Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

me.dium posts

Filed under: Internet, Yahoo!, Search

Yahoo! launches BOSS: Build Your Own Search Service

Hakia
If you've always wanted to build a search engine, but didn't have the resources to index the entire web and compete with the likes of Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, now's your chance. Yahoo! is opening up its search service, allowing anyone to build a search engine based on Yahoo! technology. Yahoo! has offered a search API for a while, but the new Build Your Own Search Service or BOSS program is different in a few key ways:
  1. You can re-rank search results and blend them into other content on a web page.
  2. There are no limits on the number of queries per day
  3. There's no requirement to include Yahoo! branding
  4. BOSS search results can be mashed up with results from other data sources
Yahoo! is offering access to its web, news, and image search engines. More areas, such as video may be coming soon. Eventually Yahoo! will be rolling out a monetization plan that will allow BOSS partners to include ads on their sites and presumably split the revenue with Yahoo!

The company has announced several launch partners, including Hakia, Me.dium, Daylife To-Go, and Cluuz.

Will the move help put Yahoo! on more computer screens than industry giant Google? It's hard to say. Google offers the ability to create search engine options, but they're not nearly as open or flexible as BOSS.

Filed under: Microsoft, Social Software, Beta

Me.dium among early web apps optimized for IE8

Me.dium
The big announcement at this week's MIX08 conference was undoubtedly Microsoft's latest version of Internet Explorer, IE8. With all the questions flying around about standards support and what's under the hood of the new browser, we wanted to make sure you didn't miss the news about web apps that are getting a boost from IE8. One of the early entries showcased at MIX08 was the social browsing platform Me.dium.

Me.dium is a service that turns websurfing into a social experience, adding the ability to chat with other users and see what sites they're browsing. IE8's Activities feature, which finds microformats in web pages and lets you work with them, is a great fit for Me.dium. If you're going to share social data, why stop at webpages? Me.dium is also planning to include IE8's Web Slices in its recommendation features, so you'll be able to see the most popular pages and slices in your Me.dium network.

A lot of other services should be announcing integration with these new features soon, but Me.dium got an early jump because Microsoft specifically asked them to prepare something for MIX08. That can't be bad news for Me.dium's value as a company or the features it brings to the table for users.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio