In an effort to wiggle free of its pre-existing search agreement with Microsoft, Yahoo is fast-tracking an effort to develop search technology, according Recode.net.
The website reported Friday that Yahoo has launched two projects, Fast Break and Curveball, with an eye toward – eventually – developing a search engine. But the timing is aggressive: just three to four months to build out the programmes, the site reported.
What Curveball and Fast Break are isn’t known but what’s been much more obvious is how Yahoo has chafed under the terms of its contract with Microsoft.
Under a 2009 search agreement, Microsoft guaranteed Yahoo a certain amount of revenue per search on its properties for 18 months. That was compensation for Yahoo’s exiting search and signing a deal for its sites to be powered by Microsoft’s Bing.
However, Microsoft then fell almost continually short of its obligations under the deal, prompting Yahoo executives to note. In April of last year, Yahoo and Microsoft agreed to a one-year extension of the deal, but only in the US. That deal would expire on 1 April 2014 – about the time Fast Break and Curveball would be scheduled for completion.
And as for Yahoo’s thoughts on search? CEO Marissa Mayer was asked about reviving either its own internal search programme, or resurrecting Panama, a 2006 ad programme designed to more accurately weight paid ads on a number of characteristics, rather than just on advertiser bids.
“Overall, in terms of search we completed the transition this past quarter of our Panama platform so and by in large part it is now been shut down,” Mayer said during a call in conjunction with Yahoo’s fourth-quarter earnings. “As we mentioned in the previous question, search is very strategic for us. We’re long in search and we do intend to continue to invest in the search user experience and in really making sure that Yahoo users on the network ultimately, really gather tremendous experience.”
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