Search engines first appeared in 1990, but in over 20 years there’s been no major evolution in their basic function. Some say the future of search is the prediction of human activities by big data. Without a doubt this will be a very convenient improvement, but we aimed for an evolution involving more human. The idea is the results of a spoken search query materializing right in front of you. This is Hands On Search – a search engine that has progressed beyond seeing and hearing, one that lets you touch the results.

We made it possible by combining 3D printer and voice search technology.

This innovation was first provided to those who need it most – children with sight impairments. Without vision, these kids “view” the world through their hands, recognizing objects via touch. In other words, this technology was first unveiled as a teaching tool for schools for the blind. This technology is available now as an open source project.

Yahoo! JAPAN is the most utilized search engine in Japan, but in terms of perception as a leader and innovator, it had been overtaken by Google. As the category leader, Yahoo! felt it needed to improve its brand by clearly demonstrating the future of search technology. This is the reason for the innovation.

3D printer and voice search technology already exist, but we feel the combination of the two, leading to the idea of the results of a spoken search query materializing right in front of you, constitutes an innovation.

Until now, 3D printers have mostly been confined to manufacturing uses. The education industry was aware of the technology, but was unsure how best to take advantage of it. It simply took one creative idea to usher in the use of 3D printers in the classroom.

This application itself is open source, so anybody worldwide can develop and improve the source code. In addition, the Japanese government invested funds into the project to extend the 3D database of touchable search results.

At our suggestion, Yahoo! released Hands On Search as an open source application. Yahoo’s passion moved the government enough to get involved. Led by Tsukuba University, the Ministry of Education agreed to provide funds to convert the 3D data into official study material. Now, what started as an internet innovation has become an educational one. We might have created a single service, but it’s quickly taking on the role of a vital piece of social infrastructure that is very much the essence of Yahoo!.

Support results are as follows.

*3D database now contains over 100,000 entries

*More than $ 1,000,000 in publicity in Japan. No figures for worldwide publicity but project reported on in several media.

*According to research, 92% of people who engaged with this project have increased loyalty to Yahoo! JAPAN.