In July, Yahoo, the best-known search service, dropped its secondary database supplied by Inktomi, and started using Google instead.

At the same time, they appear to have instituted a new algorithm for their directory search feature.

This is a rather strange development, given that Google is largely powered by Open Directory Project data. ODP was, if you recall, the 1998 upstart all-volunteer army of editors who sought to replace Yahoo.

So, the first section of Yahoo search results is from the Yahoo directory, and the second (bigger) section is from Google. If you run a search on something that is not in Yahoo's directory, the whole of the results will be from Google.

A sidenote: Yahoo seems to have changed their structure to ontology closely following ODP's.

The press release.

A happy little thing: Yahoo seems to have become a bit more responsive. Many have noticed that they have been actually answering email and it has taken less time to get a submission into the directory.