They may just be startups, but two new search engine companies at last week's Web 2.0 Expo last week hope to put the fear of God in to Google.
Twing.com, an alternative search engine for online forums, launched in March and already claims 1 million users, according to Scott Germaise, director of product management. Twing's also added 10,000 forums (or, fora, as I like to call them) to its directory in its short lifespan.
Many people are trying to force a layer of community that doesn't exist, he believes. "With forums, you've got people who are passionate about a certain topic, who have built a many-to-many community mechanism, and they formed these incredibly powerful communities," Germaise said. "The answer to what everyone is looking for at this conference and with these so-called Web 2.0 companies already exists."
Despite satisfying a demand for those who want to congregate on Internet bulletin boards to talk about premature hair loss, living with webbed toes, and the like, alternative search engines face some challenges: the main one being that post-five minutes of messing around, we tend to go right back to Google for answers.
Germaise attributes this partially to habit, not Google's ability to do everything right. "Google isn't necessarily winning from a technology perspective," said Germaise. "They are, in a sense that they've got several $600 million data centers with Google file systems that can handle large volumes of things. But their search isn't necessarily the best in all cases, especially vertical areas" -- like online fora.
The other startup, Sightix, a social search and mapping site, isn't out to overtake Google. They'd just like to throw the search giant off its stride.
According to Ari Gottesmann, the site's VP of business development, Sightix will eliminate "generic search results" by using social graphs to produce results specific to each user. "Content is no longer king," he said. "It's people that are king. It's the social entity behind information that makes it relevant."
Despite his initial pitch that Sightix would trump Google, he backpedaled a bit when pressed. "I don't know if it's going to eliminate Google," he modestly conceded, "but I definitely think it's going to be very disruptive."
Until it partners with enough sites to get its hands on a detailed
social graph, however, Sightix will only be a search engine for social
networks rather than a destination site. For now, anyway, Google can hold off on hiring bodyguards and a Brink's truck.
Nothing against the article, but if Twing has 1million users, I'm wearing pants.
Their technology would crumble if more than a couple handfuls of users were doing searches at one time (based on FAST technology [the Norwegian Enron]--Twing brought to you by the creators of Accoona search). Business practices aside, the technology just doesn't work that well and Accoona (Twing)'s databases were a mess. Sure, maybe they miraculously turned it around in a few months time, but that's highly unlikely.
I'm thinking that if you add up all the users on the boards they index, you would reach the 1 million figure and that's probably where they get their data. : )
Nicole, I always enjoy reading your articles. Well informed and well authored, they make me think. It is this spirit of thinking, and the freedom of the internet that makes companies, entities and individuals think that they should innovate, and furthermore that they can innovate something better than google.
The "just like google only better" crowd would have you believe that their search is better only to have people gravitate back to what they are habitual users of is the obstacle for all innovators.
I am sure that all the companies who are now the big players in search all had the same obstacles to overcome.
Even throwing a google off its giant stride would be a big job, even with superior search abilities, just due to the habit people have of "googling" something when they want answers, kindof like when people ask for a kleenex instead of a tissue. (When really it may be a Puffs)
It is nice to see when people work to innovate and step in to the market with boldness! My hat is off to entreprenuerial innovators!
I've got to agree with you on this one that we've come along way to doubt that we cannot make any more progress beyond what we get now. I'm very much happy about the new ideas in search and i want to believe they deserve a good look at least, and perhaps some encouragement:
I'm also surprise at the great number of alternative search engines besides the big four but as rightly said, it may be time for some of them to form mergers in order to be really productive:
I hope we as people and researchers can always do it better. After trials and tribulations we started with the Macintosh operating system, then Windows came along and a company called MicroSoft. We have now come full circle and even though MicroSoft and it's windows operating system have the majority market share. I believe they are watching the Apple Mac's OS very carefully. As far as building a better search engine than Google now has.. Of course we can accomplish that.. Time will prove it, just keep your eyes on some of these sites that are in beta testing phases. Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK & the rest may have the lions share, but in time the market will change. I'm old enough to be able to say that with confidense. Some may come from mergers & acquisitions, but out of some small room or in a small office complex will come a major player soon enough... ;)
Nice to hear of the beat testing you are doing. As humans, we do thrive on challenges but do you think an ideal search engine will just be beyond our realm? Do you think Google is the ultimate search engine we can ever get in the internet age? I know Google has its imperfections but at the same time we can never put these sporadic vertical search engines on the same scale with Google.
I know it's a huge challenge to better Google and certainly the incentive would be huge for doing that but i'm just wondering whether it's technologically possible to do.
I've been involved in beta testing the newer search emgine for some time now. Actually ever since a very good friend of mine (who will remain nameless) started a small company with no programming experience and hired the best young programmers from the Computer Science department at one of New Yorks best Universities. Anyway, to get to the point, here's what I have been asked to test and review for several competing corporations. 2G02.com, 2G04.com, 4G02.com, 4G04.com, all of them have zero's and not the letter O.. But none the less, I have found that 4G04.com seems to give me auto results unless I'm very specific with my words..
Ok, well that's my little 2 cents and we will still watch the MicroSoft/Yahoo news and see if anything improves beyond what google can do..!!
Both of these sites are very interesting in how they
specialize in searching a particular type of web page.
Perhaps, we will one day see one of the big search engines
adding this type of specialty search to theirs.A user can just click on an option to only search for that particularly
type of web page.
hey Nicole!
This situation with engine search reminds me the search of philosophers' stone.The only difference is that people who search the stone are much more in number than people who really need it or want it.I think if you ask an average Internet user, why do you use that very engine, he or she will say - because it's comfortable, because it is my start-up page,because my web-browser has that tool bar, because I have gmail or yahoo mail.how many people really care about "the technology of the search engine"?
I didn't really use Google before I came to the US. I prefered russian-speaking search engine and here I started to use it,partly because Google kindly offered me to download their tool bar:) and I kindly agreed, partly because well, Google is Google, right?
So, IMHO, it's mostly the matter of right PR than real engine technology.And Google's PR by far is the best!
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