo Search with some of Facebook’s core functions. Whenever you see a Facebook profile in your search results, you can now directly add somebody as a friend, send messages, see their friends, or poke them.
The SearchMonkey app is actually turned on by default for all Yahoo Search users now (but you can opt out at any time).
After that, whenever a Facebook profile appears in your search results, it will include this person’s public profile picture, as well as an additional line with the basic Facebook commands (add friend, poke, send message, view friends). According to Yahoo, Facebook shared this structured data with the SearchMonkey app by adding semantic markup to its public profile pages.
Maybe more importantly, though, features like this show that there is still a lot of life left in Yahoo Search. As Marshall Kirkpatrick noted a few weeks ago, things may not be looking too rosy for Yahoo in business terms, but the company is at least trying out a lot of cool search-related technologies.
Facebook, search, yahoo
I recently stayed at the Hilton in the Financial District in San Francisco. It was one of the nicer places (for the price) and best experiences I’ve had in recent memory. I had informed the concierge that I would be flying in to SFO late and would be taking a car to the hotel. They offered and I accepted to have a car meet me at the departure gate. 30mins or so later I was checked in. 5 mins after that I was in my room where I was pleasantly surprised to find a bottle of fine champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries (which I did not eat).
Though exhausted, I decided to go out and have a meal with a former colleague. We went to Sushi Grove in Russian Hill. It was nice. Its a warmly colored, hip Japanese restaurant, which has a café-like atmosphere. Perhaps it was the jet lag and sake but I was feeling the room full of stylish folks. I suggest the toro – everyday but Sundays; oh and having a beer and sake can’t hurt.
Who says you can’t have fun in a down economy? We did our part to stimulate the local economy.
Finance, san francisco, travel
From management, to marketing, to finances — business skills of all varieties are critical to have in this economy and incredibly beneficial no matter what your situation.
In this article you’ll see a collection of 15 different websites that will help you sharpen your business skill set in a number of different ways. Each of these sites is an incredible source of information, and some of them are easily worth reading on a daily basis.
Here’s the list:
I’ve been doing a bunch of reading lately on Viral/Word of Mouth Marketing. Concepts are simple, have been known (if not called the same thing) for centuries. Just pick a religion and you’ll see an example of a long running and very effective word of mouth marketing campaign. In fact a lot can be learned about viral marketing from the history of religion; but we are not here for religion.
I’ve put together a list of reasonably priced books (thanks Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) for your reading pleasure.
The Tipping Point
The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited
Viral Marketing: Potential and Pitfalls
Word of Mouth Marketing
I’m on Facebook–Now What???
The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
