Yahoo! could be set to expand its search results for British users beyond text.

Under the move, the search engine giant is set to return a mixture of video, still images and audio clips and text, as it looks to help advertisers further target audiences, reports TravelMole.

Richard Gregory, chief operating officer of search engine marketing firm Latitude Group, claimed that search engines in the US are already beginning to combine text and video content.

He told the publication: "The idea that search engines just give text results is very old fashioned. What they are trying to do is understand the intent of the search and deliver results in a format that is relevant to the user.

"It's about giving you smarter results."

Regional sales director of Yahoo! search marketing, Richard Firminger, added that the facility could make it easier for users to find relevant content on specific interests.

Last month, Microsoft announced it was to use personal information from its 263 million Hotmail customers to help target adverts to particular interests, which could help marketers looking to attract certain audiences.