Yahoo! Unveils “Open Search”

To encourage more third party development of its search engine results, Yahoo! is set to enable webmasters to more directly influence the way their content is displayed in the Yahoo! search engine. Instead of a simple text link with a short description, Yahoo! wants web developers to be able to publish feeds directly to the search engine results pages in the hopes that more robust results will result in a better user experience.

According to Vish Makhijani, senior vice president and general manager of Yahoo Search, “Our intent is clear — present users with richer, more useful search results so that they can complete their tasks more efficiently and get from ‘to-do’ to ‘done.’” The move is brilliant from the perspective of Yahoo!, because they do not have to worry about enriching their own search results. Instead, they allow the webmasters to add their own content and do the work for them. While other search engines are working to create improved search results, Yahoo! simply asks its users to do it for them.

This move brings the search giant Yahoo! one step closer to competing with Google for the top spot. A little known fact is that Google has allowed users to customize their own search engine results since 2006 with their Subscribed Links feature. This feature has existed in relative obscurity in part because it’s not all that useful to the average webmaster, but it is a useful tool.