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Yahoo! Search BOSS

17 January 2009 One Comment

yahoo_boss Yahoo! Search BOSS (Build your Own Search Service) is a Yahoo! Developer Network initiative to provide an open search web services platform.

The main goal and idea of BOSS is to give users, in this case developer’s free access to the Yahoo! Search index. The results can be supplied into the developer’s website or program so that they can manipulate the resources according to their product’s requirements. BOSS allows the results to be returned back in XML, HTML, text and also allows the comprehensive search feature allowed in Yahoo like pulling the results by pages, searching inside PDF, etc. The ranking of the websites for a search term is same as the Yahoo! Search ranking since both of these are pulling from the same index and same ranking.

Search APIs are nothing new, but typically they’ve included rate limits, strict terms of service regarding the re-ordering and presentation of results, and provided little or no opportunity for monetization. These constraints have limited the innovation and commercial viability of new search solutions.

BOSS (Build your Own Search Service) is different – it’s a truly open API with as few rules and limitations as possible. With BOSS, developers and start-ups now have the technology and infrastructure to build next generation search solutions that can compete head-to-head with the principals in the search industry. BOSS will grow and evolve with a focus on providing additional functionality, tools, and data for developers.

Revenue Sharing

In the near future, we will launch a monetization platform enabling Yahoo! and partners to jointly participate in the economics of BOSS-powered search products. Either Yahoo! sponsored search integration, with certain implementation and exclusivity requirements, or potentially a payment model, will be required above a specified query threshold.

Goal

According to the site, The goal of BOSS to “foster innovation in the search industry”

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