Yahoo announced that it is shutting down Search Boss, the set of tools it has offered since 2009 to help developers and others build their own search engines.
In 2010, following the Microsoft/Yahoo search and advertising partnership announcement, Yahoo addressed the future of the service indicating it would keep it around utilizing algorithmic search results by Microsoft.
Now, six years later, Yahoo is pulling the plug. On the Search Boss website (via Search Engine Land):
At Yahoo, we’re always looking for ways to streamline and simplify products for our customers. With this focus in mind, we will discontinue BOSS JSON Search API, BOSS Placefinder API, BOSS Placespotter API and as well BOSS Hosted Search, on March 31, 2016.
Access to the BOSS will continue until March 31, 2016. Moving forward, customers can instead use YPA, a Javascript Solution that provides algorithmic web results with search ads for publishers who manage their own search engine results pages (SERPs). Click here to apply or learn more about YPA, or if you are working with a Yahoo Partner Manager, they can help you explore your options.
If you’re concerned about the closure of Search Boss (frankly, I haven’t heard anybody talk about it in quite some time), you can check out an FAQ page here.
Image via Marissa Mayer (Twitter)