The other day, I accidently used Google Korea (Google.co.kr) to search “zedomax” and found that Google has been working on new video and image search results.

Basically, the new video and image search results replace sponsored ads for certain search terms to improve users’ search experience.  Now, these results go away though when there’s sponsored ads.

I think this is a really great idea as Google is now having to compete against search engines like Cuil where search results are displayed with images.

Google and Yahoo has always been testing out their new stuff in other countries.  When the beta tests are done, I expect it to see on the regular English Google soon.

Yahoo (YHOO) just launched their new search engine platform API, SearchMonkey. Basically, now developers can customize Yahoo’s search engine results using their API tool.

Sorta like this:

It’s a great way to customize their search engine without Yahoo doing any work. Lol…but this will be great for developers as you could make some serious cash with a great app.

With SearchMonkey, developers have a hand in shaping the next generation of search by building customized search results and mash-ups that users can add to their Yahoo! Search experience. By leveraging structured data from sites like CitySearch, StumbleUpon, eBay, or Epicurious.com, developers can add navigational links, reviews, contact information, and even locations to provide enhanced search listings.

Developers can build two types of applications using SearchMonkey: Enhanced Results and Infobars. Enhanced Results replace the current standard results with a richer display. All the links in the Enhanced Results must point to the site to which the result refers. Infobars are appended below search results and can include metadata about the result, related links or content, or links for user actions (such as adding a movie to a Netflix queue).

via Yahoo Search Blog

(click to enlarge)

Powerset launches its supposedly “human lauguage” search engine. Basically it’s only searching Wikipedia at this point but the search experience is very AJAXed out and good.

I looked up “zedomax” and only thing I could find was Zedomax.com linked to the Hacker article at Wikipedia, which I inserted long time ago.

Powerset looks like great for searching Wikipedia, as Wikipedia’s default search engine sucks.

It may explode onto the mass once Powerset gets more into mainstream search engine market.

Today marks another milestone for San Francisco based contextual search engine Powerset. They’ve launched a showcase for their user search experience - effectively the search engine minus the web crawl. For now, Powerset queries only Wikipedia and augments results with data from Freebase. The product launch comes just a day after reports that the company is being shopped to potential buyers by investment bank Allen & Co.

via techcrunch