Yahoo Rich Search Assist Answers Questions As You Type Them

Yahoo is rolling out a new search tool dubbed Rich Search Assist. Their goal is to make searching so easy you don’t even have to finish; search for a partial question and suggested answers appear right in front of you.

Rich Search Assist goes beyond simply predicting what you might type in and tries to predict the answers to the query you haven’t even finished yet. Type in “Green Bay” and the instant search box shows you scores, schedules, and other things somebody searching for Green Bay might be looking for. Type in “McDonald’s Big Mac” and you’ll get nutrition information and restaurant locations — it’s an instant search for answers, not just search suggestions. Search-focused blog Search Engine Land captured the new service in the wild in the video below — if you’re wondering why they didn’t properly screencast it, they were using a locked down corporate laptop and captured it how they could.

Currently only available to a portion of their user base — much like Google Instant was rolled out in waves — Rich Search Assist will become available to all Yahoo users in the coming months.

Testing Yahoo a Richer Yahoo! Search Assist [Yahoo! via Search Engine Land]