Elsewhere: Wikiseek, SimplyHired, Wazap!, Findory

Wikiseek is a new search engine (not to be confused with the recently announced Wikiasari), whose searches are restricted to Wikipedia pages and only those sites which are referenced within Wikipedia. It is based on technology from SearchMe , a Palo Alto startup. The results UI for Wikiseek is very similar to the familiar Google interface, with search results on the left and sponsored results on the right, with the addition of a tag cloud of related articles on the top. The majority of the revenue generated by Wikiseek advertising will go to the Wikimedia Foundation.

SimplyHired , one of the leading vertical search engines for job search, continues to raise the bar in new and interesting ways. An article from the LifeTwo web site, describes sH's search offering for "mature worker friendly" companies - i.e. a search engine for job seekers aged 50 and above . This type of parametric search, that leverages the focus on a specific vertical, is an ideal complement to the standard capabilities of a vertical search engine - as we've said here before  .

Wazap!  , a popular gaming vertical search engine in Japan and Germany, has raised $7.9 Million for its US Launch according to the Search Engine Journal and other sources.

Findory  , a personalized news search engine with a devoted fan base, shall be fading away  , as described in a post on Greg Linden's blog  . Greg, the developer behind Findory, says that the site shall continue to live on, "on autopilot", throughout 2007.

Here are a couple of interesting older posts that I came across recently, about Textbookland  , a VSE for (what else?) text books, and BigWords  , which "searches across many stores for the best prices on textbooks, DVDs, music, supplies, and games".