Yahoo acquires Aviate launcher, talks up contextual search


aviate-launcherMarissa Mayer just concluded Yahoo’s CES keynote today and one of the main takeaways from it was how the company is looking to change search, especially on mobile. Google Now has been at the forefront of contextual search on Android and iOS and Yahoo wants to tackle exactly that. How? It just announced the acquisition of the intelligent Android launcher – Aviate. The launcher, which was doing the rounds in beta, is currently a invite-only homescreen replacement that automatically configures your home screen based on contexts like time, usage, preferences and place. It was touted as the “Google Now” of launchers, so it is easy to see why Yahoo lapped it up.

To quickly summarize the launcher, here are its features and how it works, listed on the Play Store –

KEY FEATURES:

★ Navigation simplified — transforms your phone into three, easy-to-navigate screens
★ Clean design — streamlines your phone to make it feel faster and more efficient than ever
★ Personalization — auto-adapts your homescreen to your lifestyle, current context, and interests
★ Collections — auto-categorize your apps so you don’t have to

HOW AVIATE WORKS:

Based on a complex understanding of your context and preferences, Aviate works to deliver you only the best apps and information, when you need them most. Aviate is intelligent, and can learn how to best organize your apps.

We had given it a try sometime back using a beta invite and found it to work quite well. It was well designed and did the guessing accurately. With this acquisition, Yahoo is all set to take on contextual assistance, but search is a whole different problem altogether. Simply put, Yahoo doesn’t have the data or the knowledge, like Google or even Bing, which have been scrapping the internet for so long. Yahoo search is already powered by Bing so it might be possible that they strike up a deal for the data once again but it remains to be seen how Aviate evolves under Yahoo. We at least hope they move the launcher out of beta in its current form for a widespread look at what’s to come.

UPDATE: If you are looking to try it out right away on your Android phone –

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Author: Bharadwaj Chandramouli

Bharadwaj is a content creator who has been obsessed with technology since the early days of smartphones. He loves talking about tech, is a fan of good design and photography. You can follow him on Twitter @gadgetbuff_ to know what he's upto!