Yahoo has officially re-entered the search engine race with Scout. A new AI-powered answer engine that launched in beta on January 27, 2026. Available now at scout.yahoo.com and through the Yahoo Search app on iOS and Android. Scout represents Yahoo’s first proprietary search technology in over 15 years, marking a significant shift after the company outsourced search to Microsoft Bing back in 2009.
Scout combines Anthropic’s Claude AI model with Yahoo’s 30 years of data and Microsoft’s Bing grounding API to deliver conversational search results that prioritize accuracy and source transparency. CEO Jim Lanzone described the launch as an opportunity to supercharge the original Yahoo mission of being the trusted guide to the internet.
What Makes Yahoo Scout Different?
Unlike competitors such as ChatGPT and Perplexity. Scout takes a publisher-first approach designed to drive traffic back to content creators. Each response features prominent inline citations with bright blue highlights that reveal sources when users hover over them. Along with dedicated featured source sections that encourage clicks to original publishers.
The first iterations of AI engines did not nearly enough to send traffic downstream. Lanzone told Search Engine Land. This philosophy extends to Yahoo joining Microsoft’s Publisher Content Marketplace pilot. An initiative aimed at supporting sustainable revenue streams for publishers and content creators.
The platform includes interactive digital media, structured lists and tables and visible source links aimed at making answers easier to verify. In early testing, The Verge found Scout provided more accurate answers and featured nine links on a single results page compared to competitors that obscure links behind icons or faint buttons.
Powered by Anthropic’s Claude
Yahoo Scout runs on Anthropic’s Claude AI model. One of the top foundational models in the market. Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI members including siblings Daniela and Dario Amodei is backed by major tech companies like Amazon and Google.
However, Yahoo extensively customizes the Claude model by integrating its proprietary datasets. Creating a unique user experience unlike generic Anthropic deployments. When you’re serving hundreds of millions of users. You need AI that can do more than retrieve information. It has to reason, synthesize and explain, said Ami Vora, Head of Product at Anthropic.
Eric Feng, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Yahoo Research Group and former founding CTO at Hulu led the development effort. Yahoo’s deep knowledge base 30 years in the making allows us to deliver guidance that our users can trust, Feng said.
Scout Intelligence Platform Across Yahoo Properties
Beyond standalone search, Yahoo is deploying Scout capabilities across its entire ecosystem through the Scout Intelligence Platform. The integration includes:
Yahoo Mail provides email summaries and actionable item extraction. Such as automatically adding calendar events. Yahoo Finance offers one-click stock analysis with company financials, analyst ratings and real-time stock move explanations. Yahoo News delivers article highlights and daily digest audio summaries. Yahoo Sports features game breakdowns and key moment highlights. Yahoo Shopping includes product insights and shoppable links.
This embedded approach transforms Scout from a simple search tool into an AI companion that enhances user experiences across Yahoo’s network.
Monetization Strategy
Yahoo plans to monetize Scout through Microsoft Advertising-powered CPC ads appearing at the bottom of some responses and affiliate commissions on commerce-related queries. The platform will remain free for all users contrasting sharply with OpenAI’s subscription-dependent model for ChatGPT.
Competing in a Crowded AI Search Market
Yahoo enters the AI search space as the third-largest search engine in the United States, boasting approximately 250 million U.S. users and over 500 million user profiles globally. The company processes 18 trillion consumer signals annually across its properties.
Still, competition is fierce. Google and OpenAI dominate the AI search landscape. While Perplexity has established itself as a search-first AI tool with persistent citations and real-time information access. ChatGPT, while primarily generation-focused, excels in depth and reasoning for complex queries.
Yahoo’s advantage lies in its publisher-friendly approach and massive existing user base. By emphasizing traffic generation for content creators and leveraging decades of user data. Scout positions itself as a more ethical and sustainable alternative in the AI search ecosystem.
What’s Next for Yahoo Scout?
Yahoo says the answer engine behind Scout will become more personalized over time. focusing on deeper experiences as it learns from user interactions. The beta launch represents just the beginning of Yahoo’s AI transformation, with the company clearly betting that its legacy infrastructure and publisher partnerships will differentiate Scout in an increasingly crowded market.
For users tired of AI search engines that obscure sources or fail to credit original content. Yahoo Scout offers a refreshing alternative. It aims to restore the social contract between search platforms and the publishers who create the web’s content.
