Yahoo Keeping Tabs on Your Searches?
February 23rd, 2009
While this may sound a little like Big Brother, (and probably is) it’s supposed intention is to be a helpful tool for online research. The Yahoo! Search Pad will actually be a pretty helpful tool. It will automatically observe a user’s intent to do research, and record the websites visited. The user can then go in at any time and edit, delete, and make notes about the sites visited. Yahoo! has actually put out a video explaining the functions and capabilities.
This new feature won’t be available for a few months yet, but it points to the trend we’ve been discussing on this blog for quite a while now. This is yet another way for consumers to do product research in the comfort of their own homes. It is Yahoo!’s answer to the growing consumer base that does a good deal of research online before making just about any purchase. This tool is tailored specifically to this dynamic of a user experience on the web. For example, you are going to the web to do some research before purchasing a new clothes dryer. This item is a bit of an expense, so you need to make sure you’re getting the best deal. Yahoo!’s new feature will allow you to do a search such as “large capacity clothes dryer” and then it’ll record the sites you visit, and let you save, delete, share, etc. This may be helpful when doing a specific search, and I do think that advertisers/ site owners will need to be aware of it’s presence and capabilities. Yahoo! does advise that this feature can be temporarily or permanently disabled on your browser.
While it might be a really handy tool for some, I’m still a little curious. The web is largely based on anonymity, and that is fast becoming a thing of the past. I have to throw this out there, I probably shouldn’t, but I’m gonna do it anyway…We know the Government wants to know what we’re up to, and we know at least one of the major engines is willing to provide them with search data.
Now comes the “Fairness Doctrine“, is the government going to come knocking on our doors if we do too many “negative” searches? If we blog about a problem we have with the reportedly easily offended new Prez, are we going to have calls for censorship on the web?
