So this will be my first post on simori. I had been observing this site for quite sometime and found very useful information. In case you have n’t got me yet, I am yashh. So here I am to add a few tidbits of mine.

For about an year I was wondering if google provided any API’s for the 3rd party players to utilize google search. In fact google has supported the Soap API for few years. The Soap API provided a lot of freedom for the developers to utilize the Google search remotely. The main advantage was that we could hide the backend queries from the presentation. In simple terms the results do not have the brand name google. Although google limited the queries to 1000 per day it was worth while. As of December 5, 2006, google is no longer issuing any new API keys to the developers and instead started promoting the AJAX search APIwhich does not give the developers the freedom to manipulate the presentation of search results.

Now it is Yahoo which has come the BOSS api which is used to launch search products. The first obvious question is how is it different from the previous Yahoo API.

1. Unlimited queries per day.
2. No restriction on presentation.
3. Search Web, Images & News.
4. Get Spelling sugestions.
5. Reorder the search results & many other.

So let’s get started with a small exercise to know how Y! BOSS API works. Sign up for an BOSS Application ID. For this excercise I am using Y! BOSS mashup python library. You can download the library here. Unzip the library. Open config.json file in code editor and edit the application id with yours. Fire up your terminal (if on mac or command prompt on windows).

#!/bin/sh

$ cd Desktop/boss_mashup_framework_0.1
$ export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:$PWD
$ python
Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, Apr 15 2008, 22:57:26)
[GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Inc. build 5465)] on darwin
>>> from yos.boss import ysearch
>>> data = ysearch.search(‘python’, count=10)
>>> data
# You find all the top search results for the keyword ‘python’
in a dictionary format. Voila you are able to search the web from your terminal.

Yahoo.com has been spotted with a newly designed logo hovered on the top of its website. Could this just be a work of Photoshop or Yahoo! is indeed planning to rejuvenate the company with much aggressive plans by changing its logo?

According to MacRumors, Microsoft will leave Yahoo! alone because the price that Yahoo insisted, $53 billion ($37/share), was too much for Microsoft’s offer, which was at $47.5 billion ($33/share).

(more…)

According to PCWorld,

Yahoo failed to agree to an acquisition deal with Microsoft by Saturday, the deadline Microsoft had set for wrapping up negotiations. Now Microsoft must decide whether to pursue a hostile takeover via a proxy fight or to drop the bid and seek other acquisition alternatives.

For further coverage, PCWorld.

Microsoft has previously gave Yahoo! until April 26th for the friendly takeover. It’s has already been a few weeks and now Yahoo! has roughly 7 days to reply to Microsoft’s unsolicited offer of $31 a share.

Times has recently published an article saying that Microsoft is really eager to take over Yahoo! that it has hired “lobbyists to help it convince regulators to let the deal — hostile if it has to be — go through.”

In the meantime, Yahoo! is exploring options of an alliance with Google Inc, hoping to that it’d “lead to a long-term partnership” and…a combination with online operations of Time Warner Inc.’s AOL.

Today’s Hot news is all about Yahoo! and Microsoft ……

Those who are interested to bid for Yahoo !!! There is something for You

“Microsoft has set an April 26 deadline for Yahoo to accept its current offer, which was initially valued at $44.6 billion, or $31 per share. The deal’s value has eroded because Microsoft wants to pay for half of the acquisition with its recently declining stock.”

Yahoo’s ad tests with Google make a friendly deal with Microsoft less likely and raises the odds that Microsoft will follow through on a recent threat to lower its bid, said Standard and Poor’s equity analyst Scott Kessler.

If the Google tests were to begin immediately, they would be completed shortly before Microsoft’s April 26 deadline.

By flirting with Google, Yahoo is trying to prove it has other options besides succumbing to Microsoft, Kessler said. But he doubts most investors will take the Google alternative seriously, given the antitrust obstacles.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense for Yahoo to make an announcement like this when everyone knows a long-term relationship (with Google) can’t happen,” Kessler said. “It strikes me as somewhat desperate.”

Source: CNN