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Yahoo chooses India to test global search tool
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newsbyte on 08 May, 2008 01:51:17
 
By Goutam Das
Bangalore, May 8: India is the test bed for Yahoo!’s new search innovation,
called ‘Glue Pages’, which packs visual and textual information onto one
page. The global launch of the beta version of the product was announced here on
Thursday.
Available at www.yahoo.in, Glue Pages intends to boost a visitor’s search
relevancy by integrating information from news websites, photos, videos, blogs,
and Web 2.0 pages, in addition to sponsored links. The service will initially be
accessible for select categories such as health, sports, entertainment, travel,
technology, and finance.
Higher search relevancy is the cornerstone around which Yahoo! plans to script
a revival story globally, after the Microsoft buyout deal fell through. The
company is struggling to bridge the monetisation and market share gap with
search leader Google. While some estimates peg the monetisation difference to be
as high as 70 per cent, Internet measurement firm comScore reported that
Google’s US share of core searches was 59.8 per cent in March 2008. Yahoo had
a 21.3 per cent share. The figures will be comparable in India, observers said.
Today’s launch hinted at what Yahoo!’s future strategy may look like.
It is embracing an ‘open approach’ – the search user interface will be
opened to developers. This is where India as a test bed makes sense: the country
has a huge pool of developers. The choice of India also has to do with its
‘emerging’ status, the fact that there is enough scope for new and young
user acquisition.
Besides application developers, Glue Pages will have something for the ordinary
user. People can actually create a specialised page on any topic by sourcing
content from websites like Wikipedia, YouTube, Flickr and blogs among others.
"Currently, our focus is on better content, to the right user, and in a quicker
way. Higher relevancy will lead to enhanced opportunities for advertisers,"
Pranesh Anthapur, COO with Yahoo! India R&D said.