The news comes as stories circulated that 's much talked about $4bn (拢2.2bn) IPO could be set to go ahead in April, which would see it offer a third of its stock to the public. Google has not commented on the reports.
was at the forefront of internet searching before Google came on the scene, and since 2000 Google has provided the technology that generates search results on Yahoo!.
But with Google steadily developing its offering for advertisers and developing new services, such as news and shopping site , the two companies are increasingly in competition with each other.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo also plans to combine personalisation and customisation features to extend the usefulness of searches. It will also, the paper says, expand its use of "paid inclusion", whereby it includes the most up-to-date information from retailers in users' search results.
Jeff Weiner, Yahoo!'s senior vice-president in charge of search and marketplace services, said: "We're not going to beat the competition by being the competition. We're going to beat the competition by being Yahoo."
Changes have already started happening in search terms on the Yahoo! site. The shopping section, for instance, now uses Inktomi's technology.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .