20 July 2010 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter
Plucky new search engine Blekko has launched in private beta, inviting a handful of testers to sample its unique search offering that hopes to take on the likes of Google and Bing before its public release later this summer.
The Californian start-up must be well aware of the tough market it's entering, where other wannabe 'Google-killers' such as Cuil and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales' ill-fated Wikia Search have dramatically failed to make their mark in a market where even silver medallist Yahoo! has begun phasing out its search platforms to Bing.
However, according to Tech Crunch, the new search engine may succeed in holding its own by offering "new types of searches" to users. What Blekko may currently lack in index size, relevancy and crawling speed compared to the mighty Google, the search engine will reportedly make up for with "an unprecedented level of access to the algorithms and data that Blekko uses to determine relevancy."
The primary way this is achieved is through slashtags, which will allow users to expediently narrow down their search queries depending on the type of page they are looking for - whether it's '/news', '/amazon' or '/blogs'.
Users can also add customised slashtags of their own to deliver more targeted results - which can be as straightforward as a site search (e.g. /bigmouthmedia) or to collate favourite tech sites or similar blogs. These slashtags can also be made public to reach a wider audience.
By making it simpler and more user-friendly to carry out specific searches without having to learn the lexicon of search modifiers (such as 'site:' to carry out a site search on Google), Blekko aims to provide a more intuitive way to deliver relevant search results. It remains to be seen whether the public will be won over by the site's usability and transparency when its beta version goes public.
Blekko promises user-friendly search experience
Plucky new search engine Blekko has launched in private beta, inviting a handful of testers to sample its unique search offering that hopes to take on the likes of Google and Bing before its public release later this summer.The Californian start-up must be well aware of the tough market it's entering, where other wannabe 'Google-killers' such as Cuil and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales' ill-fated Wikia Search have dramatically failed to make their mark in a market where even silver medallist Yahoo! has begun phasing out its search platforms to Bing.
However, according to Tech Crunch, the new search engine may succeed in holding its own by offering "new types of searches" to users. What Blekko may currently lack in index size, relevancy and crawling speed compared to the mighty Google, the search engine will reportedly make up for with "an unprecedented level of access to the algorithms and data that Blekko uses to determine relevancy."
The primary way this is achieved is through slashtags, which will allow users to expediently narrow down their search queries depending on the type of page they are looking for - whether it's '/news', '/amazon' or '/blogs'.
Users can also add customised slashtags of their own to deliver more targeted results - which can be as straightforward as a site search (e.g. /bigmouthmedia) or to collate favourite tech sites or similar blogs. These slashtags can also be made public to reach a wider audience.
By making it simpler and more user-friendly to carry out specific searches without having to learn the lexicon of search modifiers (such as 'site:' to carry out a site search on Google), Blekko aims to provide a more intuitive way to deliver relevant search results. It remains to be seen whether the public will be won over by the site's usability and transparency when its beta version goes public.
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