Yahoo to charge for expanded listings
By Michael Liedtke
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Internet giant Yahoo is adopting a new system for indexing Web pages that will charge businesses to include more material currently unlisted in its online search engine, marking the first volley in a duel with former ally Google.
Yahoo is touting the approach as a practical way to assure its search engine captures more of the so-called "deep Web" — the billions of pages that aren't found during periodic crawls of the Internet.
The method also will help Yahoo keep better tabs on the most current material on a Web page, company officials said.
More than 99 percent of Yahoo's search index will consist of links that don't pay fees, said vice president Tim Cadogan.
Search-engine analysts generally applauded Yahoo's move, saying it could open a rich new vein of content.
But the fees are likely to raise worries about Yahoo creating an online caste system dividing the Internet haves and have nots.
To ease those concerns, Yahoo isn't charging nonprofit Web sites to add unlisted links to its search engine. And the fees won't buy a higher ranking in Yahoo's noncommercial search results, Cadogan said.
Yahoo is counting on the program to give it an advantage over Google as it vies to supplant its rival as the Web's most popular search engine. Yahoo licensed Google's search engine for more than 3 1/2 years, but started to cut ties with its former partner three weeks ago.
Google co-founder Larry Page called Yahoo's new system "a pretty bad thing to do. There are plenty of profits to go around in search engines to find ways to improve the user experience without charging fees to do it."
Like Google and other major search engines, Yahoo has long been displaying ads that are tied to searches. But these advertising listings are labeled as "sponsored results" and separated from the search results.
Yahoo's plan rankled Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert, a consumer group that has criticized search engines for mingling advertising and results.
"The bottom line is that this is just going to be another way for businesses and the wealthy to buy search-engine results so they get the material they want in front of the eyes of search-engine users," Ruskin said.
