Links ARCHIVE: NYTIMES - Google Challengers and Web Search

Internet Search, MSN, Yahoo, Vivisimo, page ranking, SearchEngineWatch, Clustering

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Before going into the linked article, I have seen these Google challengers before. Some of them have nice search engine results. For example, Mooter has a site that uses clustering or topics.
Mooter.com

When i search for classic model cars, Mooter gives me this page that shows clusters of different topics. Car parts, racing, die cast, blue book and even maps. The cluster I would have picked is die cast but I could have (or another user) picked car parts or racing or went a totally different direction and gone for maps.

The next cluster shows cars, trucks, auto, sales and so on. So instead of clawing through 10 or 20 pages (not an exaduration if your doing research for something) it is possible that the clustering of topics or categories will help sort out erroneous data.

When I search for Beyonce Knowels (mispelling), Mooter gives me the singer as well as related topic clusters. It didn't correct my spelling of her name of which I find bothersome (because misspelling happens) and is what I love about Google.

Another site is:
eurekster.com
and
Vivisimo
and
Clusty.com

What is also new in the search field? Google has a Deskbar that sites on your task bar, Netscape has a Desktop X like navigator that sites on your desktop and some search engines are adopting a preview pane within the search so you can quickly view a website (although not sure how much that will be used if people have tabbed browsing but a quick preview click on the same page could be appealing)

With the next thing being users signing in and having even more specialized searches, better local searches and even searches that continue to search while your away for new websites on the topic of choice (not to mention RSS feeds, programs like Blog Navigator and Pluck of which do the same thing), users will really be able to search the World Wide Wow.

Cool stuff!

Something I didn't know:

Gary Price, a librarian who is also the news editor at SearchEngineWatch, a Web site that covers the industry

Never heard of SearchEngineWatch nor did I really think Internet search as an industry in its own. To me, it’s more part of the broader technology category.

SOURCE: NYTIMES

New Company Starts Up a Challenge to Google
By JOHN MARKOFF

Published: September 30, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 29 - Google executives have long conceded that one of their great fears is to be overtaken by a more advanced Internet search technology. Vivisimo, a company founded by three former Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists, is hoping to prove that Google's worries are well founded.

Four-year-old Vivisimo plans to start Clusty, a free, consumer search service based on results from Yahoo's Overture engine, Thursday.

Vivisimo already offers a search service for corporate customers, which clusters results into categories to make them easier to sort through. Search "swift boat," for example, and Vivisimo returns 149 results - listing them one by one, and also as a table of categories, like "Swift Boat Veterans," "John Kerry" and "Patrol Craft Fast" on the left-hand side of the Web page.

The new Clusty service for consumers, which will be free and supported by advertising revenue, uses a similar organizational structure. But it also presents a series of tabs enabling the user to see results from sources besides the general Web, including shopping information, yellow pages, news, blogs, and images.

Vivisimo, which is privately held and is profitable, according to its executives, has been selling its clustering technology to corporations for research by their employees. Now Vivisimo is making an effort to compete more broadly by attracting consumers to its Web site, clusty.com.

The service is meant to address...

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Some interesting facts there joe. I read about about the challenge to Google in the NY Times recently. I thought it was interesting. I've never used their search engines though, at least not yet. I'm so used to Google, that's the first place I go. I'm just a googlehead! Sometimes it's good to have competition, keeps them on their toes, although the guys at Google would probably disagree.

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