"Offering free computer help, hints, and tips to the Internet populace." Now with over 3,820 tips!

Yahoo Search

Stop Displaying Search Suggestions (Search Assist)

SUMMARY: Prevent the Yahoo! search engine from displaying search suggestions as you type.

By default, as you type your search query into the Yahoo! search engine, its "Search Assist" feature may display sample queries while you are typing. This way not only can you see related queries, you might be able to save a few keystrokes - if one of the suggestions matches your desired query, just click it to begin your search. For example, as you begin typing "total eclipse", you might see suggestions such as "total eclipse of the sun" or "total eclipse of the heart".

For various reasons some would rather not have these suggestions displayed. Perhaps they are a fast typist and find the suggestions unnecessary, or they may not like the suggestions presented. For whatever reason, suggestions can be disabled by doing the following:

Example of Yahoo! Search Assist displaying search suggestions as one begins to type "computer"

1. Click the "Options" link, clicking "Preferences" when the pop-up menu appears.

2. When the "Search Preferences" page appears, next to "Search Assist", click the "Edit" link.

3. The "Search Preferences - Search Assist" page appears. Click the "Never" radio button, then press the "Save" button.

Disabling Search Assist for Yahoo!

Note that if you are not signed into a Yahoo! account, your preferences may not be permanently saved. This option saves a cookie on your system, so clearing the cookies in your browser (which may be done by your firewall or other security software) will remove this setting.