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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Internet media company Yahoo Inc. on Wednesday said it was switching to its own Web search technology and dropping its use of competitor Google Inc.
The widely anticipated announcement marks the unwinding of a long-term relationship between Yahoo, operator of the world's most-visited Internet properties, and Google, the No. 1 Web search provider.
The friendly partnership evolved into an intense rivalry as Google's popularity soared and Web-search advertising revenues, which traffic providers like Yahoo share with search companies, boomed.
Google is expected to go public later this year. Company representatives did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Yahoo recently has made major investments in the sector with acquisitions of search provider Inktomi and Overture Services, a key Web-search advertising company.
Its conversion project began late Tuesday night with the U.S. Yahoo site and will continue over the next several weeks as the Sunnyvale, California-based company moves its international properties to its own search product.
Upon completion of the transition, Yahoo will power nearly half of all Web search queries in the United States through its own sites and those of partners like Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Internet service, Jeff Weiner, senior vice president of Yahoo search and marketplace, said.
Yahoo's global reach, combined with its technology, position Yahoo to "change the game in search," Weiner said.
For its part, Microsoft is also throwing its vast resources behind a project to build search technology of its own.
Maybe Yahoo will make their own CPC (Cost Per Click) kind of program when they create their own search system, similiar to Google's Adsense Program. That might be something interesting to think about since Google basically dominates the Search Engine world. :gl:
