Yahoo teams with OneRiot on real-time search

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc, looking to match rivals in providing up-to-the-minute Internet search results, is running tests with several real-time search partners, sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Among the companies providing real-time results to Yahoo on a trial basis is OneRiot, whose data will be available initially to about 10 percent of Yahoo's users, said a person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to speak about the deal and asked for anonymity.

A representative from OneRiot said she could not comment on the matter.

A second source familiar with the matter said Yahoo was conducting real-time search tests with other companies, as well.

Real-time search is emerging as a popular way to find information on the Internet, due in large part to the popularity of microblogging service Twitter, which lets users broadcast 140-character messages.

By searching streams of Twitter messages, a Web surfer can often get information faster than through some standard Web pages retrieved through traditional Internet searches.

Last month, Google Inc and Microsoft Corp announced back-to-back deals to make Twitter messages retrievable by their search engines.

Yahoo said in a statement that it was testing a new "search shortcut" that would include real-time results at the top of search results pages.

"The shortcut will only appear on certain queries that will be determined by Yahoo. This is a test designed to discover if showing such content is useful to people," the company said.