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Category: Life Without Google
July 16th, 2009
Microsoft gets its edge back
Is it just me or is Microsoft a little more competitive than it has been in recent years? Microsoft has gotten under Apple’s skin—at least its lawyers—got Google’s attention with Bing and is even doing the Web app thing. Microsoft almost seems to be enjoying itself as honchos like Kevin Turner proclaim: “Competing is fun.”
The second part of operating chief Turner’s quote is: “Now, competing is a lot more fun when you’re winning than it is when you’re losing.”
Rest assured that Microsoft will win a few and lose a few, but you gotta admit the company is more interesting to watch these days. Let’s survey the battlefront.
July 2nd, 2009
What a difference a name makes: What if Live Search did Tweet searches?
The Bing phenomenon continues and one day Microsoft’s search rebranding effort may make a great marketing case study.
Microsoft renamed its search Bing, added some neat logic, focused on important verticals. Microsoft has even snared a bit of search market share and has generated buzz unforeseen among tech’s peanut gallery.
The latest example of Microsoft’s search buzz: Bing has begun to surface Tweets. Talk about Web 2.0 combustion. Twitter plus Bing means blogger euphoria in many parts.
The buzz shows just how far Microsoft has come on the search front (it got me to give it a try as a default option). Google may be looking over its shoulder (if you believe the New York Post) and Yahoo has spent a lot of time downplaying Bing. And now Bing surfaces Tweets and boom!
But let’s play a game. What if Microsoft’s Live Search surfaced Tweets. The headlines would go something like this:
- Live Search stinks, tries to get on Twitter bandwagon
- Live Search goes Twitter: Will anyone notice?
- If a Tweet fell in a search no one used…
You get the idea. What’s in a name? Potentially everything.
June 9th, 2009
Schmidt: Bing Has Not Changed What Google Is Doing
No big surprise here, but the arrival of Bing is not causing Google CEO Eric Schmidt to lose any sleep.
When asked by Fox Business Network’s Liz Claman if Google was putting any additional “rocket fuel” into what it was doing, because of the $80 million or $100 million that Microsoft was using to promote its new search service, he said:
“Actually, not, given the name. The fact of the matter is we’re spending all of our time on exactly what we’ve always done, which is innovation. I don’t think Bing’s arrival has changed what we’re doing.”
His other comment:
“It’s not the first entry for Microsoft. They do this about once a year. From Bing’s perspective they have a bunch of new ideas and there are some things that are missing. We think search is about comprehensiveness, freshness, scale and size for what we do. It’s difficult for them to copy that.”
Take that, Steve Ballmer. Or not. And if you want to go to the video, be warned: You have to sit through a Fox Business Network promotional intro first.
June 9th, 2009
My Bing experiment: Can it be the default search engine?
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said that it’s easy to switch search engines so the company really has no power that should upset regulators. Microsoft has introduced Bing, a search engine that has been well received and could take market share. Where does the truth lie?
Somewhere in the middle. I’ve been using Google search for as long as it has been around. It has been the default all of my browsers—Firefox, IE and, of course, Chrome. With the introduction of Bing, I made the search engine my default in Firefox. I didn’t go completely cold turkey on Google, but it was pretty close. Why? I wanted to test a few theories:
- Could I use Bing as my default search engine?
- Would I miss Google?
- Is search really just a commodity where loyalties are chosen by brand not necessarily functionality?
In my little Bing experiment I really wanted to get at that last question. If Bing could be my default perhaps Microsoft’s campaign to get folks to try its search engine wouldn’t be a waste of marketing dollars.
Here’s my diary:
June 1st, 2009
Bing's real return: A catalyst to a Yahoo deal
Microsoft’s Monday launch of its Bing search engine has generated a fair amount of hubbub, but the real return may go beyond mere market share.
The return calculation behind Bing goes something like this:
- Undisclosed cost of research and development (something Microsoft would spend anyway);
- The salary of Qi Lu, Yahoo’s former search guru, to head up Microsoft’s search engine;
- $80 million to $100 million on Bing marketing;
- A nice hedge against Yahoo (Bing will most likely take share on Yahoo);
- Savings from Microsoft forgoing a Yahoo deal completely or at least reducing the price tag. Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz wants a boatload of money. If Microsoft can downgrade that boat to a rowboat Bing has more than paid for itself.
If any of those latter two items play out Bing will have justified its existence.
Also see: Microsoft Bing: Quick, clean, handy or a present day “Dogpile”
It’s far too early to see how this plays out. For instance, it’s unclear whether Bing can hold its first day pop. However, I have come back to it a few times. Frankly, that ability to attract return users—even if Google remains the default choice—may be all Microsoft needs to justify a return.
More reading: Microsoft’s Bing: Powerset’s role, market share, brand (and other burning questions)
May 16th, 2009
Wolfram/Alpha launches: Can it break out of niche-ville?
Wolfram/Alpha has launched, but after a few searches it’s an open question whether the search engine can break out of a narrow niche for select users. For many searches Wolfram/Alpha just “isn’t sure what to do with your input.”
Wolfram/Alpha got rolling over the weekend in preparation for a full scale launch on Monday (Techmeme). If Wolfram/Alpha is really supposed to understand me it will need to figure out terms like “Delaware tax system” and not try to steer me to geography or city data.
Overall, Wolfram/Alpha reads like an encyclopedia. It’s handy at times, but the big question is whether the search engine can break out of niche-ville. Sure, geeks like the presentation and it Wolfram/Alpha can be handy for deep dives, but the average person will want some sort of results every time. In that regard, Wolfram/Alpha may be a disappointment.
My first few searches and my initial take.
The error page right out of the gate:
April 28th, 2009
Wolfram/Alpha's demo: Search results meet analytics
Updated: Stephen Wolfram, creator of the Wolfram/Alpha search engine, on Tuesday demonstrated his much ballyhooed “computational knowledge engine” at a talk at Harvard University. Wolfram likened his effort to reproducing a global reference library and said Wolfram/Alpha will launch in “a few weeks.”
Wolfram’s demonstration was one of the few times his search engine, built on algorithms from his Mathematica project, has been seen since word leaked out about it weeks ago. ReadWriteWeb had a nice overview over the weekend. Wolfram covered multiple topics such as data accuracy, Wolfram/Alpha’s business model and the bridge between analytics and search.
The demonstration Webcast was held from the Berkman Center for Internet and Technology put some meat around the hype surrounding Wolfram/Alpha. The Wolfram/Alpha search engine has been billed as a Google killer in some camps. Indeed, Google announced a few public data search enhancements as Wolfram was presenting.
One worry: The Wolfram/Alpha search engine seemed slow, according to Wolfram. What will happen when the public starts poking around on it? “Running a little slower than I’m used to seeing,” he said. “When it’s alive in the world it’ll be quite a bit zippier than this.”
Is Wolfram/Alpha a Google killer? Probably not. Wolfram/Alpha’s approach, however, is notable and it’s easy to picture it being used in the enterprise. Wolfram’s demonstration could be summed up as an intersection between analytics and generic Web search. Wolfram/Alpha gets you an answer instead of pointers to potential answers. “It tries to tell us useful information based on what it can compute,” said Wolfram. ”The goal is to provide expert level access to anyone at anytime.”
Wolfram also gave some insight to his business model. ”This Web site will be a free site. We will have corporate sponsors that will have things on the side here. We know a lot about the specific questions people are asking and know what kind of knowledge people want. There is a lot of vendor information” (that Wolfram can monetize eventually) and a subscription professional site, he said.
Here’s a screen from the Webcast, which was buggy most likely due to a bevy of watchers.
“What we’re trying to do is take all the things that can be computed about the world…and try and package it to the point where we can just walk up to a web site and have it deliver the knowledge we’d like to have. Like interacting with an expert it will understand what you are talking about, do the computation and present to you results.”
Four big pieces are behind Wolfram/Alpha:
- Curated data: Free, licensed and feed data. Running through human and automated process to verify the data and make sure it’s “clean and curatable.” At some point, you need a human domain expert.
- Algorithms: Wolfram/Alpha uses a bevy of algorithms in 5 million to 6 million of Mathematica code.
- Linguistics: The goal is to interpret free-form language processing. Wolfram said Wolfram/Alpha uses various components and techniques to figure out what people are actually asking. Part of that process is filtering out fluff. ”We’ve been pretty good at removing linguistic fluff,” said Wolfram, he said people eventually get to the point where they speak as if they were talking to an expert. “People quickly begin to just type in concepts as they come to them.”
- Presentation: Algorithms try to pick out what’s important to the searcher. Again, Wolfram noted that human-aided algorithms are needed.
Instead of delivering up a bunch of links, the Wolfram/Alpha search engine tries to put a narrative around a user’s question and allow them to drill down. Indeed, the result presentation features graphics and other computational features. Think part calculator, part search engine.
Among the demonstrated searches:
- Wolfram did a search on the GDP of France and got a plot of the GDP history and some history. The next search had the GDP of France divided by the GDP of Italy and Wolfram/Alpha delivered an answer.
- The weather in Lexington, Mass. as a search term delivered a summary of the temperature and plotted it as a function of time.
- A search on “medical LDL 180″ dove into a public health study showing that level of cholesterol put someone in the 95.9 percentile in the U.S. Further refinements of the search—like “male age 40″—will yield a chart for life expectancy.
How will Wolfram/Alpha do? Probably pretty well for certain applications—especially the academic variety. Meanwhile, the presentation is interesting. At the very least, we can learn from Wolfram’s latest pet project.
In the question and answer session, Wolfram addressed data accuracy and said “there will be a mechanism to contribute data, audit data and have it flow into the system.” The big question will be how quickly Wolfram/Alpha can absorb the vetted data.
Other odds and ends:
- Wolfram/Alpha will have a variety of levels of APIs—presentation, underlying XML for mashups and individual results from its databases and computations. There is a first draft of the API documentation as of March 27.
- There is a plan to have a professional version of Wolfram/Alpha to upload data. This move would open an enterprise revenue stream.
- Wolfram said his search engine will footnote data where there is scientific disputes.
- Here’s what Wolfram said when asked about the semantic Web. “If the semantic Web turned out to be an overwhelming thing our job would have been much easier,” said Wolfram, who also noted that much of Wolfram/Alpha’s data isn’t available on the Web.
July 28th, 2008
Cuil trips over its Web index in early going
Cuil, a Menlo Park-based search startup, has launched with an interesting hook: It has indexed 120 billion Web pages. It claims that tally is three times larger than any search engine, but the first impression didn’t go over too well.
Why? I can’t find my archived posts in 5 seconds. You can index 120 (actually 121 billion as I’m writing this), but if you don’t have what I’m looking for what’s the point? Selfish? You bet. But the initial test of Cuil makes me wonder what the big deal is about (Techmeme).
I gave Cuil a quick whirl and got the following by searching on “amd dignan second quarter”:
Here’s what I got on Google:
But that’s probably some SEO mumbo jumbo thing right?
Then I search on the FCC hearing document outlining what will happen Aug. 1 and I got another error message.
The Google results on the same search weren’t so hot either, but at least I got something back. Now I’m thinking that perhaps Cuil isn’t so cool. Perhaps Cuil is down. So I search on something way simple: Dogs. Bingo!
The problem: I love dogs I just don’t want to do a search on them. I’ll do a proper review later, but first impression of Cuil is why bother. If you’re going to convince people to try something other than Google you need to wow them. The lesson. Before anyone touts a startup search engine that has the following…
- Blog buzz out the wazoo;
- A strong tech pedigree–Tom Costello and Anna Patterson run Cuil and hail from IBM and Google, respectively;
- A nice search results layout;
- And a snazzy new search method.
It may make sense to actually try it first.
May 12th, 2008
Powerset's search: Does it deliver?
Powerset has rolled out its semantic search engine and has managed to get a ton of attention. The larger question for me: Does it deliver? And where does Powerset make the most sense?
Powerset on Monday introduced its natural language search for Wikipedia content (Techmeme). This effort is really a proof of concept–a strong one–to indicate what is possible if the Web were to go semantic. Powerset has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding and as Dan Farber notes will need more money if it’s going to index the Web.
Also see: Paul Miller: Powerset shows semantic search solution
It is possible that Powerset will represent a big shift to semantic search but for those of us that just want results we’re not there yet. In fact, Powerset’s best application–assuming Microsoft doesn’t buy it as Dan advocates–is within the corporate world. Powerset extracts phrases and adds context around it to deliver results. This could come in handy in a company looking for memos from three years ago about negotiations for a licensing deal that wasn’t finalized.
The problem with any corporate focus for Powerset: Enterprise search players abound. And on the semantic Web side Sidearian already has some traction. But that’s a discussion for another day. Keep in mind that comparing Powerset to something like Google isn’t necessarily a fair fight since one indexes the Web and the other just Wikipedia. However, you do get a feel for things. Here’s an overview (gallery):
March 4th, 2008
Ask.com: Innovation doesn't always pan out
Ask.com in the last year or so had been a nice little Petri dish. It launched AskCity, tinkered with its interface, created universal search results and became a credible alternative to Google. The problem: Ask.com couldn’t grow its base of users.
With that backdrop, Interactive Corp. (IAC) is cutting 8 percent of Ask.com’s workforce, or roughly 40 jobs, reports The Wall Street Journal (Techmeme). The layoffs come as Ask.com retreats to its roots–delivering search results based on questions. Ask.com will also target its core female audience.
Ask.com’s retreat shows how hard it is to change habits. Aside from my life without Google experiment I rarely visited Ask.com. The site–and the search results it produced–was fine, but I’m a creature of habit and Google is in my Firefox toolbar. My behavior is one reason Google is the top dog in search. It’s not lock-in as much as it is lazy-in (I’m too lazy to seriously switch).
In the end, the Ask.com retrenchment is a bit of a shame since the search provider did cook up some nice features. I also wonder if Ask.com gave its effort enough time. But if no one beyond the digerati used Ask.com what’s the point. Ask.com’s search share is flat with a year ago and hasn’t broken 5 percent despite the big plans of Barry Diller’s–CEO of IAC. In December 2006, Diller said he thought that word of mouth, slick features and a little advertising could get people to change their Google habits. Ask.com would be the glue of Diller’s Web empire. Wrong. Very wrong.
In a nutshell, it’s back to the drawing board for Ask.com. But it’s unclear whether the search engine can deliver growth with its new strategy. Perhaps Ask.com could be sold to a rival looking to gain some market share like Microsoft. Ask.com would certainly come cheaper with fewer headaches than Yahoo.
October 2nd, 2007
Life without Google: Yahoo revamps search; Gets smarter
Yahoo has been playing catch-up on the search front for a while, but its latest update enhances the user interface and may just help close a widening Google gap.
The company unv
eiled its search assist technology and a slick interface that offers suggestions and related topics. These features are also available on other engines such as Ask.com, but Yahoo’s delivers the experience well. The goal: Get you where you want to go faster. It’s apparent from this latest launch that Yahoo isn’t seriously considering outsourcing search to Google. Yahoo obviously sees search as a core competency.
In its corporate blog, Yahoo said that the company “took some liberties with the search box itself, turning it into an interactive experience that senses when you need a hand.”
Vish Makhijani, general manager of Yahoo Search, also wrote:
In a dropdown window on our home page and on our results page, Yahoo! Search Assist provides both query suggestions as you type as well as related concepts you can explore to get you to your answer by just pointing and clicking. Try it with searches like “energy savings” to see what we mean. In testing Search Assist, we found that users were 61% more successful in completing their task with this new search feature at their disposal.
Here’s what Yahoo has to say in its Yahoo Search blog (also see Techmeme roundup):
The whole point is we want to get you from “to do” to “done.” Whatever it is you want to do: research a topic, find a website, plan a vacation, research a medical condition, view a funny video, or any of the other billions of queries we get from users — their intents expressed via a few keywords in a search box.
One thing we’ve learned since launching our own algorithmic search engine back in 2004 is that at the end of the day, people really don’t want to search; they want to get things done. Today, we’re launching an all new Yahoo! Search experience that gets users the answers they’re looking for quickly and easily, and often in one search.
Yahoo has also integrated Flickr images into its search, which is helpful to discovery. Frankly, the most interesting images are often the user generated kind compared to the stock photos–at least when it comes to a search like “Baba Booey.”
With Yahoo’s update, all of Google’s rivals have now revamped the search experience. Microsoft last week rolled out its upgrade, which was generally well received. Mary Jo Foley outlined the big takeaways from Microsoft’s latest search and has a gallery of the changes.
August 15th, 2007
Yahoo Local revamped; vastly improved
Yahoo Local has been refreshed with a bolder look, more useful features and what appears to be better coverage of smaller areas.
When I last reviewed Yahoo’s search for my Life without Google series the local results were a hang up for me. While San Francisco and New York search was useful smaller cities and towns were less so. That’s no small issue since not all of us live in a big city. Performance was spotty.
Yahoo Local appears to close that gap (also see takes from News.com, Search Engine Land and Techmeme). While I just gave it a brief spin Yahoo’s local search seems vastly improved. When testing a local search I go away from the big cities–to me that’s the true test of going local.
Two themes here: For starters, Yahoo actually remembered where I’m from. Typically, my information depended on what database silo I hit. And the results were noteworthy and hit the key areas. For instance, a search on New York in my local region turned up Eagles tickets vs. the New York Giants Dec. 9. Go Iggles.
The big takeaway from Yahoo Local is that it’s better integrated. You have local events saved in categories like City Guide, My Local and directory. Search is front and center, but browsing seems to be where I gravitated. That’s because the design is appealing.
Yahoo Local also has a healthy dose of social media with user reviews prevalent. This feature is also notable: If Yahoo plays the social networking game it’s going to be in a way that’s integrated with current properties.
Yahoo’s local search had been arguably a leader in its category. Now it just got stronger.
And for those keeping score at home this is two consecutive days of good news for Yahoo. On Tuesday, Yahoo’s customer satisfaction score beat Google. Go figure.
July 27th, 2007
Life without Google: Can Yahoo regain search share?
Yahoo has a strategic plan due in 100 days and lags Google in most metrics. Yet despite Yahoo’s issues it still has the No. 2 market share in search. But if Yahoo wants to change its standing it should work on its interface a bit more.
According to Nielsen/Netratings, Google’s search market share in June was 52.7 percent with 20 percent goi
ng to Yahoo (gallery at right). To put this in context, Microsoft in third place with 13 percent. Yahoo’s year over year search growth is 20 percent compared to Google’s 46 percent. Microsoft’s Live Search grew 77 percent annually.
As Jerry Yang ponders his next move one question to consider is this: What does Yahoo have to do to boost its search market share? Given Yahoo’s momentum with Panama I’d reckon search share is a worthwhile goal.
With that backdrop I tried to use Yahoo exclusively for a week in my life without Google experiment. After a few days I toggled between other search engines to compare and contrast.
My conclusion: Yahoo is No. 2 despite a user interface that at best looks like a Google me-too site. At worst, Yahoo search looks dated. In either case search properties like Answer, video and Yahoo Local don’t seem integrated. Yahoo has a choice–experiment a little like Ask.com or watch its market share erode further.
Now Yahoo’s search results were comparable to what I found elsewhere. However, a search on my previous blog posts–something like “Larry Dignan Oracle fourth quarter”–gets me a direct hit on Google. On Yahoo the trip was dicier.
But that complaint is a minor one. My biggest issue is the Yahoo UI. On one hand it’s simple like Google. However, I’m not seeing a lot of experimentation. If you want a mainstream search engine to push a design envelope see Ask.com.
Overall, I was disappointed a bit with Yahoo. I haven’t used Yahoo to search in years–aside from a stray search here and there. I was hoping to see more oomph–something that would indicate that Yahoo could reach parity with Google. To hit that parity mark, Yahoo needs to do more than its doing.
In the end, Yahoo didn’t give me much of a reason to stay and I’m certainly not sensing the urgency over search that a company like Microsoft has.
Now there were a few highlights–the video search looked interesting yet disconnected from the rest of the search tools. And Yahoo Answers is a bona fide hit. But those search properties aren’t integrated that well.
Overall, however, I wound up comparing Yahoo to Google in many cases–this is mostly because they look alike.
One habit I had gotten into was typing in an address in Google. With Google I’d wind up with a phone number and a map that was handy. In some cases, Google was the phone book for me.
On Yahoo that integration is missing. This fact strikes me as odd considering the local tie-ins are evident on Yahoo’s mobile search–OneSearch. Perhaps, Yahoo would rather gain in mobile search than Web search?
Bottom line: Yahoo was a blah experience. And it needs a lot more than blah to pull even with Google.
July 10th, 2007
Life without Google: ChaCha bets on people power
Can human aided searches be a differentiator? A lot of search firms–including ChaCha–sure hope so.
Just to be upfront–I’m skeptical about people powered search. Despite that perspective, I decided to give ChaCha a whirl as part of my Life without Google series (see gallery right).
I discovered ChaCha courtesy of Webware, a sister blog that recently named its 100 best Web companies by category. ChaCha was in the data category along with other search giants like Google and Yahoo.
On the surface ChaCha is nothing more than a metasearch engine compiling results from the big players–the usual suspects like Google and windows Live Search.
So what’s going to make ChaCha different? People. If you’re looking for something specific you can click for a live chat with a ChaCha guide. I tried it a few times and found it moderately helpful. Keep in mind these were just tests. I’ll have to try ChaCha when I’m trying to source a story or find some IT middle manager’s resume in 5 minutes for the site to really win me over.
Overall, here’s how ChaCha stands relative to other search sites I’ve tried.
Guide experience. ChaCha is the first people powered search I’ve tried. Overall, the experience went well and the guides were helpful. I’d give it an A.
User experience. I found the interface lacking compared to other search engines. Ask.com has the UI down and other search alternatives like Quintura were better. I’d rate it a C.
Search results. Since ChaCha combs other search engines, the results were standard issue. I did find sponsored links mixed in here and there, which I thought was annoying. One news result got top billing with a note that it was sponsored by Fox News. Audio results were interesting and I was able to find video without any issues. I’d rate it a C–nothing terrible, but nothing outstanding either.
Searchbar ease of use. As you know I’m big on adding search engines to my browser search box. ChaCha may have been the easiest on this front. When I visited the home page it was sitting there in my browser to be added with just a click. Let’s call that an A.
Overall, ChaCha is solid even though I didn’t get the impression that the site was pushing the envelope. If you value help from real people it may be handy. If not–ChaCha is nothing more than a short detour.
June 22nd, 2007
Life without Google: Can Clusty get traction?
Clusty is a meta search engine that gives you a result and then offers you to drill down based on clusters of content. The big question is whether you’ll appreciate these clusters.
The Clusty approach is particularly handy if y
ou’re doing basic research and don’t mind suggestions for more information (see gallery for details). Clusty also has a nice interface that allows you to navigate groups of content such as news, images and blogs.
In a life without Google, Clusty is a fine alternative, but relative to Ask, Live Search and other search engines I can’t see using Clusty for everyday use.
Sure I can refine and tweak the sources, preferences and types of clusters in Clusty, but more often than not I want a quick answer so I can move on. Too often I found myself browsing instead of getting the goods right away. I’m just too impatient.
My experience with Clusty gets at a question asked on Read/WriteWeb by Alex Iskold in January. Iskold asked about what we really expect when you put words in a search box. Iskold described Clusty as a conversation, a search dialogue if you will.
But sometimes I just don’t want a dialogue. For that reason, I’ll use Clusty when I’m interested in discovery about a topic. Others may view Clusty the same way. In Iskold’s review he noted that Clusty’s traffic ranking was just above 5,000 in January. On Thursday, Clusty’s traffic rank was 12,894. Iskold said in January that Clusty’s traffic trend didn’t look promising. He wasn’t kidding. The Alexa chart below tells the tale.
However, Clusty’s lab projects are interesting. Clusty has search sites tailored to William Shakespeare and Ben Franklin. There’s another reason worth watching Clusty: The search engine is built by Vivisimo, an enterprise search company. It’s quite possible that the technology in Clusty may make it to your company via Vivisimo.
June 18th, 2007
Life without Google: Quintura a nice alternative with adoption hurdles
Update below: Quintura has just about everything you’d want in an alternative search engine: Solid results, a nice interface that’s intuitive and social features to share searches with friends. However, Quintura (see gallery for details on how it works) isn’t easy to add as a default search into your browser. Those hurdles may ultimately limit adoption rates.
As I’ve noted before in this life without Google series, the toolbars in your browser are critical to search engine usage. The days of going to a destination and conducting a search from there are long gone. I’d bet most searches are conducted from within the browser.
In Firefox my usual method of adding a search provider is to go to the MyCroft Project to add one. A MyCroft search on Quintura turned up nothing. So I went directly to Quintura.com and found an “Add to Firefox” link. That worked fine, but you have to go to Quintura first to add it as a search option.
In IE7 adding Quintura (gallery right) was easier, but there’s also a catch. Microsoft allows you to add any search provider as long as you do a search on “TEST” and cut and paste the link into a box to install. The problem: Finding that link isn’t easy on Quintura since the URL in the browser stays the same. The way to get the TEST search URL is to pretend you’re sharing the link with a friend, which generates a URL, and then pasting that address into IE7.
In any case, those hurdles aren’t huge, but you do have to be motivated to add Quintura to your browser. If those hurdles are eliminated Quintura could gain more traction because it’s definitely a keeper of a search engine.
The visualization capabilities in Quintura primarily rely on tags in a cloud much like other Web 2.0-ish properties. With the tags, it’s easier to see search relationships in Quintura. In fact, I had few gripes about the search engine and would definitely use it again. I also like how Quintura is targeting verticals such as a search engine for kids.
As far as user interfaces go, Quintura served up one of the better experiences. Shame I had difficulties adding it to my browsers. When you’re trying to post just a smidge of market share from the giants there can’t be any hurdles to making a search engine a default choice.
Update 10:33 a.m. PT: StartupSquad and others are reporting that Quintura has secured Series A funding from Mangrove Capital Partners, which also provided seed money for Quintura.
June 13th, 2007
Life without Google Day 5: The Kartoo experience
Can you get used to 
a search engine that has a creepy little mascot whose eyes follow you around as you click on icons?
If so maybe Kartoo is for you.
Kartoo is a meta search engine (see gallery) that is interesting from a user interface perspective. The search is so-so, but the presentation is worth noting. I’ve been trying it for a couple days as I explore life without Google. I rotated Kartoo with Ask and Live Search. Overall, Kartoo does inspire me to find some new interfaces. It’s just a little hard to use it repeatedly.
Kartoo uses the FlashPlayer to create visual results. Each result has an icon that has meaning–Word doc, recently updated, multiple pages and so forth. Hover over an icon and you can see the threads of your search and why the result appears.
In a nutshell, Kartoo gives you a map of search results. It takes some getting used to–as does the mascot that’s everywhere–but it does make you think about search a little differently.
Now I wouldn’t use Kartoo as my sole search. It’s just too jarring and once you navigate to an image search it plops you onto Yahoo.
However, I’d reckon that visual search is something that the search giants should think about a lot more. Eventually, we’re going to get sick of blue text links. What’s next?
While Kartoo’s interface had its issues–the next map icon to get more results was buried for instance–the search engine may be on to something. By using Flash saving searches and viewing your history felt like being inside an application. From the user perspective that approach is very different than the standard sea of links you get today.
June 12th, 2007
Life without Google: Today is Google free day
Richard MacManus at Read/Write Web has declared today Google free day. Among his rules:
- Don’t use any of the five major search engines;
- Avoid meta search engines;
- Ditch vertical search engines;
- Consider changing your home page or uninstall everything;
- Document your experience.
Richard will be trying out Hakia. I’m perusing Kartoo as we speak. Updates tomorrow. Looks like this experiment is broadening a bit.
June 12th, 2007
How much is that Safari search box worth?
One of the more annoying things about the Safari Beta 3 is the inability to add search providers to the search box in the top right. At least there’s a good reason for limiting choice: Money.
This topic is more of a passing interest to me given that I’m doing a tour of alternative search engines. It also reveals the economics behind these default search boxes powered by Google and why alternatives stay out of view. Here’s how you swap search engines on IE and Firefox.
In Safari (review, 
gallery) you have two search options: Google and Yahoo without any other options even as an add-on. Google most likely paid more since it’s the default. The numbers could become potentially large if Safari gains traction on Windows. And chances are that Safari will get that traction since Apple is likely to include a Safari download with an iTunes update. Given there are about 100 million iPods that have been shipped since 2003 that means there are at least that many iTunes downloads. However, many folks use iTunes without the iPod so the 100 million download tally is a low-ball estimate.
The economics of the Google-Apple default search arrangement are unclear–Apple makes no mention of the financials behind the Mac version of Safari in its SEC filings. And for now the economics of the Safari search box is being overshadowed by security in today’s coverage.
But we should pay attention. After all, Google is bankrolling the Mozilla Foundation courtesy of that Google search box that most people use just because it’s the default. For 2005, Mozilla reported $50.5 million in search royalties. The bulk of that was Google–the default. For context, Mozilla had 2005 revenue of $52.9 million. According to this ClickZ story from January, Mozilla gets paid every time you use Google to search from Firefox.
John Gruber reckons that Apple gets $2 million a month based on Google’s current Safari integration. That’s small potatoes with a larger Windows audience.
My somewhat-informed understanding is that Apple is currently generating about $2 million per month from Safari’s Google integration. That’s $25 million per year. If Safari for Windows is even moderately successful, it’s easy to see how that might grow to $100 million per year or more.
The unfortunate thing is that even at a $100 million a year for Apple the search engine payola is a rounding error. We’ll never know what the financial arrangements between Google, Yahoo and Apple really are.
All of this does raise a few interesting questions:
- Does Google pay less to Mozilla since it allows you to add other search providers?
- What’s Google paying Microsoft to be included in IE?
- If Safari takes off will Mozilla get less revenue from Google?
- Does Apple have an obligation to at least allow other search providers in Safari?
I’d love to hear some answers.
June 11th, 2007
Life without Google: The importance of toolbars and browser add-ons
As I go out and try different search engines, one thing is increasingly clear: Toolbars and browser add-ons are crucial.
In fact, the lack of browser integration is probably the biggest reason alternative search engines remain just an alternative.
My plan for this life without G
oogle series was simple: Find a few search engines, add them to my search bar in Firefox and give them a whirl.
That plan, however, takes a little work–especially if you habitually search through your browser. For instance, a “manage toolbar” link (left) in Firefox takes me to a link that includes most of the big search names. By clicking on the “get more search providers” link you get a wider assortment.
But if you want add smaller search engines, like the ones highlighted on Read/Write Web’s Alt Search Engines site you have to know two things:
- What alternative search engine you want to add to your browser;
- And where to go to add the plug-in.
For that first item, I picked one of Charles Knight’s alternative search engines of the month–Kartoo–to add to my browser. For those interested in alternative search engines, Alt Search Engines blog is a must read.
Once you make your search engine selection–I used Knight’s project as an initial screen–you have to find the plug in. To add a lesser-known search engine to Firefox you have to visit the Mycroft Project. Via Mycroft I was able to add Kartoo, which is my next search experiment.
On Internet Explorer 7, adding a search engine is different but pretty eas
y overall. On the top right search box you can find the find more providers link.
From there you are taken to a page with other providers. Like Firefox, the initial list is predetermined, but you can add more search engines with a little more work.
From the search provider page you can add other search engines by searching on TEST (see right) and adding that link in the box Microsoft provides. It worked for most search engines I tried, but not all.
Bottom line: It takes a little more motivation to use alternative search engines from your browser.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.
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