Yahoo! to put price on searches

Yahoo! plans to unveil a pay-per-view search product Wednesday, the latest in a string of premium services aimed at offsetting a sharp decline in its online advertising.

Dubbed "Yahoo! Premium Document Search", the service is designed to expand on a previous agreement with search technology provider Northern Light Technology, which has sold its premium search business and some other assets to enterprise software company Divine. Northern Light last year created a premium search engine for Yahoo!'s corporate clients.

"This fits into our desire to diversify revenue and more effectively monetize search and directory," said Scott Gatz, vice president of search and directory for Yahoo!. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The move comes as Yahoo! launches a flurry of money-making schemes in a bid to revive its revenue, which dipped to $717m (£500m) in 2001 from $1.1bn the previous year.

Last November, Yahoo! struck a deal with paid search service Overture Services to integrate pay-for-placement listings into its search results. In addition, Yahoo! has begun to charge visitors for a smattering of services, including more email memory, real-time stock quotes, online personals and auctions.

Although the new search service has not officially launched, a preview available to Web surfers Tuesday offered a glimpse of what's to come.

According to the site, Yahoo! plans to charge consumers between $1 and $4 to retrieve files from a specialised database of some 25 million research documents culled from 7,100 publications, including academic periodicals. Yahoo! also expects to offer a "Premium Discount Search" option of 50 documents a month for $4.95.

Search results on the preview site are identical to those found on the paid search service offered on Northern Light's home page.

"We are not able to talk about that at this point," said Camile Roberts, a spokeswoman at Northern Light. "We have always offered premium content on the Northern Light site."

E-commerce is transforming business around the globe. Get the latest headlines at ZDNet UK's E-commerce News Section.

For a round-up of the latest tech business coverage, see the Business News Section.

Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the ZDNet news forum.

Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

'Premium Document Search' is part of a plan to increase revenues in the light of scarce advertising dollars