Yahoo Plans Desktop Search To Compete With Google, MicrosoftYahoo Plans Desktop Search To Compete With Google, Microsoft

Yahoo Inc. plans to release in January the beta version of a desktop search application, as the giant web portal looks to catch Google Inc. and pass Microsoft Corp. in the search market.

Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., has licensed the technology from X1 Technologies Inc., which targets primarily professionals with desktop search software it sells for $74.95. Yahoo Desktop Search will be X1's first consumer-focused product.

Yahoo and X1 are working together in building the Yahoo offering, Josh Jacobs, president of X1, said Friday. Financial details were not disclosed.

The smaller company, however, will also continue developing its paid software, and X1 plans to announce a major upgrade of the product in January.

"Each of us (Yahoo and X1) are looking at our unique customers and evolving our products to meet their specific needs," Jacobs said.

Google introduced a beta version of its hard-drive search engine in October, placing pressure on its rivals Yahoo and Microsoft. The latter company released a beta version of its homegrown search engine, MSN Search, last month, but the tool does not include desktop search.

Whit Andrews, analyst for market researcher Gartner Inc., said all three competitors are expected to eventually offer desktop search as one more mechanism for keeping consumers involved in their sites.

"Unequivocally, (Yahoo's announcement) reflects the necessity for all the major (Internet) media companies to compete with Google in providing insight into people's personal knowledge holdings," Andrews said.

Yahoo and Microsoft have built portals that offer news, sports, entertainment, music, shopping and more. Google is currently focused primarily on search, but is expected by many analysts to eventually start competing in other areas with its two major rivals.

Google's desktop-search tool presents results based on what it finds in a user's emails and Microsoft Office documents, and in web pages viewed in Internet Explorer. The tool also provides a web search.

Yahoo, on the other hand, is expected to focus its search tool on the desktop and on a subscriber's personal information stored on the Yahoo portal, such as email, photos and calendar, Andrews said. The search tool is also expected to be able to return search results from Yahoo's news, entertainment and music offerings, as well as the general web.

"They all see search as a way to raise switching barriers," Andrews said, referring to how web surfers today typically move from one search engine to another. "With desktop search, its harder to switch, than if you're just going to a web page."

Yahoo did not disclose details of its planned search technology, but X1's current product enables either a general or narrow search of a person's hard drive. For example, a person can search just for email from or to a specific person. The product also includes a preview window, so users don't have to call up each search result to see what's in it.

"We are much faster (than Google) at getting you a smaller list (of results), because we leverage what you know about the item you're looking for," Jacobs said.

For X1, a small company based in Pasadena, Calif., the deal puts its product in front of millions of people, some of whom may decide to buy the professional version of X1's software. Yahoo claim to have nearly 160 million registered users.