Yahoo just launched Scout, an AI-powered search portal that's taking the company back to its 1990s origins as "Jerry's guide to the world wide web." But this time, there's a twist - the legacy internet giant is using Anthropic's Claude model to power what it calls an "answer engine," and unlike competitors, Scout actually wants you to click through to websites. In early testing, Scout surfaces nine links per query compared to the buried citations favored by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Mode. For a company that's been overshadowed in search for two decades, it's a calculated bet that being web-friendly might be the differentiator that matters.
Yahoo is making its biggest AI play in years, and it looks nothing like what Google or OpenAI are building. The company just unveiled Scout, an AI-powered search portal that's essentially a return to Yahoo's 1990s identity as a curated web directory, now supercharged with large language models. According to The Verge's hands-on coverage, Scout is launching as a tab within Yahoo Search, a standalone web app at scout.yahoo.com, and a centerpiece feature in Yahoo's redesigned mobile search app.
What makes Scout different from the avalanche of AI search tools flooding the market? It actually wants you to leave. When testing a query about winter storm updates, Scout delivered a one-paragraph summary with three prominent blue hyperlinks embedded directly in the text, followed by detailed sections and a "Latest News" module packed with links to Yahoo stories, partner publications, and external sources. The page tallied nine total links, plus a unified sources view. That's a stark contrast to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode, which tend to bury citations behind subtle icons or light-gray buttons.
