AOL Search is rolling out some new enhancements to both its proprietary client software and to AOL Web Search as part of its relatively recent efforts to transform itself into a web portal. The new features are nothing revolutionary, but are useful and powerful, and effectively differentiate AOL Search from the other major players—including AOL Search partner Google.
Today’s SearchDay article, AOL Search: Playing In the Big Leagues Now, covers the new enhancements, including search personalization features, result clustering using Vivisimo technology and local search results drawn from (among other sources) a customized crawl of the web by FAST Search & Transfer.
Postscript: John Battelle also has a nice write-up over here: AOL Puts A Stake In The Ground