Yahoo To Allow Third Party Search Input With Search Monkey

Yahoo's new project, operating under code name “Search Monkey” is aimed at opening up its search to third parties. Search Monkey is the open source API set Yahoo will be releasing. The API will give web site owners more control over how they use Yahoo search on their sites.

Search Monkey will allow them to add ratings, reviews, images, web site data and other links to the results generated by Yahoo search. Yahoo representatives say the goal is to make search results more relevant, and have them incorporate more data from each site, taking search results a step beyond the typical name, rank and serial number approach of generating an url, title and one line description.

Yahoo is employing Machine Learned Ranking Technology to make sure the data users submit to them is presented to the search engine users at the correct time, making the content more relevant. At first glance this seems like a useless innovation with the company in such dire straights, under fire from Microsoft and in financial trouble. However, such a move will only make the company more appealing to Microsoft and increase its value to the giant as a search presence.

Google is rolling out a similar service, which they are calling subscribed links. Personally, neither search sounds appealing to me personally - I prefer honest and unfiltered search results, not sponsored ones. It seems both sites are not forcing users to see the skewed results though, which allows sticklers like me to get the unfiltered, non-sponsored search results we want and need while people who want more information, ratings and reviews along with their sponsored search can have their cake and eat it too.