Google’s success stems from the fact that it’s so useful that you can’t live without it and so unobtrusive that you tend to forget it’s even there. In none of it’s services is this more evident than Google Now, which can make your life so much easier that it’s actually kind of unsettling. As the wannabe-Google, it’s only natural that Yahoo tries to replicate this success, which is the company is working on a new app called Index. Not much is known about the new app aside from the fact that it’ll be in the same vein as Google Now and Siri.
During a conference call to report Yahoo’s first quarter earnings on Tuesday, CEO Marissa Mayer talked about a new product the company is working on in search. She said that the product will be a mobile search/personal assistant product in the vein of Apple’s Siri, Google Now, or Microsoft’s Cortana. We’ve been speaking with a Yahoo source about this product, and have a few details to share about its development. According to this source, the product’s code-named is Index. It’s going to be a smartphone app. Mayer has set a company-wide goal to have a pilot version of Index built sometime during the second quarter. Advertising engineers are already involved in the project, so it’s likely the product will be ad-supported. The product’s development is being led by executives named Jeff Bonforte and Peter Monaco. Bonforte is the Yahoo executive in charge of almost all of the company’s “communications” products — including email and a not-yet-release messaging app. Bonforte came to Yahoo as the CEO of Xobni, an acquisition. Xobni made a product that organized Microsoft Outlook inboxes (Xobni is “inbox” spelled backwards.) Monaco was the CTO of Xobni.