Yahoo! Hacks

Hacks 1–22: Introduction

Many of us use search engines in the same way we we use street signs. We use them to navigate, to get our bearings, and to pinpoint our destination. We rarely stop to consider the signs themselves or look for more information they might be telling us. As with street signs, we’d be lost without search engines, and by taking a few minutes to contemplate the Yahoo! Web Search results page, you might find new ways to reach your destination.

Take a look at Figure 1-1, which shows a Yahoo! Web Search results page for the query ancient greece.

Figure 1-1. Yahoo! Web Search results

You can see the familiar numbered listing of search results, but there are a number of other bits of information on the page. Here’s a look at what’s available on a Yahoo! Search results page:

Navigation bar

You’ll find the gray navigation bar at the top of the page on many pages at Yahoo! sites. The bar provides a consistent way to get to the main Yahoo! page (http://www.yahoo.com), the My Yahoo! portal [Hack #34] , and Yahoo! Mail [Hack #52] . The bar also indicates your login status by displaying your Yahoo! ID [Hack #3] or Guest, along with links that let you sign in to Yahoo! or sign out. You can also click the Help link at the far right of the navigation bar to read documentation about the site.

Search links

Just above the search form, you’ll find links to other Yahoo! searches, including ...