""Yahoo Inc said on Thursday it will begin testing a free desktop search service in early January, following rivals hoping to extend the reach of wildly profitable search-related advertising," reports Reuters.
"Yahoo's product will use licensed technology from Pasadena, California-based X1 Technologies Inc. to help users search e-mail and a variety of files -- from photos and music to PDF-format documents -- on their hard drives."
Comment: As the article notes, desktop search products are expected shortly from Ask Jeeves and Microsoft, among others. The Seattle Times, The Washington Post and other papers have similar stories.
