Yahoo announced that it has partnered with Yelp to bring local data into its search experience, both mobile and desktop. The deal will see traditional Yelp information, such as ratings and user photos piped into Yahoo.
Yahoo is no longer a company known for its search products, having long-ago ceded its search technology to Microsoft, but the company does command a slice of the query market. That slice is in decline, something that the company wants to correct. Yahoo has tried to slow, stall, or get out from under its search deal with Microsoft, given that the partnership has failed to perform up to financial expectations. But, lashed as Yahoo is to the Microsoft Bingwagon, the former is imitating the latter. Microsoft’s search engine also partnered with Yelp, albeit 2 years ago.
Yelp remains a trove of information that search companies et al like to have in their pocket. That or you have to collect it yourself, something that Google is betting it can pull off. Bing and Yahoo, lacking Google’s scale, seem content to buy off the shelf.
Source: Techcrunch.com
