Google - Became the Internet’s biggest company by dominating what has become the web’s biggest market segment – online search and paid text links. Google claims a dominating 56% market share in search (Nielsen/NetRatings, May 2007) , but that hasn’t stopped dozens (probably hundreds) of companies from trying to grab a piece of the action. Most of the major search engines also come with their own advertising system, while a few startups actually rely on Google to serve up paid text ads.
Yahoo – Once the web’s biggest search engine, Yahoo still handles a reported 21.5% of searches worldwide. The company’s much anticipated but delayed Panama system for text ads has finally gone live, with early results pointing to better click through rates.
MSN – While rumors of Microsoft acquiring Yahoo have persisted (and been discredited in the same breath), the company’s Live Search product remains number three.
Ask.com – As the crown jewel of the IAC network of sites, Ask.com has received rave reviews, including Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal declaring, “Google deserves credit for universal search, which I’m sure will get better. But Ask’s new design is much more compelling and well worth a try.” Nonetheless, Ask.com is a distant fourth in the race for search dominance.
Eurekster – Social search engine Eurekester is built around users tagging and promoting the best results. The company also markets the “Swicki” platform allowing online communities to create their own vertical search engines for users.
Rollyo – This search engine allows you to create a personalized search engine. With Rollyo, you set up a “search roll” which searches only from sites you specify, in the hope of providing you with only content you trust. Additionally, you can opt to share your search rolls with others.
Quintura – Visual search engine Quintura lets you search visually, presenting you with tag clouds relating to your search terms. As we noted in “Google Labs: A Look Under the Hood”, Google is experimenting with contextual search that shows related searches side-by-side with your original query.
Mahalo – Recently launched Mahalo is a commercialized Wikipedia (Wikipedia) of sorts, paying people to create pages on thousands of topics and continually update the results. Each content creator also gets their own profile pages where you can see the pages to which they have contributed.
Powerset – Much hyped Powerset hasn’t launched yet, but intends to build a natural language search engine that could change the way people find things online. The company has raised significant venture capital that has already valued PowerSet at more than $40 million.
Wikiasari – As part of his for-profit company, Wikia, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales looks to create the world’s largest human-powered search engine. The project is still in development, but with Wikipedia now one of the world’s largest web sites, it has an opportunity to grab a piece of the market.
Image Search – In addition to text queries, Google faces a variety of competitors in image search, including all of the usual suspects plus upstarts like Pixsy, Picsearch, and Yotophoto.
Yahoo – Once the web’s biggest search engine, Yahoo still handles a reported 21.5% of searches worldwide. The company’s much anticipated but delayed Panama system for text ads has finally gone live, with early results pointing to better click through rates.
MSN – While rumors of Microsoft acquiring Yahoo have persisted (and been discredited in the same breath), the company’s Live Search product remains number three.
Ask.com – As the crown jewel of the IAC network of sites, Ask.com has received rave reviews, including Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal declaring, “Google deserves credit for universal search, which I’m sure will get better. But Ask’s new design is much more compelling and well worth a try.” Nonetheless, Ask.com is a distant fourth in the race for search dominance.
Eurekster – Social search engine Eurekester is built around users tagging and promoting the best results. The company also markets the “Swicki” platform allowing online communities to create their own vertical search engines for users.
Rollyo – This search engine allows you to create a personalized search engine. With Rollyo, you set up a “search roll” which searches only from sites you specify, in the hope of providing you with only content you trust. Additionally, you can opt to share your search rolls with others.
Quintura – Visual search engine Quintura lets you search visually, presenting you with tag clouds relating to your search terms. As we noted in “Google Labs: A Look Under the Hood”, Google is experimenting with contextual search that shows related searches side-by-side with your original query.
Mahalo – Recently launched Mahalo is a commercialized Wikipedia (Wikipedia) of sorts, paying people to create pages on thousands of topics and continually update the results. Each content creator also gets their own profile pages where you can see the pages to which they have contributed.
Powerset – Much hyped Powerset hasn’t launched yet, but intends to build a natural language search engine that could change the way people find things online. The company has raised significant venture capital that has already valued PowerSet at more than $40 million.
Wikiasari – As part of his for-profit company, Wikia, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales looks to create the world’s largest human-powered search engine. The project is still in development, but with Wikipedia now one of the world’s largest web sites, it has an opportunity to grab a piece of the market.
Image Search – In addition to text queries, Google faces a variety of competitors in image search, including all of the usual suspects plus upstarts like Pixsy, Picsearch, and Yotophoto.