Alibaba introduces new search technology

Chinese internet giant launches new product for its cloud computing arm

Aliyun, a cloud computing services company owned by Alibaba Group, has announced the launch of it's latest search product, OpenSearch. The tool is based on Alibaba's own large-scale search platform that currently runs across popular e-commerce sites Taobao and Tmall.

OpenSearch, which is currently in its public testing phase, will allow web developers to implement an on-site search function into their websites quickly and allows for a host of other customisations. The product is currently available for free, but once will eventually be priced at one tenth of the cost of similar products from established internet companies.

Aliyun is pressing into a wide number of cloud services and recently released an Open Data Processing Service.

Alibaba Group is expanding aggresively as a precursor to its upcoming IPO, which most estimates believe will value the company at around $200bn. Investors are also pressuring Yahoo!, which owns a $10-20bn stake in the Chinese tech giant, to allow itself to be bought out by Alibaba or SoftBank after the IPO.

The move would instantly grant Alibaba Group a greater foothold in the US market - a prospect it has been eyeing since it launched the invitation-only shopping forum 11main.com last month.