Yahoo Search Launches AI Review Summary Tool

Tokyo, Japan - LY Corp announced the launch of a feature that utilizes artificial intelligence to summarize user reviews of commercial facilities on Yahoo Search.

The function covers approximately 47,000 shopping malls, retail stores, and department stores across Japan. The AI system displays up to five characteristics extracted from user reviews in search results.

The company conducted a survey of 365 users between July 7 and 10 regarding information collection challenges for commercial facilities.

The survey found 63.6 percent of respondents reported difficulties, including "too many reviews making it hard to find necessary information," "insufficient facility information," and "outdated information."

The AI processes reviews posted within a specified timeframe and extracts information about user experiences, facility ratings, and visitor considerations.

Users previously viewed individual reviews from Yahoo Maps and other sources in list format.

The feature is available on the Yahoo Japan mobile application for iOS and Android, the smartphone browser version of Yahoo Japan, and within the web search function of the LINE application.

Review summaries are displayed only for facilities that have received a minimum number of user reviews, although the company did not specify the threshold.

LY Corp stated that the system utilizes OpenAI's application programming interface.

The company stated it does not guarantee the reliability, accuracy, completeness, or effectiveness of AI-generated results.

The facility count of 47,000 represents an estimate as of July 30 and may fluctuate, according to the announcement.

The service operates under LINEYahoo's standard terms of use and specific guidelines for AI-generated review summarization.

The company stated that the feature is designed to address user questions and challenges related to information retrieval on Yahoo Search.