Yahoo has always been second place in search since Google came round the block. But the company's latest acquisition might prove to be game changer.

Yahoo has acquired Aviate, a company that provides "contextual" app search and organization for mobile phone users, Marissa Mayer announced at CES.

"Contextual" search is becoming a huge deal at the major tech brands. Google, Microsoft's Bing, Apple and Facebook all have contextual or "semantic" search efforts already now.

It differs from a regular search by trying to anticipate what you really mean or want based on the cues in your past searches or in other stores of data the search tool can access.

Aviate will organize the apps on your home's phonescreen to better guest what you are searching for.

It isn't like auto-complete either.

Aviate "suggests music apps in your car, fitness apps in the gym, bringing you what you need when you need it," Mayer said. "Imagine your phone delivers the right experience to you at the right time, instead of you having to search for it."

Mayer is trying to fix the problem of you downloading one too many apps but only using a few of them.

"The future of search is contextual knowledge, and we're investing to be part of this future," she told attendees.

Will being first to the contextual game give Yahoo the edge they need over Google?