A feature called 'Filckr Interestingness' rates pictures by 'interestingness' through their user comments and click-throughs. It is this feature that determines whether popular images are integrated with the main Yahoo! SERPS. Interestingness changes over time, as more and more great pictures and stories are uploaded to Flickr.com. Clicking on the thumbnails in Yahoo! takes you into Flickr where you can explore further and set up your own photo sharing account.
User-generated content sites, image sharing and social network sites are growing at an incredible rate. Social sites, such as YouTube, MySpace and Bebo, are now providing companies with great brand publicity, leading to site traffic and potentially converting into sales. Users can effectively create revenue for companies and brands through 'online noise'. This new change to the Yahoo! search engine further emphasises the emerging trend that users are now in the driving seat, indirectly dictating which photos are shown in SERPS by simply viewing and commenting on them via Flickr.
Whether you're planning a trip to see the Colosseum or the Pyramids, or you want to refresh memories of trips to the Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower or London's Tower Bridge, you can now find all you need quickly and conveniently with Yahoo! search.
Similarly, if you have pride in your own local landmark or monument, you may now see it being showcased on Yahoo! Try it, along with the Empire State Building, Chichen Itza, and Machu Picchu for example. The image below shows results for Rome's Colosseum.
Yahoo! has also hinted that they plan to continue their expansion of the world pictures search experience and that user behaviour and input will play a part in this development.
So, you never know - if you've got a first-rate photo on Flickr of a world landmark from one of your holidays, you might just see it appear in the Yahoo! search listings one day, for all the world to see!
