...new tests, enhancements and already talking new search innovations.

Heres a wrap of the activity coming from Yahoo! HQ in the past week.

• New SERPs Page Being Tested

Matt McGee over at Search Engine Land pointed to the images of Yahoo!s new Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) testing.

It looks more inline with the new portal homepage design that was launched a week ago. Cleaner, more intuitive and everything more left aligned (including new SearchPad)

Whilst Microsoft might be powering Yahoo!s search results, under the agreement, Yahoo! still has control over how the results are displayed on its web properties.

Expect more refinement over the next 12 months as Yahoo! clings desperately to its users.

• Yahoo! Local More Useful

Yahoo! has given their Yahoo! Shortcut, the local listings at the top of SERPs a tweak. Users will now allow be able to access valuable information on local listings directly from the results page.

Drop down options will provide searchers with access to reviews, photos, directions and more. The new enhancement will help users find important decision making info without having to click through to specific local listings first.

Whilst the enhancement isnt ground breaking, and probably should have been implemented a while back, from a local business perspective, it further reinforces the importance of enhancing local business listings with reviews, images etc.

• Talk of Real Time Search

Theres even early talk at Yahoo! Labs of a new search engine " aimed squarely at real time results. Real time search is hot at the moment with the growth of microblogging platforms such as twitter.

Yahoo! Labs chief Prabhakar Raghavan, hs suggested the company is looking to mine microblogging platforms to enhance the search results offer through Bing.

Im not sure where that fits into the new agreement or more importantly, whether its in line with their strategic direction, since theyve openly dropped search (again). But stay tuned.

As you can see, Yahoo! is still busy researching, developing and tweaking their various search offerings, even after the deal. Theyll be keen to maintain their user base, so Im sure the innovations will continue unabated.

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