By Richard Koman for SiliconValleyWatch.com

Yahoo started public testing of Y!Q, its new contextual search engine late Wednesday. The feature allows users to click on a Y!Q button, which pops up contextual search box right on the web page. A toolbar option lets users select specific text and search for news and web pages related to the text instead of the page itself.

SearchEngineWatch.com's Chris Sherman writes: "It's hard to describe just what Y!Q does without actually trying it out. Imagine combining suggested search terms with result clustering, but all assembled on the fly based on an analysis of a web page rather than from search terms you type into a query box. It's neat, and in some cases, it's a very powerful tool for easily constructing sophisticated queries."

Read SEW's review and check it out at next.yahoo.com