Yahoo using Flash for handwritten queries

Posted by Serge Jespers on Sep 9, 2010 in Cool stuff | 2 comments

Yahoo Taiwan and Hong Kong just rolled out a new feature for their search box. A new Flash based application allows you to hand-write your search queries.

Typing search queries in Chinese can be challenging especially for new computer users because it requires memorizing Chinese character mapping rules. Even experienced computer users don’t remember the mapping for all Chinese characters. The handwriting feature lowers the hurdle for people searching on Yahoo! Taiwan and Yahoo! Hong Kong.

This is another great example of how powerful Flash has become and how Flash has become so much more than a video player or animation tool! More info on Yahoo’s Search Blog.

UPDATE
Flexdude (a commenter from Beijing, China) informed me that Baidu (the most popular search engine in the Chinese language) already added the same feature a few months ago. Baidu also uses Flash.