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.
Another company that has recently re-launched is Accoona. I first learned about Accoona probably 3 years ago. The company made big news for one business day when former President Clinton gave a pretty good speech at the company’s first launch. I have to admit, I really enjoy President Clinton's speeches so I was intrigued. Accoona's site was Spartan like-Google, but the search results really didn't seem much different. When the company re-launched earlier this month I couldn’t resist trying their search again. This time the results seemed good, and the SuperTarget value-added results are innovative. Unfortunately, Accoona has yet to integrate the SuperTarget to their web searches. You can only use the SuperTarget on their news and business results. At the end of the day, I only re-visited Accoona because I remembered their initial press release because it featured a populist President.
Finally, earlier this month I ran across Find.com. In this case, I’m intrigued because I want to see if the “find” engine can work with the parent company’s proprietary technology. Find.com is 51% owned by Scientigo. Scientigo is a small company that has earned an entry in the Wikipedia. The Wikipedia credits Scientigo for asserting patent claims on the widely popular XML protocol. Scientigo does indeed have several patents on-file, but could these claims be a way to drum up buzz for their search engine? Obviously, I don’t know for sure. In fact I think the answer may be no. The Find.com search engine is now in beta, and Scientigo does not yet have a link to Find.com on their corporate site. Like Accoona, Find.com utilizes a value-added search feature called Topification. Topification like SuperTarget provides a unique way to ascertain more information from search results.
Regardless of the eventual impact, these small search engines have changed marketing. Since we all feel that technology can change the world it is easy to get caught-up in the hype especially when the hype feels more organic. When a company empowers a consumer to “discover” their product through non-traditional marketing the consumer tends to take ownership of the product.
Mar.27.2006.
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