As this was really just a demonstration of the power of Yahoo! BOSS, I have brought the site back as a demonstration site. Additionally, Yahoo! is making the source code to the new site available so anyone with a knack for Python, HTML and CSS can take a swipe at making a better search experience. In order to make a nice UI I teamed up with another Sam, Sam Lind. I put together the skeleton using Yahoo!’s amazing YUI tools and he created the look and feel. Please try it out and take advantage of Yahoo!’s open search API:
Why 4hoursearch? It took 4 hours to write the initial code, 4 hours for it to go from unknown to 20 hits / second, 4 hours looking for a domain name and 4 hours to build the brand new UI. Fortunately, it won’t take 4 hours to find something with it 
If you want the classic list of links, now enhanced with SearchMonkey results, you can always start here.
Gene wrote,
You should have done a eponymous satire: puillara.com ?
| Link | August 1st, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Ted Drake wrote,
FIRST!!!
Seriously, cool job. It is also super fast.
| Link | August 1st, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Yahoo! BOSS is easy — meet Yuil | java rants wrote,
[...] Updated Yet Again: Relaunched as 4hoursearch including the source code. See this blog entry. [...]
| Link | August 1st, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Russ wrote,
“The requested URL /src/4hoursearch-src.zip was not found on this server.”
-Russ
| Link | August 1st, 2008 at 5:16 pm
sam wrote,
Ugh. Bad push, just saw it in the log, fixed.
| Link | August 1st, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Jason Chou wrote,
Just wondering. What’s up with the image next to the first returned result? The image next to the first search for my name is from some random other site and has no connection to the listing.
| Link | August 1st, 2008 at 5:30 pm
sam wrote,
Sorry it didn’t work well for you. The image is the #1 image search result for the same query. If you click on the image rather than the search result it will go through to the site that it was found on.
| Link | August 1st, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Leon wrote,
Took me a while to work out what looked wrong with the results page. No adverts! Thanks!
| Link | August 2nd, 2008 at 4:48 am
james wrote,
Dudes, you rock! Yahoo is innovating, keep it up! Wish you all the very best, guys.
| Link | August 2nd, 2008 at 11:52 am
Dmitry Chestnykh wrote,
http://www.4hoursearch.com/search?q=mémoires
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/base/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/__init__.py”, line 499, in __call__
handler.get(*groups)
File “/base/data/home/apps/yoolsearch/1.209/search.py”, line 37, in get
result = search(query, count=10)
File “/base/data/home/apps/yoolsearch/1.209/yos/boss/ysearch.py”, line 41, in search
url = SEARCH_API_URL % (vertical, version, quote_plus(command), start, count, lang, region, filter, dimensions) + params(more)
File “/base/python_dist/lib/python2.5/urllib.py”, line 1213, in quote_plus
return quote(s, safe)
File “/base/python_dist/lib/python2.5/urllib.py”, line 1205, in quote
res = map(safe_map.__getitem__, s)
KeyError: u’\xe9′
| Link | August 3rd, 2008 at 8:46 am
sam wrote,
Yeah, I suck at python. If anyone knows a better call to use than ‘quote_plus’ that works with UNICODE, I’m all ears.
| Link | August 3rd, 2008 at 9:51 am
Yannick wrote,
This is cool, nice job!
Can you have control on the ads shown or can you only display Yahoo Ads?
| Link | August 3rd, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Alt Search Engines » Blog Archive » The Yuil is dead! Long live 4hoursearch! wrote,
[...] 4hoursearch is so named because it took the creator of Yuil and a friend just 4 hours to write the code as a demonstration of the Yahoo!’BOSS system as described here: [...]
| Link | August 3rd, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Yahoo! Cool thing of the Day » Blog Archive » Yuil Be Missed wrote,
[...] EDIT: If you’re curious, Yuil has been relaunched as 4hoursearch. [...]
| Link | August 4th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Coder links Yahoo search, Google App Engine « IT Spot wrote,
[...] named because it took four hours for programmer Sam Pullara to whip it together, according to his blog. The search site presents a Yahoo-powered interface that mirrors that of Cuil, a loudly trumpeted [...]
| Link | August 4th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
John Boxall wrote,
For IRIs to URIs in Python (like http://www.4hoursearch.com/search?q=mémoires) see:
http://code.djangoproject.com/browser/django/trunk/django/utils/encoding.py
| Link | August 4th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Coder links Yahoo search, Google App Engine | Blogging wrote,
[...] named because it took four hours for programmer Sam Pullara to whip it together, according to his blog. The search site presents a Yahoo-powered interface that mirrors that of Cuil, a loudly trumpeted [...]
| Link | August 4th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
techdude wrote,
NICE SAM! definitely support you, wrote an entry on my blog to help support you as well.
http://blabtech.blogspot.com
| Link | August 4th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
dvs wrote,
http://www.4hoursearch.com/search?q=python+quote_plus+UNICODE
| Link | August 5th, 2008 at 2:54 am
sam wrote,
That fails in the same way as it is a wrapper on quote_plus.
| Link | August 5th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Talkibie » Archive » Yahoo! shows Google who’s BOSS wrote,
[...] brand new UI. Fortunately, it won’t take 4 hours to find something with it ,” Pullara posts. It would appear Yahoo! BOSS delivers on both fronts. Often times, the best way to beat a [...]
| Link | August 5th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
sam wrote,
This isn’t included in Google App Engine — it has an older version of Django — but I ported it over and it works great! Please test out the unicode support now.
| Link | August 5th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Papajack wrote,
Congrats, getting it up so fast is pretty cool. The problem with any search engine front end built around Yahoo’s API is that it’s…well, built around Yahoo’s API. No matter how good of a coder you are, fact is that the search results are still based on Yahoo’s indexes, which just isn’t as comprehensive as Google’s. (Don’t like Google btw, just saying). Or am I missing something?
| Link | August 5th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
dktrooper wrote,
http://www.4hoursearch.com/search?q=mp3+download
resulted an error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/base/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/__init__.py”, line 499, in __call__
handler.get(*groups)
File “/base/data/home/apps/yoolsearch/1.216/search.py”, line 52, in get
template_values['image'] = image_response['resultset_images'][0]
KeyError: ‘resultset_images’
| Link | August 6th, 2008 at 3:04 am
Technology@Work wrote,
[...] После некоторого времени работы сайта, его создатели решили изменить дизайн, чтобы тот был меньше похож на Cuil. Было придумано новое название - “4hoursearch“. Вот что говорят по поводу этого выбора авторы: Потребовалось 4 часа времени, что написать начальный к
| Link | August 6th, 2008 at 6:21 am
dktrooper wrote,
It’s now working fine (: what was causing the error btw?
| Link | August 6th, 2008 at 11:05 am
sam wrote,
An underlying BOSS web service regressed temporarily, it has been corrected.
| Link | August 6th, 2008 at 11:54 am
4hoursearch « Mundo 3W wrote,
[...] en la red son muy fuertes y no se sabe bien como se acabará con estas guerras o temblores ocultos mirar aqui por futuros cambios [...]
| Link | August 6th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Some Mashups Harnessing The Power Of Yahoo’s BOSS wrote,
[...] - A week ago Yahoo VP of Platform Sam Pullara released Yuil, a search engine that looked nearly exactly like recently launched (and overhyped) [...]
| Link | August 7th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Some Mashups Harnessing The Power Of Yahoo’s BOSS | Christian eBuddy Blog wrote,
[...] - A week ago Yahoo VP of Platform Sam Pullara released Yuil, a search engine that looked nearly exactly like recently launched (and overhyped) [...]
| Link | August 7th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Unfortune wrote,
[...] - A week ago Yahoo VP of Platform Sam Pullara released Yuil, a search engine that looked nearly exactly like recently launched (and overhyped) [...]
| Link | August 7th, 2008 at 11:58 am
TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » YahooのBOSSの力をフル活用したマッシュアップたち wrote,
[...] 4HourSearch - 1週間前、ヤフーのプラットフォーム部門VPのSam Pullaraがリリースした検索エンジン「Yuil」は、最近ローンチした（マスコミに騒がれ過ぎの）「Cuil」にすごく近いが、YahooのBOSSがベース。その検索エンジンが引き出す検索結果は多くの面でCuilより優れていたが、それがいけなかったようで、弁護士がすぐ介入し、Yuilは初公開後ものの数時間で取り下げとなった。そこでPullaraはYuilから不要物を取り除いてレイアウトをやり直し、DMCAレター片手に待ち構えている弁護士の注意を引きつけないよう改造、そうして生まれたのが「4HourSearch」だ（改造には4時間もかけてなさそう）。 [...]
| Link | August 7th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Jim England wrote,
Hey the pagination seems to not be working. It forgets the query string and doesn’t have a page as a parameter.
Other than that, good work!
| Link | August 7th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
sam wrote,
Hi Jim, I wasn’t able to reproduce this. It may be that there aren’t enough results — I am not handling that case well. Can you give me an example query where it doesn’t work for you?
| Link | August 7th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Gubatron wrote,
Searched for ‘porn’, clicked on page 10, bam, it breaks
http://www.4hoursearch.com/search?q=porn&p=10
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/base/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/__init__.py”, line 499, in __call__
handler.get(*groups)
File “/base/data/home/apps/yoolsearch/1.232/search.py”, line 40, in get
ysr = result['ysearchresponse']
TypeError: ‘NoneType’ object is unsubscriptable
| Link | August 7th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
sam wrote,
My error checking is not “robust”. That looks like I didn’t get a response back from the urlfetch. Could have been Google App Engine or BOSS. I should check for that and put up the fail whale.
| Link | August 7th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Some Mashups Harnessing The Power Of Yahoo’s BOSS | Article Blog wrote,
[...] - A week ago Yahoo VP of Platforms Sam Pullara released Yuil, a search engine that looked nearly exactly like recently launched (and overhyped) [...]
| Link | August 7th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
www.ubraniaroxy.pl » Blog Archive » Some Mashups Harnessing The Power Of Yahoo’s BOSS wrote,
[...] - A week ago Yahoo VP of Platforms Sam Pullara released Yuil, a search engine that looked nearly exactly like recently launched (and overhyped) [...]
| Link | August 7th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Tony wrote,
I’m looking to integrate search into my site and think that this may be a start.
EuropeanKiss | Free Online Dating Community
http://www.europeankiss.org
| Link | August 7th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Frank Bitterlich » Blog Archive » [Updated] A few Celsius short of cool wrote,
[...] has a good article about it, IMO. And someone has already created a rip-off mockery called Yuil, quickly renamed to “4hoursearch” (courtesy of the Cuil legal [...]
| Link | August 8th, 2008 at 3:40 am
dktrooper wrote,
Hi sam,
I just tried yours and it works great. Can you help me to add a functional button similar to Google’s “I’m feeling lucky”. I’m kinda suck at python.
Thank you.
| Link | August 9th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Some Mashups Harnessing The Power Of Yahoo’s BOSS | All tech stuff wrote,
[...] - A week ago Yahoo VP of Platforms Sam Pullara released Yuil, a search engine that looked nearly exactly like recently launched (and overhyped) [...]
| Link | August 9th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
wisdsom wrote,
I tried it out, looks pretty good.
| Link | August 9th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Cuil 2 - From Yahoo | Hungerford Web Design Blog wrote,
[...] You can read what Sam has to say about it here: http://www.javarants.com/2008/08/01/yuil-is-dead-4hoursearch-is-now-online/ [...]
| Link | August 10th, 2008 at 3:46 am
Gifts to India wrote,
hey Guys,
This search engine doesn’t look like cuil ? I agree yuil is dead and 4hoursearch.com is now active, but I wonder what is the difference between cuil.com and 4hoursearch.com
What-ever may be the difference are? I really liked this search feature. I really appreciate this.
Thanks,
Rahul D.
| Link | August 10th, 2008 at 6:16 am
Yahoo’s Best BOSS Search Mashups wrote,
[...] below, is so named because, developer Sam Pullara says, “It took 4 hours to write the initial code, 4 hours for it to go from unknown to 20 hits / [...]
| Link | August 13th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Yahoo’s Best BOSS Search Mashups | World IT News wrote,
[...] below, is so named because, developer Sam Pullara says, “It took 4 hours to write the initial code, 4 hours for it to go from unknown to 20 hits / [...]
| Link | August 13th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
4hoursearch fan wrote,
http://code.google.com/p/4hoursearch/
http://4hoursearch.googlecode.com/files/4hoursearch-src.zip
| Link | August 14th, 2008 at 5:48 am
Haroun wrote,
The Open Source Search is a great idea.
Results better than Cuil.
The image thing is better than Cuil’s, but I still think it a rediculus idea.
Carry on the good job !
| Link | August 14th, 2008 at 7:27 am
Some Mashups Harnessing The Power Of Yahoo’s BOSS · ordaso.com wrote,
[...] - A week ago Yahoo VP of Platforms Sam Pullara released Yuil, a search engine that looked nearly exactly like recently launched (and overhyped) [...]
| Link | August 23rd, 2008 at 6:50 am
Yahoo’s Best BOSS Search Mashups: wrote,
[...] below, is so named because, developer Sam Pullara says, “It took 4 hours to write the initial code, 4 hours for it to go from unknown to 20 hits / [...]
| Link | August 24th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
me/dium » 4hoursearch wrote,
[...] Yuil is dead! 4hoursearch is now online. | java rants. [...]
| Link | August 25th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Saurabh Sahni wrote,
Natural Language Image Search with Yahoo Boss and Google App Engine…
Natural language processing is partly used in text search today, but its use in image search is mostly unexplored. I did a quick hack: askBoss, which retrieves images to questions posed in natural language. askBoss attempts to enhance image results for…
| Link | August 27th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Mark Collier wrote,
Hey sam — very cool “4 hour” project! I wish I had your mad skills
I was playing around with it and tried searching for my morning jacket (http://www.4hoursearch.com/search?q=my+morning+jacket) but got an error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/base/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/__init__.py”, line 499, in __call__
handler.get(*groups)
File “/base/data/home/apps/yoolsearch/1.234/search.py”, line 39, in get
resultset_glue = glue(q)
File “/base/data/home/apps/yoolsearch/1.234/yos/boss/ysearch.py”, line 56, in glue
data = load(url)
File “/base/data/home/apps/yoolsearch/1.234/yos/boss/ysearch.py”, line 64, in load
data = rest.download(url)
File “/base/data/home/apps/yoolsearch/1.234/yos/crawl/rest.py”, line 18, in download
result = urlfetch.fetch(url)
File “/base/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/api/urlfetch.py”, line 216, in fetch
raise DownloadError(str(e))
DownloadError: ApplicationError: 3
| Link | August 28th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Yahoo! Cool thing of the Day » Blog Archive » Use the BOSS wrote,
[...] impetus to really sit down with our search data and create something original. It only takes, like, four hours, [...]
| Link | September 15th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Alfabetic » Blog Archive » Algunas combinaciones dirigiendo el poder de BOSS de Yahoo wrote,
[...] Hace una semana Yahoo VP de plataformas Sam Pullara lanzó Yuil , un motor de búsqueda que era muy similar al lanzado recientemente (e [...]
| Link | September 28th, 2008 at 7:24 am
The Friday Post #19: A Visual Search Engine, 4HourSearch and Anatomical Knitting « EBM and Clinical Support Librarians@UCHC wrote,
[...] a new search engine: 4HourSearch. The screenshot above shows retrievals for “alternative search engines”. The creators [...]
| Link | October 10th, 2008 at 5:57 am
Joe wrote,
I need a break from some projects I’m working on using Boss and Appengine, and had a search engine idea. I think you’ve done half the work already for another random idea I had for a search engine. Going to enjoy playing with this i think, thanks!
| Link | November 7th, 2008 at 11:20 am