News Bits: Yahoo Rings In Search 2.0

Written by Eve Bergazyn

Thursday, July 10. 2008 at 11:30 AM EDT Post a comment

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In a move that may resuscitate its distant-second-to-Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) search service, Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) announced the opening of search to outside developers on its blog yesterday. This comes at a good time, considering the recent buildup of pressure along the Icahn-Yang faultline.

BOSS, the company's new "search-as-a-service," allows developers to rank search results as they see fit; filter out obviously unwanted results; access "Web, news, and image search"; and lay out and design the search page and results themselves. In a second phase, the "invite-only" BOSS Custom will focus on "deep collaboration."

The big question is: Why would they do this? Especially in light of Google's reluctance to reveal its super-secret search code. Yahoo claims in its blog announcement that it's all in the name of innovation "powered by Yahoo."

So the company is in it for the glory? Probably not, since it is still a business. Will the boost in search attract advertisers, as GigaOM asserts? Perhaps. Or maybe the key will be BOSS Custom, which will cash in on developers' desire to take DIY search to the next level, for a price.

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