Sunnyvale (CA) - Yahoo is offering a re-engineered version of its search API that allows individuals and organizations to create their own search engines based on Yahoo’s technology. The new Build-your-On-Search-Service (BOSS) removes annoying limitations from the previous API and even enables developers to reconfigure the ranking of search results an change the way search results are presented. And yes, the engine is still provided free of charge.

Yahoo’s new BOSS is a great example how innovation can be driven in a highly competitive market. The company is going to great lengths to raise the visibility of its search engine technology and make the use of it more attractive. BOSS is a re-engineered version of the previous Yahoo search API , but gives developers much more control over how the API can be implemented and adjusted to a site’s needs.

Based on Yahoo search at its core, developers can reconfigure the ranking system, design the appearance of search and can blend search results from Web, news and image indexes with any data source from across the Web, according to Yahoo. Over time, Yahoo said it will make all of its search engine indexes available to BOSS users. Also, there are unlimited search queries - which were limited to 5000 per day previously.

The new strategy enables web enthusiast to create a virtually unlimited number of search engines in a market that is dominated by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft today. If Yahoo has its way, more and more users will integrate their own search engines on their homepages or social networking pages - and not visit Google or Live Search that often anymore. "BOSS opens up the playing field for developers and companies to disrupt the search market, become principals in search and build new Web search experiences that offer more choice for users," said Prabhakar Raghavan, chief strategist for Yahoo Search.

Yahoo, of course, won’t give this technology away completely for free. The company said that it is working on a monetization model for BOSS, which is likely to result in a revenue sharing model for the company. Search engines that are built on the BOSS platform
Include Hakia, Me.dium, Daylife and Cluuz. Hakia and Cluuz claim to have expanded the API with semantic search capability.