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Me.dium is the example highlighted by Yahoo! Silicon Alley Insider points out that Me.dium is adding social signals to Yahoo! ranking and calling it “Social Search” which ironically is “using a name Yahoo! has already attached to a failed product.” VentureBeat has a more positive spin on the Me.dium demo application, although Dan Kaplan concludes:

The question that hangs over Yahoo, BOSS, and Me.dium is whether or not any search player will really be able to change user behavior and get people to consistently use something other than Google; the results would probably have to be a noticeable leap forward, and even then, it would be hard to break Googling habits.

Dan is absolutely right, and BOSS will have to go a lot further to deliver a true “leap forward.”

Integrating query suggestions (Search Assist technology)

Query parsing services is one of the most interesting aspects of BOSS Custom. Search Assist is very well done already, and if it could be integrated with our custom, industry-specific ontology.

Huanjin: In general, I think this is a very important event for all search startups. It opens new opportunities. Google has pushed search relevance to the limit that the current approach can achieve. To significantly improve the search relevance, we have to take drastically different approaches, i.e., not solely by keyword matching, not solely by statistical signals, and not treating every user the same. My take on the direction of search technology is

(1) Meaning based (semantic and/or syntactic).

(2) Context aware. The same word means different things in different contexts.

(3) Must be able to treat different users differently

(4) Opinion based.

(5) Leverage human knowledge base

Most niche search engines lack a traffic strategy that envisions coexisting with Google and Yahoo! Getting search traffic from existing engines needs to be a component of their business vision, as it is with Uptake.

Beyond that, discoverability has been the biggest issue for the alternative search engines. ASE’s underestimate the brand loyalty that Google has earned that goes beyond the real advantage in search quality. If Yahoo! could play a role in that discoverability, through Search Monkey and other programs, that could be an advantage to the alts AND also to Yahoo!

This is a two step process. Open up search through BOSS Custom to allow innovation to bloom. Then harness that innovation back into differentiating Yahoo! as a search and discovery platform that leverages this innovation to be different from Google. Yahoo! funnels traffic to BOSS alts, but then consumers use Yahoo! and build brand preference to Yahoo! and its rag-tag Rebel Alliance fleet!