Recently Yahoo attempted to bring the search fight back to Google Instant and Bing’s guided search by packaging up searches related to music, movies, or news, into a box with vertical tabs along the side. This is similar to Google’s Universal Search Onebox and the Bing Box. The organic results are from Bing (of course), but this works best when Yahoo is able to bring in very targeted content from partners, thus improving their wow factor for users. For movies for instance, you get an overview with links to trailers and it’s partnership with Netflix creates link directly to that movie on Netflix, where it can be added to your queue. Yahoo did this also for nearby events, albums, videos, and Twitter search.
And as of right now Yahoo has also now integrated data from the API belonging to Songkick, a UK-based startup which has focused lazer-like on gig listings and everything surrounding those events from fan buzz to ticketing to even preserving your excited tweets from the gig.
The effect means that if you search for Lady Gaga, you’ll get direct links to Songkick where you can see her latest gigs, but also the gigs closest to you. Because Songkick can work out where you’re searching from via IP address.
The launch is in the US first, and presumably Songkick’s data will be rolled out to other Yahoo properties in due course. The move follows an integration with YouTube, the BBC and Vevo and it’s something of a validation for Songkick that big US players like YouTube and Yahoo are using its data.
But it also means a big traffic boost for Songkick, of course, and a growing user-baser in the US.
As such, co-founder Ian Hogarth, is moving over to the valley for late October.
