

BOSS – The Next Step in our Open Search Ecosystem - ajbatac
http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2008/07/boss_the_next_s.html

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malpern
Hi, my name is Micah Alpern and I work with the Yahoo! BOSS team. If you have
any questions about BOSS or ideas for how we can make it even better please
feel free drop in on the BOSS Yahoo! group:
<http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ysearchboss/>

There are a number of BOSS team members there who can answer you questions.
You should also check out our Python based mash-up framework that makes it
easy to blend search results from multiple sources.
<http://developer.yahoo.com/search/boss/mashup.html>

Also check out this personal blog post by Vik Sing, the BOSS architect:
[http://zooie.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/yahoo-boss-an-
insider-...](http://zooie.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/yahoo-boss-an-insider-
view/)

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sabat
Micah, thanks for checking in. BOSS is going to solve a problem I've had, and
I'm sure it's going to be a boon for a lot of others.

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drubio
Remarkable in the sense that BOSS is a search service that will have 'No
Restrictions on Presentation' and 'Blending of Proprietary and Yahoo! Search
Content Allowed'.

But AMAZING it will have monetization, even though right now its says 'Coming
Soon', wouldn't be strange if they took a while on this.

Its their kind of resources and scaling capabilities that allow 'THEM' to
monetize search the way the do, now they will give everyone the same crack at
using their same power and on top monetize it..wow..sounds like this will
shake things up a bit in search, if BOSS delivers on what it says it will.

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wave
Do they really mean unlimited queries? I think they need to do or say more to
assure the developers they really meant unlimited.

The API can be found at
<http://developer.yahoo.com/search/boss/boss_guide/index.html> and it seems
very simple:

    
    
       http://boss.yahooapis.com/ysearch/{vertical}/v1/{query}?appid=xyz[&param1=val1&param2=val2&etc]
       vertical  - web , image , news...
       query     - text query
       appid     - your Yahoo application id
       parm1,2,3 - filter, type...
       filter    -  -hate , -porn...
       type      -  pdf , html , nonhtml , ppt ...

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nose
You might find this helpful (#2, #15):
<http://developer.yahoo.com/search/boss/boss_guide/faq.html>

~~~
aaronblohowiak
also, "There are no rate limits on the number of queries per day" from
[http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2008/07/boss_the_ne...](http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2008/07/boss_the_next_s.html)

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sonink
Yahoo is bang on with this one.

BOSS + Amazon Cloud counters the huge infrastructure edge that Google services
enjoyed till now.

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michaelbuckbee
I think acceptable BOSS usage can best be described as "anything that doesn't
piss Y! off". Now, this may be a compromise between their lawyers and the host
of innovative search offerings they can't put in a legal box at the moment,
but I'm still hesitant to think this is all great.

Looking through the TOS I also found this beauty (good luck writing a blog
post announcing that you are now integrating BOSS search results):

(a) You shall not refer to the Services, or use or display any Yahoo!
trademarks, service marks, logos or other Yahoo!-related branding in
connection with any Links or Web Search Results or in any other manner, except
where expressly and specifically authorized by Yahoo! in writing.

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IsaacSchlueter
Yeah, but that's the kind of "just in case" language that's rarely actually
used if you're not being a jerk. There's a limit to what's actually
enforceable.

If you wrote a blog post stating that you're using Yahoo's new BOSS service in
your app, and showed the Yahoo logo there, and talked about how great it is, I
sincerely doubt anyone at Yahoo would have a problem with that.

However, if you had an app that was specifically designed to phish passwords,
and you put the Yahoo logo on it, and Yahoo sued you for inappropriate use of
their IP, you couldn't even begin to claim that they gave you permission. This
kind of legal language precludes them from appearing to even accidentally
permit that kind of thing. It's just erring on the side of being cautious,
which is expected, common, and responsible.

~~~
michaelbuckbee
I agree with your interpretation (if you write positive stuff I don't think
they'll complain), and I think they do have the right to just arbitrarily
decide that someone is doing something bad and cut them off.

I don't like that they are saying that this is an open system, then laying
down a legal trap where "everyone" who writes anything about the service would
be in violation of their TOS. You can't have it both ways.

~~~
IsaacSchlueter
They're not trying to have it both ways.

They're saying, "Unless we have given you permission to use our IP, you don't
have it."

It's not like Yahoo is claiming that BOSS is GPL'ed or anything. And even if
it was FOSS, PHP has similar language in its license--you can't use the phrase
"PHP" or the logo to endorse or promote any product without written
permission.

Language like this in a license never trumps fair use anyhow.

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auston
I hope they give me movie data! I want movie info.

~~~
joseakle
i'm working on movie search as a side project and have been doing it via
scraping

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dkasper
Are you guys avoiding using IMDb's data since it can't be used commercially?

<http://www.imdb.com/interfaces>

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joseakle
yeah, too bad we need a written consent, i'm just scraping theater showtimes
and will have to include links to imdb for more info, thankfully they let me
do this "You are granted a limited, revocable, and nonexclusive right to
create a hyperlink to IMDb.com" they are so generous for letting me link to
them

