A two-year vision for search
In Q4 2024 our SVP of Product asked what Yahoo Search should look like in 2 to 3 years. I proposed search and chat should become one product, not two. A few months later Yahoo bought a team to rebuild the AI product similar to what was proposed. Now, I'm leading how it scales across news, search, finance and sports on mobile and desktop.
Role
Blue-sky exploration, strategy, ideas visualization
Keywords
Search, Gen AI, AI Chat
Date
Q4 2024 - now
Late 2024 was earlier than it sounds now. Google hadn't launched AI Mode. Our own AI chat had only just shipped, and it lived on its own page, next to search instead of inside it. That's how everyone was doing it.
Mobile explorations – visual results
In this exploration, AI results become more immersive with bolded direct answers to allow user to get what they need immediately.
Topic chips make it easy to jump between key parts of the answer without leaving the experience.
Proposal 1:
Blend AI content with blue links
Integrate AI answer directly into familiar search experience, while keeping traditional blue links, images and videos alongside with them.
Users can get a synthesized answer, explore supporting sources and continue to follow up without losing the transparency and control of conventional search.
Proposal 2:
Visual AI Mode
A dedicated AI Results tab that changes search into a visual, curated experience.
Users can switch to the Links tab anytime for the familiar web results, giving them a clear choice between an AI-driven exploration and traditional search.
Mobile explorations – AI results tab
Bringing the blended blue link experience to mobile. Users can move between AI results, links, images and videos etc. using the tab interaction they already know from search.
To work out what search could look like in 2–3 years, I started with research: user problems, market trends, and what makes search and AI chat distinct. Past research kept surfacing three problems – too much to sift through, hard to tell what’s credible, and search couldn’t finish a complex task, it could only point you at things. The market research turned up the useful insight. People were already using both for the same jobs.
Yahoo Search acquired the Cymbal team to accelerate and compete in AI search.
The latest product goal is to blend AI Chat with search
I am currently leading the rollout across news, search, finance and sports.
Next project: News app
Design work and portfolio site made by Cat Tai