Yahoo Bets On New Search Pad Organizer

Yahoo's new service organizes information found from Web site searches on Yahoo Search Pad and adds notes, all stored in one location. Users can edit, delete, reorder, print and e-mail notes about topics that they've searched. Notes can also be saved and accessed later when a user logs on to Yahoo using his or her Yahoo ID.

Google Notebook, meanwhile, clips text, images and links from searched Web pages. The feature is still available, but last month Google said it would no longer add upgrades. Instead, Google advised users to use SearchWiki, a recently launched feature that lets users rerank, comment and personalize search results. Google fans also organize information using Google Docs, Tasks in Gmail and Google Bookmarks.

Yahoo Search Pad is in now beta and only visible to some users.

While Yahoo may believe Search Pad will drive traffic to its Web site, some analysts believe that the new feature is not likely to win users from Google or put a dent in Google's user base.

"As it stands right now, no one would shift from using Google, or any other site, just because [a different search engine is] one basis point more relevant," Pacific Crest Securities analyst Steve Weinstein told Reuters. "They really need to find some kind of experience that will make people think Yahoo is unique."