New Yahoo! service looks to "disrupt" search market

10th July 2008

Yahoo! is hoping to "disrupt" the search market and outdo its competitors with a new service that allows developers to customise their search experience.

The BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) platform will provide users with access to Yahoo! search technology through which they can manage their search results.

Through an applications programming interface, developers will be able to manipulate the algorithmic search infrastructure to create a search experience that is more suited to their requirements.

Search results can be re-ranked and their presentation controlled, effectively creating a unique search engine catered exclusively for the needs of the user.

Prabhakar Raghavan, chief strategist at Yahoo! Search, said: "BOSS opens up the playing field for developers and companies to disrupt the search market, become principals in search and build new web search experiences that offer more choice for users."

Meanwhile Yahoo! has reached an agreement with Google to display paid search results from its larger rival alongside its own search results.