One of the companies was Me.dium, a browser add-in that provided real-time access to what others were surfing. Me.dium incorporated its technology into "social search," releasing an alpha of its search engine earlier this year. Today, they're relaunching that social search as OneRiot.

"Like other search engines, we keep a running record of the contents of the Internet. However, unlike other search engines, we prioritize that information based on its current popularity with our community. This makes OneRiot's search results relevant, fresh, friendly, and pulsing with the real-time energy of the web."

When OneRiot finds results that other users are currently visiting, it uses the data to provide an indicator of how important those results are: Emerging, Surging, or Raging.

How does OneRiot get the data? Users can opt to install a browser add-in that allows them to share their browsing data with OneRiot, much in the same way services like Alexa and Compete record usage. OneRiot claims to have more than 2 million users sharing their activity, today.

So What's Hot?

Currently, political and entertainment topics sit atop the list of popular topics - for obvious reasons. But it's not just the search results. The new OneRiot blog tends to focus more on the pop side of Web browsing, as well, featuring stories on Lindsay Lohan, psychics, and Palin's chances for 2012.

Searches for topics like technology - even for topics like iPhone 2.2 and Android - result in the standard search result fare. Nothing geeky is really "pulsing" with the OneRiot crowd. The closest I could find? News on the Mars Rover.

Is This Solving a Problem?

Some would argue that another search engine is the last thing the Web needs. Especially a search engine that delivers more information on the latest pop princess.

When I read about the new direction for OneRiot, I felt exactly the same way I felt when - after a great deal of build-up - Like.com announced that they were going to become a shopping site. I was disappointed because, while the technology might be improving search, it wasn't really improving my search experience.

OneRiot strikes a similar chord. I'm not disappointed in the technology per se. I'm disappointed that the current application doesn't do much to solve my search woes. I'm sure there are a number of people who will find OneRiot valuable, but at this point, it's not delivering much in terms of my interests.

It's Still Early

There seems to be a whole new crop of contenders looking to improve search as we currently know it: Cuil, Delver, and OneRiot among them. And with the ever-growing glut of information at our fingertips, we could use the help.

Two recent innovations hold the promise to help us sift through information more effectively. One is the physical location from which we're searching for information - the geolocation information - and the other is the people we trust to give us information - the social information.

For those pursuing the social aspect, the key to winning users is having peers that they trust using the service. Otherwise, the relevance is just as irrelevant as any other site. It's a classic "chicken or the egg" problem. Relevant social content attracts users, but users are needed to determine relevant social content. And that is OneRiot's challenge: finding enough users - with similar interests - to make the search results more compelling than the standard robot-driven search.

OneRiot still carries an "alpha" next to its name. It's very early in its life, with room to grow and improve. As it grows, OneRiot has the potential to corner niche categories with specific markets and to increase its user base organically from there. But will OneRiot gather the critical mass required to make it a search contender with a wider audience? We're still searching for the answer to that one.

Partner Relationships

Websites wishing to leverage the BOSS APIs will be allowed to can blend in their own ranking input and change the presentation of results. There are no requirements for attribution to Yahoo! and there's no limit on the number of queries that can be performed.

At launch Yahoo! BOSS will see live integrations with at least three other companies. Hakia will integrate their semantic parsing with the Yahoo! index and search, social browser plug-in Me.dium will use the data it's collected to offer a social search tied to the Yahoo! index, and real-time sentiment search engine Summize was included in the BOSS demo - augmenting Yahoo News search results with related Twitter messages.

More extensive customization and integration with large media companies will be performed with assistance from Yahoo! and ad-free access to the APIs will be made available to the Computer Science departments of academic institutions.

Does Anyone Really Care About Niche Vertical Search Engines?

We asked Yahoo! just that, although we believe that alternative search engines can be pretty exciting. None the less, we think it's a valid question.

Senior Director of the Open Search Platform, Bill Michels told us that niche search engines often aren't very good because they have access to a very limited index of content. It's expensive to index the whole web. Likewise, Michels said that there are a substantial number of large organizations that have a huge amount of content but don't have world-class search technology.

In both cases, Yahoo! BOSS is intended to level the playing field and blow the Big 3 wide open. We agree that it's very exciting to imagine thousands of new Yahoo! powered niche search engines proliferating. Could Yahoo! plus the respective strengths and communities of all these new players challenge Google? We think they could.

What's Not Included?

The BOSS APIs are in beta for now, so they may be expanded with time - but for now there are still a few crown jewels in the company's plans that won't be opened up. We asked about Yahoo's indexing of the semantic web and were told that would not be a part of BOSS. We asked about the Inbox 2.0 strategy and the company's plans to rewire for social graph and data portability paradigms. We were told that those were "other programs."

We hope that there's not a fundamental disconnect there that will lead to lost opportunities and a lack of focus. It is clear, though, that BOSS falls well within the company's overall technical strategy of openness. When it comes to web standards, openness and support for the ecosystem of innovation - there may be no other major vendor online as strong as Yahoo! is today. These are times of openness, where some believe that no single vendor's technology and genius alone can match the creativity of an empowered open market of developers. Yahoo! is positioning itself as leader of this movement.

Let's see what they can do with an army of Yahoo! powered search engines. Let the games begin!