Yahoo BOSS gives partners subject-specific search
The company's shared search service now can provide some subject-specific results to some partners. Later it'll be publicly available.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
Yahoo has begun offering a new variety of its BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) called vertical lens technology that lets partners show a subset of search results relating to a particular area.
BOSS lets people repackage, reorder, blend, and otherwise change Yahoo's search results; academics and smaller sites may do so for free, but larger ones must show Yahoo search ads or sign a deal with Yahoo to share revenue. The vertical lens technology lets partners "create a truly comprehensive vertical search engine that complements their core user experience," according to Yahoo.
So far, only some partners can use the vertical lens technology. TechCrunch is one, using the vertical version of BOSS to show technology-related search results. "We're working to share the technology more openly through the BOSS API," or application programming interface, Yahoo said.