Yahoo Unveils Scout, an AI-Powered Web Guide to Compete in AI Search
Yahoo re-enters the AI game with Scout, an AI-powered 'answer engine' built into Yahoo Search that aims to guide users through the web rather than be a chatty assistant. Scout combines Yahoo’s vast content and data with Anthropic’s Claude and Bing-powered search data, promises structured summaries and a page of sources, and is designed to monetize with shopping affiliate links and bottom-ads while keeping Scout free. Yahoo says it won’t build a new foundation model, preferring grounding and personalization on top of others’ models. Early tests show Scout is more like a traditional search engine with conversational results than a conversational bot, and Yahoo envisions Scout becoming central to Yahoo Search over time, potentially challenging Google but with a long trajectory.