25 January 2010 | Author: J. Morton News Editor

Rival search engines ramp up competition in Munich

Attendees of the Digital, Life, and Design Conference, being held 24 to 26 January in Munich, will be exposed to the latest in cutting edge developments in the digital realm. One such revelation that has occurred already is the efforts of search engine rivals to take the search crown From Google.

While Google still has a considerable lead on other search sites, such as Bing, Guardian tech writer Mercedes Bunz reports that a search engine panel discussion highlighted rivals' advancements, with assured but unelaborated responses from Ben Gomes, Google's representative for the conference.

When queried on Google's performance in foreign markets, Gomes replied, "We have done very respectably in almost all markets we are in." He also maintained that the search giant is constantly altering its formula for finding information, and that "search gets better day after day after day."

However, Bunz reported that the crowd's greatest reactions were to innovations proposed and created by rivals Wolfram Alpha, an 'answer engine', and Bing.

Explaining his engine, Wolfram Alpha representative Conrad Wolfram said: "WolframAlpha is about high power computation and knowledge that meet at an exciting time when computation gets democratised."

The founder of Wolfram research further explained that the market was becoming less about search and more about decision-making and answering questions, according to the article. The company recently teamed to integrate certain search areas with Bing, who also unveiled new features at the event.

The search site, owned by Microsoft, showcased a new version of Bing Maps with realistic three-dimensional views to a favourable reception.

So, while Google still maintains its edge, these newer upstarts have shown they don't lack the resourcefulness to keep search technology driving forward.