Yahoo has followed the lead of Google's Co-op with a customised search engine called Alpha

IDG news service reported, Yahoo Alpha (http://au.alpha.yahoo.com/) using a domain name in Australia, it provides a default search results page, the page the left shows a and contains keywords list, offers six special search box on the right side.

The dedicated search box displays search results from three Yahoo search engines: Flickr Photo service, Yahoo Questions and Answers service, and Yahoo News. It also provides search results from Google's YouTube video site and the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. The last column is used to display search ads from Yahoo's online advertising network.

Users can customize Yahoo's default Settings, such as relocating different modules, adding or removing dedicated search boxes, and more. In addition, users can add a search results page to display content from other sites.

The trial found that anyone can enter keywords into Yahoo's default search page and get corresponding results, but to customize the default Settings and search sources, users need to register as a Yahoo user first.

All Yahoo would say about the site on Thursday is that it's a very early prototype and that we're constantly testing new products and services to get feedback and make the experience better for our users.

Yahoo Alpha looks similar - at least in concept - to Google's Co-op. Co-op also allows users to create a custom search engine. Users can customize the Co-op engine for their own use, or they can embed it on their website for others to use.