In the works since 2007, Rich Skrenta, the co-founder and chief executive has officially launched the newest search engine, Blekko. This startup, just like many other companies, have tried taking on Google by building a different and “better” search engine. But, can this small, new company even compete?
Blekko prides itself on helping users find results only from trustworthy sites. “Since Google started, the Web has been overrun by unhelpful sites full of links and keywords that push them to the top of Google’s search results but offer little relevant information.”[1] So, how do you find a place in a world that is dominated by Google? You differentiate yourself by offering different results.[2]
This new search engine bases its results off of 3 billion web pages that are considered worthwhile. However, only top results are shown on any given topic that is searched by a user. The key to Blekko’s success are the use of slashtags. Slashtags are filters for search results.[3] If you were looking for an iPad on Amazon, for example, the slashtag that would be used is “iPad/Amazon.” This way, users won’t be susceptible to spammed search results. “The goal is to clean up Web search and get all the spam out of it, said Skrenta.”[4] Any popular searched topics that would produce spam results on Google, will have edited results on Blekko. Simply, Blekko’s results are different from Google’s and much more useful and relevant.
Although Google can’t differentiate between the authenticities of two similar articles – whether it was written by a specialist or by a company like Demand Media, who created websites like eHow.com and who pay next to nothing to get their somewhat useless sites on the web, will people make the switch from Google to Blekko? Honestly, some will, but probably not enough to make it the number one or even the number two search engine. Most people are happy with the results that Google provides to its users.
It is no surprise that starting a new search engine is a rough business. Even some of the most promising attempts to challenge Google, or even companies like Bing, have failed miserably. A perfect example of this would be Cuil – a search company that was started by former Google engineers. After a two-year run and thirty three million dollars in funding, the company flopped.[5] However, Blekko does have an advantage over these types of Google competitors: their selling point can’t be copied.[6]
As a user of Google, I am fed up with all of the spam every time I search for something specific on the Web. Unfortunately, just like Google, Blekko’s slashtags are susceptible to spam, since anyone can edit them (just like Wikipedia). Partly for this reason, I probably won’t make the switch. Even though Blekko has taken on this issue by hiring an editor and implementing Wikipedia-style policing, I’m very comfortable with Google. I can assume, however, that some will switch to Blekko and the company will maintain a group of loyal followers.
In reality, all startups are long shots, especially when they are trying to compete with Google. Blekko, like many of these other startup companies, will probably fail. Fortunately for Blekko, Skrenta has a more realistic goal in mind than other companies like his, which may keep the company afloat: Blekko to become the number three search engine.
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