Small Search Engines and their Non-Traditional PR Machines
I've been following a few small search engines for some time now. With search dominated by Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, can a start-up enter the market and how do they get attention? I’ve read many articles about Google's massive network of computers that can process more data than most if not all of the world's largest universities. Likewise we have to assume that Microsoft with their heaping pile of cash has replicated to some degree Google's indexing capabilities. How can a small search firm compete? The answer is small value-added over-lays to their search combined with aggressive marketing, but this still doesn't mean success.
Just over a year ago I discovered Mamma.com. Mamma.com is the self-described, "mother of all search engines." In addition to search they had a very small advertising network that appeared to be similar to Google's vastly popular Adsense program. I discovered Mamma.com after browsing Mark Cuban's personal blog. I was intrigued by Mamma because Mr. Cuban had made a substantial investment in the company. However he eventually sold all of his stock in Mamma.com because of frustrations with the company. So really my brief exposure to Mamma.com was a nothing more than viral marketing via a blog. As a result, I really tried to use Mamma.com, but their meta search was nothing compared to Google, and their site seemed sluggish.
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