Yahoo Debuts New Search Technology

Posted on March 12, 2004

Yahoo! Inc. announced that it has launched its own algorithmic search technology on Yahoo! Search. Yahoo expects to deploy the new search service on a worldwide basis over the next several weeks. The company claims that Yahoo! Search Technology will power nearly half of all online searches in the U.S when the deployment is finished.

The launch of Yahoo's new algorithmic search comes after Yahoo announced it would be dropping Google's search results a few weeks ago. Industry experts were expecting the move after Yahoo acquired both Inktomi, a provider of search technology, and Overture, a pay-per-click advertising provider, in the past year. The acquisitions helped put Yahoo in a better position to compete with Google's growing popularity.

"Today's announcement marks the beginning of a rapid succession of innovations from Yahoo! Search that will deliver against our mission of providing the highest quality search experience on the Web," said Jeff Weiner, senior vice president, Yahoo! Search and Marketplace. "Within the next few weeks and months, consumers will continue to see improvements to Yahoo!'s search technology in addition to advancements in search personalization and other user features."

As part of the company's next steps in customization and personalization, Yahoo! is introducing a new search service that integrates Yahoo! Search with My Yahoo! by adding links to XML/RSS site syndication content in search results. This service enables users to search for millions of sites that support this format and add them to their My Yahoo! personal homepage. Once added to their page, users will see instantly updated headlines and links from these sites.

Yahoo! Search Technology has already been integrated into Yahoo! News Search and the Yahoo! Product Search. Yahoo also plans to use the search technology in its Travel, Local, Personals and HotJobs sections.