When it comes to accurate search results, Google does an amazing job. In fact, Google does such a good job that for a while it looked like Yahoo! would throw in the towel. Considering its dominance within the search engine world, it would seem crazy, ludicrous even for another search engine to try and topple the goliath. So when a new start-up receives $55 million in funding, especially in the current economic climate, it tends to catch your attention. Kosmix, the new beta-ish search engine is up and running thanks to a $20 million vote of confidence from Time Warner and former Motorola boss Ed Zander. The Silicon Valley start-up located just around the corner from Google now has a $55 million dollar tank of fuel thanks to the latest round of investment to add to previous contributions from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Facebook backers Accel Partners.
So what is it about Kosmix that makes it so appealing to investors? According to founder Anand Rajamaran's blog, Kosmix is an 'explore engine', rather than a search engine. Rajamaran admits that if you were looking for a specific piece of information like a train schedule you would probably use a search engine like Google. However if you wanted to explore a topic, perhaps if you were visiting New York or writing an article on Barack Obama, Kosmix could prove to be more insightful.
The dashboard-style explore engine pulls content from a number of sources including results for other search engines such as Google and Mahalo. For example, a search for Paris Hilton on Kosmix pulls information from Google, news results from Meehive, related blog results, discussions and opinions from forums and videos and images from Youtube and Flickr.
While there have been plenty of other search engines who've tried to take a piece of this profitable market, the future looks quite promising for Kosmix. The site already attracts 11 million visitors per month and now has the backing of many qualified investors.
Founders Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan aren't new to the tech industry either. Both made their fortunes at the height of the dotcom boom when they sold their shopping search engine to Amazon for $250 million in 1998. They are also behind the website Righthealth which according to Hitwise has become the second largest health site in around twelve months.
Kosmix is interesting and appealing because it isn't trying to be another Google. For the foreseeable future Google, and to a lesser degree Yahoo!, are likely to remain the kings when it comes to returning accurate search results. However, even though it is possible to get all the information Kosmix provides through Google and Yahoo!, Kosmix's easy to use interface and varied results from a number of sources make it very appealing to those really looking to explore, learn and develop a deeper understanding of a topic.
