By Dick Kelsey, Newsbytes
SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A.,
23 Jan 2002, 1:51 PM CST

Internet services portal Yahoo [NASDAQ:YHOO] today launched a premium search service for a fee, another move away from its dependence on the comatose online advertising market.

Yahoo Premium Document Search costs $1 to $4 per document for data in 70 million pages of content from 7,100 sources in the Northern Light online research library, purchased last Friday by software maker Divine.

For $4.95 per month, users can have access to as many as 50 documents, Yahoo said, although certain documents - such as Wall Street research reports - may cost hundreds of dollars.

"We think the service will have broad appeal," Scott Gatz, Yahoo's search and directory vice president, told Newsbytes. The premium search service will be useful for consumers seeking in-depth information and business people researching work projects.

Gatz, citing Yahoo's policy of not revealing most financial aspects of its services, would not discuss revenue projections for premium searches or say how much Yahoo would be paid for the sale of higher-priced documents.

The library spans information in thousands of business, health, science and news magazines, trade journals, newspapers, medical publications, and academic journals. It also holds reference reports and archived news from dozens of U.S. and international newswires.

"There are sources (in the library) just not available on the Internet today," said Gatz.

Users will see free summaries of documents and articles before having to make payment.

"Through this agreement, Yahoo can offer its customers premium content that they otherwise would not find on the Web," said former Northern Light CEO David Seuss, who joined the executive team of Divine.

Last November Yahoo started to accept payment from advertisers for placement in its search results through a partnership with search site Overture. In Overture's system, advertisers pay for placement on relevant search results.

Yahoo could use the money . The new revenue source comes one week after Yahoo reported revenues of $189 million in the fourth quarter of 2001, far less than the $311 million brought in during the year-ago quarter.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com