Yahoo Link Assist

It is reported in the Yahoo blog, that a survey found that 85% of people need help with searches. To answer this problem, Yahoo introduced Yahoo Assist in 2007, which became global in March 2008.  For those that haven’t used it, it is simply a means of suggesting searches related to what you are currently typing. As shown below:

I am trying to use Yahoo on a more regular basis so that I spread my searches over more than one search engine. I would advise anyone else to do the same just to get a feeling for the major search engines and the quality of their results. Yahoo is quite good for search results. However, I do not understand how people can find Yahoo Assist useful. It is slightly less annoying than ‘Clippy’, Microsoft Word’s assistant. When I perform a search I know what I am looking for. I when I don’t know, I think about it before I start to type.  I don’t just randomly pound on the keyboard.

In my opinion, the Yahoo Assist is a usability failure. I have never found it useful and the way that it opens, covering other parts of the page reminds me of dodgy porn and gambling web-sites with pop-up Flash advertising.  I have a fairly-slow computer and it just makes things take longer.

Google’s suggestion tool is far more subtle and usually only called upon if the user makes a spelling mistake after performing a search. It is pretty good at telling you what you actually were meant to be searching for.

Yahoo Assist, is yet another example of trying to get computers to second guess the user. It would be like speaking to someone with them trying to finish your sentence before you had said it. Fortunately Assist can be switched off  but it should be off by default. Does anyone else find this feature annoying or a useful?