Yahoo now has Handwritten Search for Chinese Characters

In an attempt to be more accessible to it's users, Yahoo has made it possible for Chinese users to enter searches in their very own handwriting. If you visit Yahoo! Taiwan & Yahoo! Hong Kong you can draw characters using a panel and it will search using that. This makes it easier for those unfamiliar with Chinese to browse the web more easily. Typing in Chinese is a complicated. Many user type Chinese characters by writing the sound using the QWERTY keyboard but this is tricky as many Chinese symbols have similar sounds or the same sounds with different tonality. There is also a method of typing the shape of the characters with a sequence of keys but this is hard to master. Yahoo product manager James Ying says, "handwritten search lowers the hurdle for users in Taiwan and Hong Kong".