Friday, December 10, 2004

Yahoo Taps X1 For Desktop Search

Search engine giant Yahoo has tapped Pasadena-based X1 Technologies to add the ability to search desktop files and folders on Microsoft Windows platforms. Yahoo said that it will make the desktop search tool available in January to users of its service, as it scrambles to catch up with competitor Google. Google had shipped a desktop search tool last month. The deal comes as a score for X1, an Idealab startup which has been marketing the desktop search tool to users. X1's product searches email, file attachments, files, and contacts through a Windows-based interface. Unlike Google's desktop search product, the initial version of Yahoo's desktop search tool will not be integrated with a web browser. X1 was founded by Mark Goodstein and Bill Gross, who founded GoTo (now Overture and owned by Yahoo). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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