Yahoo! has upgraded its search engine to tackle consumers' "internet search fatigue" — and close the gap with Google, the sector’s runaway leader.

As part of its makeover, the revamped Yahoo! search engine will suggest ways to phrase a search as a user types into the query box and will produce more links to photos, videos and music on the main results page.

The new "Search Assist" tool will also pull information from Yahoo!’s calendar service, Upcoming.org, to highlight local events when they are relevant to a search request.

The company said the upgrade was the most significant since it brought the technology behind its search engine in-house more than three years ago.

Between June 2000 and May 2004, Yahoo! relied on Google to power its search engine — a move that helped its rival to forge its leading position in the lucrative search-based advertising market.

Yahoo! also cited research by Harris Interactive, the analyst, which it said showed that consumers were suffering from “web search fatigue.”

The study revealed that although 99 per cent of adults online use a search engine to find information on the internet, "only 15 per cent of them find what they’re looking for with their first search, with most needing to conduct three to four searches," Yahoo! said.

Vish Makhijani, the general manager of Yahoo! Search, said: "The changes we’ve made are focused on getting people to the best answer — whether it be a Web link, photo, video or music clip — in one search."

Yahoo!'s lacklustre showing in search has contributed to a string of disappointing earnings announcements and profit warnings that have helped to send the shares down sharply and led to the departure of Terry Semel, the former chief executive, this year.

The stock is down about 20 per cent from its 2007 peak, hit in early May, after hopes of a possible takeover bid from Microsoft faded.

Jerry Yang, the Yahoo! co-founder who took Mr Semel's position in June, has signalled that he intends to re-engineer Yahoo! into an innovator in technology.

Analysts say that such a project could give Yahoo!'s staff a much-needed morale boost.

Yahoo! has been losing ground to Google steadily. In August Yahoo! had a 23 per cent share of the US search market, compared with 56.5 per cent for Google, according to the most recent data from comScore Media Metrix.

At the beginning of 2005, Yahoo!’s market share stood at 32 per cent, slightly behind Google at 35 per cent.

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