As the search spotlight has been shifting onto Google and Microsoft, Yahoo has attempted to claw back some attention by announcing improvements to its filter functions.

According to Yahoo the new filters allow a searcher, for example, to limit results to those found on major websites like Amazon or Wikipedia. It also allows searches by related terms.

Yahoo tells us that the engine's search methods have also been upgraded.  It now analyses the search habit of users over a certain period of time to come up with logical connections between past and present searches.

If you tap in the word 'Paris' followed by 'flights' or 'affordable hotels,' then Yahoo Search understands that a person is looking for travel information and not for gossip about Paris Hilton, however cheap and easy she is.