BEIJING, June 16 (Xinhuanet)-- Yahoo Inc. on Thursday has begun testing a service that lets people search for information on sites in which they pay for access to the content.

    Called Yahoo Se arch Subscriptions, the new service indexes fee-based content and makes it searchable.

   Yahoo's strategy aims to build loyalty by letting people customize search to meet their personal needs. The same strategy, called personalization, is also used by Yahoo rivals Google Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and others.

    Search Subscriptions allows the users to view the list of subscription-based sources, the subscribers being offered the possibility to view their content, while the other users can chose to pay the fee for the same option.

    Subscription services that have signed up with Yahoo include ConsumerReports.org, The Wall Street Journal Online, TheStreet.com and The New England Journal of Medicine. In the coming weeks, Yahoo plans to add content aggregators Factiva and LexisNexis AlaCarte.  

    However, Tim Mayer, director of product management for Yahoo search technology, argued that subscription search provides a core service by potentially giving consumers one location to search for information they may already be paying for.

    "Improving comprehensiveness (in search) is a key pillar to product quality and relevance," Mayer said.  Enditem

    (Agencies)