It must be said that Yahoo search has never been quite as popular or as glamorous as Google; in fact I find comparing Yahoo and Google brings to mind a typical “teen movie” scenario where the shy, mousy girl with braces feels she can never compete with the pretty, spoiled cheerleader who seems to get all the attention. Of course the turning point usually comes when the mousy girl gets a confidence-boosting makeover, and the recent Yahoo search enhancements may be a step towards the search engine’s very own “Cinderella story”.

Recent Google search updates, from the rollout of Instant to the updated AdWords interface, have been causing a stir in many a SEO agency in recent weeks. With Google at the forefront of search innovation, it’s not surprising that rival engine Yahoo has started devising some strategic search enhancements as well.

I have to admit that I do not use real time results as much as I should. When I decided to write this post, I searched a few terms before I was shown a real time search results section (I had to resort to entering “Tiger Woods” into my search – there is no doubt I wouldn’t find up to date reports on that). I have no doubt that there are times when I conduct a search and ignore the real time results, not out of spite, but merely because I forget that they are actually there. This is my search results routine but is it yours?