Yahoo revealed a collection of Searchmonkey applications called Search Gallery on Wednesday. The applications, when applied, enhance search results by embedding content from the application developer's website.
The searchable application gallery is accessible from a new "customize" pull-down next to Yahoo search results. Applications from popular websites StumbleUpon, Yelp and Last.fm were included in the launch.
Searchmonkey, revealed last month, (again, no relation) offers websites a way to add rich information to Yahoo search listings. For example, you can annotate your websites' search listings with RSS feeds, links to audio and relevant pictures.
We wrote about Searchmonkey's launch a few weeks ago. Since then, Yahoo has announced Search Gallery and the ability to refine search queries to microformats -- a method to add context to links by adding mark-up tags. It appears that fast and open development is the direction Yahoo search is headed.
This offering and programming tools like Yahoo User Interface Library (YUI) and Yahoo Pipes make Yahoo a lot more desirable to developer types. Yahoo stands to benefit by gaining engineering and editorial work with little to no cost to them. It seems like a smart move. Following in the footsteps of the open source community could bring with it a pretty faithful following.
The benefit to the end user is richer search results and pretty pictures. For users of Yahoo search, what's not to love?
