This week, our top 4 favorite search engines have added some tools to their game, which will help personalize the over all experience for their users. I get the feeling that the general public doesn't realize the features and capabilities search engines have and are making to improve their online experience. So, for those of you who don't subscribe to the search engines blog or keep up to date on what's going on, here is a quick recap of each addition.

Ask.com
With the official start of summer nearly upon us, Ask.com unveiled their Weather Search tools just in time to help provide users plan their vacation days. What I like about this new search feature, is that like on Google and Yahoo, you do not have to download a pesky toolbar, or have an annoying pop up show whenever a storm is brewing 80 miles away. Simply type in "weather, your city" (zip code, county or state) and you can see today's projected temperatures, current temperature, and weather condition. You also have the option to view the 7 day forecast, and view your choice of Celsius or Fahrenheit. Also, Ask provides you with seasonal weather, so you can start to plan your next winter get-a-way vacation to Hawaii. Interested in surfing conditions and ski conditions? Ask is the only search engine that I found to offer that information when entering a specific search like surf conditions San Diego or ski conditions for Falls Creak, Australia.

What I've come to find out though, is that it seems Ask only seems to consider people on the coasts to be interested in boating and surf conditions. I suppose the 94,000 square miles of water known as The Great Lakes and the 10,900 miles of coast along the U.S. and Canada border isn't considered a significant large enough body of water to attract any boating or tourism during these summer months, therefore, who possibly is going to be searching for that information? Well... me. I personally am very interested in surface temps for Lake Michigan because of the fact that I live 3 or 4 hours away from any decent beach (that doesn't have garbage or toxic waste floating around). I don't want to travel all of that time just to find out that it's July 5, and the surface temp is still 45 degrees! So if Ask is going to go to the trouble of making it easier for people on the coasts, why not me?

I also don't see, why doesn't Ask and the other search engines offer weather information when you simply type in a location. Obviously, if you are entering a location you are either interested in information about that specific area or are planning on traveling to that area, therefore you will ultimately be interested in the weather there. If they decrease the size of the space designated for the weather report, it will hardly take away from the rest of the search results, and therefore help users refine their searches even more while providing useful information.

It is just a few days in with this new search feature and I'm sure as time goes on they'll add new features and information. It does remove a few extra steps for Ask's users to take, and for that I applaud their efforts.

While the remaining 3 search engines did make additions to their services, they were to tools that I don't normally use, so this will be a quick run down of what was updated.

MSN
For those of you who use, or are interested in using Windows Live, they announced that they are bringing email and search one step closer with their Active Search for Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta. Here is what they announced on the 2nd:

Active Search bridges the gap between your inbox and the broader web using the power of search. Using Active Search is essentially the same as conducting a ton of related searches the old fashioned way - by cutting and pasting terms from your emial into a seperate web browser - only without all of the effort

So what happens is if you are reading an email or an RSS article about the video iPod, what Active Search will do is show keywords they pick up from your message and show you search results related to the video iPod, so you can see real results, without having to open a new window. MSN also provides a search box right underneath, so you can search for the video iPod or anything else for that matter, without the hassle of opening a new browser. If you are already an MSN mail user, and you don't care for the new feature, you can go ahead and close it down. MSN also keeps your information confidential according to the agreement you have already agreed to when you signed up for their services, so those worried about what they are receiving in their email, can be assured that that information will remain confidential.

What I've come to find out in reading and learning about search behavior is that people tend to be impatient and dare I say lazy and want to take as few steps as possible to find what they are looking for, I myself included. So with Active Search, this truly does cut half the work in half and I think will be an invaluable service to it's users. It is also great for businesses, because if someone who has just read an email and now is intrigued more about this information or product, they will be more likely to make a purchase sometime soon about that product they searched for using Active Search.

Google
Attention Firefox users, Google has announced a new tool titled Google Browser Sync. This tool allows you to synchronize your browser settings on all of the computers you install it on. So the bookmarks, history, saved passwords, and persistent cookies you have saved can now transfer from your desktop to your laptop and even to your work computer. It even allows you to keep open tabs and windows across different browser sessions and computers.

So, if you have been dedicating your life to solving the mystery of JFK's assassination and have been spending the past few weeks digging through and book marking documents on your desktop from the CIA's web site, you can easily transfer those book marks over to your laptop by installing an extension on your laptop and synching the two computers together. So how does this differ from just copying and pasting your bookmarks onto your laptop? Well from then on when you add a bookmark to your laptop, you can go back to your desktop, who will then automatically update it with your laptops new additions. Nice, huh?

Yahoo
Yahoo just updated the design and look of their MyWeb service. MyWeb is a service like del.icio.us that allows users to save their bookmarks in a place they can access by just logging in with their Yahoo account. You can also share your bookmarks with other friends and family members. The idea is, to provide people with common interests the opportunity to find useful sites that people who have the same interests have found and bookmarked as well as your own bookmarks. Obviously, if the page is worth book marking, that means it is worth sharing. You can also search for terms, such as travel tips that will bring up sites others have found useful and bookmarked.

Along with the MyWeb design update, came some feature updates as well. "Top Tags" and "Interesting Today" shows users what are the most popular terms being searched for in My Web. Also, now when you do a search, not only do book marks show up, but also a list of people who share a same interest in your search. So I did a search in the Tag Finder for one of my interests, archeology and there I can see that Elric (yeah, Elric) also shares my interest. I can then click on Elric's name and see sites he found interesting enough to bookmark related to archeology.

I am actually interested in beginning to use some of these new additions for myself in the future. What current tools do you regularly use that is offered by search engines?