Yahoo! is trying a new approach to Open Source in an abvious attempt to gain an edge over the dominant engine, Google, by opening up their API to not only be used, but modified by third party developers.

It’s the constant search engine war: Google on top, Yahoo! barely keeping up, MSN/Live trying its best to be known at least somewhat, and the virtually-unknown Google-wannabes Ask.com and Cuil. But now Yahoo! is trying something even Google has not tried, which Live is sure to copy in some offbeat way: Opening up the Yahoo! JavaScript/server-side API for third party developers. Yahoo! has had their JavaScript UI code open for anyone to use for a while now, but now those same developers can start enhancing it as well, bringing Open Source more to the table in the fight for dominance over the Google giant.

Yahoo! is sure to become more popular with developers this way, possibly even paving the way for success in the fight against Google in other areas as well, but one can only ask: How does this directly affect the struggle now, as in immediate benefits instead of just long-term relief?

There’s only one way to find out, and after the buyout scare from the competitors directly above and below Yahoo!’s search ranking, Yahoo! is apparently willing to try anything at this point to gain a much-needed edge over Google, who just released their own web browser (for only Windows at this time), Chrome.