Yahoo Adds New Search Options

Looking for more revenue in a lightweight ad market, Yahoo said on Wednesday that it is launching premium search content, offering customers access to reference reports, news, and authoritative content for a fee.

The Premium Document Search offers users a research library of more than 70 million pages of full text from more than 7100 sources that are not readily available on the Web, the company said. The new service includes content from thousands of health, science, medical, academic, and trade journals, as well as from newspapers and magazines. Additionally, users can tap into archived news from more than 60 U.S. and international newswires.

Users of the premium content service can choose to pay per document, with prices depending on the item, or $4.95 a month to access up to 50 documents. Summary views of the documents are free.

Yahoo is making the service available through an agreement with enterprise service provider Divine. Divine, based in Chicago, recently purchased search and content assets from Northern Light Technology.

Yahoo Premium Document Search launched today and can be accessed on Yahoo's Web site or through Yahoo Finance or Yahoo News.

The premium service comes on the heels of a rough fourth quarter and fiscal year 2001 for the powerhouse portal, which earlier this month reported losses for both periods. Adrift amid the rough waters of an advertising market downturn, Yahoo has been scrambling to generate alternative revenue sources.

The company's stock sunk in early morning trading, however, dipping 4.06 percent to $18.42 a share.