Yahoo is introducing a new type of search advertising that integrates images and video in paid listings, the company announced Thursday. The company's Rich Ads in Search will display images next to the blue text ad links in search results.

Users can click on some of the images to watch video commercials. The platform also allows advertisers to present static images, such as logos, and search boxes within the ads.

Yahoo's share of the paid search market has been steadily declining in recent years while Google's has been increasing. But Yahoo may have a chance to turn that around given the uptick in its share of all online search queries last month, according to Comscore, which tracks Web site use statistics. Google's share of all searches dropped from 63.5 percent in December to 63.0 percent in January, Comscore said Wednesday.

The move appears to be among one of the early nips and tucks the new CEO is making to Yahoo as she appraises the various aspects of the business and crafts a broader turnaround plan. Holding on to existing users is vital for any Web business, says Sanford Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay. A company can always figure out how to make money off the users later.

For instance, Yahoo Mail is the world’s second most popular free email service, with roughly 280 million users worldwide in December, according to comScore, compared to Microsoft’s 292 million Live Hotmail users. Google’s Gmail is a distant No.3 with 123 million users.

And things are looking good for Yahoo. Comscore this week reported its U.S. search engine rankings for January 2009 and found that, while Google remains the leader, Yahoo saw strong growth from December to January in three categories - search share, search queries and expanded search queries - compared to Google.