Yahoo! to unveil revamped search engine

Yahoo is rolling out a rebuilt search engine in a bid to supplant its business partner Google as the most popular place to find things on the Internet.

Yahoo plans to unveil the changes today.

With the revisions, Yahoo believes its search engine will provide more useful information than Google’s and be simpler to use.

“We think this is going to change the game a bit,” said Jeff Weiner, Yahoo’s senior vice president of search and marketplace.

“This is the first of many steps toward reinforcing our leadership in the marketplace.”

Google declined to comment.

Although Yahoo and Google don’t like to talk about it, battle lines are being drawn between the companies, said Danny Sullivan, editor of the industry newsletter Search Engine Watch.

Toppling Google as the online king of search won’t be easy. In just five years, Google has become synonymous with online searching.

Although Yahoo continues to use Google’s search tools and even owns a stake in the company, the relationship between the two companies has been fraying as Google emerged as an Internet powerhouse in its own right.

Google’s site handles an average of 112 million daily searches, based on estimates complied by Search Engine Watch.

Yahoo handles about 42 million daily searches, Search Engine Watch estimates, with Google’s software generating most of the results.