Yahoo opens up search tools

Yahoo is allowing users to build their own search engines.

The company has released its own search tools to the public in a package known as "Build your Own Search Serice," or 'BOSS.'

The BOSS tool will allow users to create search engines to retrieve customized results on their own sites. The service taps directly into Google search API's and allows users to put the search data within their own interfaces and add them to data from other web services.

This, says the company, will allow users to create customized search engines which can return results based on user preference or social networking connections, all while drawing from Yahoo's own search index.

The service is being offered as an alternative to Yahoo's previous search API tool, which restricted the ordering and presentation of the results, as well as a strict limit of 5,000 queries per day.

Google released a similar service in 2006, allowing users to specify a custom set of sites and criteria for search results. Yahoo, however, hopes to take BOSS far beyond that, possibly even leading to the creation of new search engines.

"It lets them realize their own vision of what a search experience should be, enabling unlimited mash-ups and disrupting the search landscape," said Prabhakar Raghavan, chief strategist for Yahoo Search.

"BOSS will enable developers and companies to easily enter the search industry, without large capital or resource expenditures, unleashing a wave of search innovation beyond any one of today’s search principals."

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!