Yahoo's just-launched MyWeb 2.0 beta allows users to search not only their "personal web" saved pages but also those of a designated group of contacts, writes Search Engine Watch. Version 1.0 allowed the saving of copies of web pages in a personal cache, the blocking of pages or sites from search results, and limiting searches to just the content saved in your personal web. In MyWeb 2.0, Yahoo offers features focused on community-based searching and sharing of information. A major new component is "tagging," or the ability to add metadata - descriptive keywords and annotations to pages that users save. The idea is to add structure and improve search results.

Yahoo's launch, together with yesterday's relaunch of Google's personal search (together with MyJeeves) may be signaling a new direction (albeit with each firm is taking its own, separate path) in search relevancy. The general movement seems to be toward the tailoring of search results - and eventually search ads - to fit individual users and self-defined groups.

MyWeb "basically enables people to tap into each other's personal web by searching their trust network of friends," according to Eckart Walther, Yahoo vice-president, product management.