Yahoo releases technical specifications for Boss

JUST 18 MONTHS AGO months ago, when the Vole took over Yahoo's search operations, it looked like Yahoo's Boss search engine service was dead in the water.

Boss allowed developers to build their own customised search engine and it was quite popular.

Now it seems that Yahoo has completed re-tooling its Boss API and has released specifications and technical documentation.

The information includes changes to authentication and the option to use ads from the service, as well as introductory prices.

In August, Yahoo announced it would market a paid Boss service, although the service had been free previously. Earlier this month the company published its pricing for Boss, which will be $0.40 to $0.80 for web results, cheaper for images and news.

Yahoo's technical documentation indicates that the service will use Oauth. This provides "secure access to content is using your BOSS application ID and the Yahoo API key", according to Yahoo. It verifies authorised access privileges and allows for correct billing from Yahoo.

The specifications also have an optional advertising API included in Boss V2. Those with access to the advertising API can receive text ads with each query. Ads can be served with the rest of the search XML, so developers can display them however they wish.

It is not clear when Boss V2 will be available, but it is looking like it will be important for the resurrection of Yahoo's search services. µ