The Software Abstractions Blog

Thoughts about Alternative Search Engines Day 2008

I was at the Alternative Search Engines Day event in San Francisco last week. Organized by Charles Knight of the Alt Search Engines blog (and friends), it brought together key people from over 40 alternative search engines. It was an amazing crowd, full of interesting and bright people, and the overall energy was incredible!

At the keynote, Charles gave a pitch for bringing ASEs together that was very well received. He showed us some examples of what a unified User Interface that combined multiple search engines would look like. I contributed a tiny bit (expanding on the idea that complementary ASEs could band together to provide Federated Searches for enhanced traffic and usability, and listing a few ways for the Alts to cooperate even while competing ).

Cooperation of Alternate Search Engines: A Manifesto

( This post is inspired by my discussions with my friend, Charles Knight of AltSearchEngines )

Background

I'll be at the Alternative Search Engines Day tomorrow, a unique event in San Francisco put together by Charles and the AltSearchEngines team. The event is sponsored by SeeqPod, UpTake, Matchpoint, HealthPricer, GoPubMed and Blogdimension. (Unfortunately, it's not open to the general public.) If you're part of an Alternative Search Engine, I hope to see you there!

As I was getting ready for the event, it got me thinking about ASEs and how they can work together.

The Case for the Alts

I love the ASEs - Alts rock! Without them, there would be little innovation in Search, no new frontiers to be explored.

The Alts are the ones that keep pushing the envelope with new directions in search technology, whether it's algorithms, user interface, social search or something else.  Although Google has some fine technology and is synonymous with search, I firmly believe that we're still at Search 1.0, and have a long way to go. Because of all this competition from the Alts, and the resulting innovation, web search continues to improve.

Web 2.0: The Real Opportunity Lies Ahead of Us

JP Rangaswami wrote an amazing post on his blog a little while ago: Interesting, but of no commercial value , in which he cites a series of examples of new technologies - like email and spreadsheets - that were initially considered simply interesting, rather than useful; now we cannot imagine living or working without those very same technologies. It seems likely that this will happen with today's emerging technologies, like RSS feeds, popular voting, social networking, micro-blogging, crowdsourcing and so on.

History Repeats Itself

We have already seen this happen with Web 1.0. A series of tiny, well-capitalized startups (remember Webvan? ) gained early traction online in a variety of market segments, from books to furniture to pet food to groceries. The large, established brick-and-mortar players were slow to respond.

Enterprise 2.0: The Engineering of Marketing Online

When I was talking with my friend Shreesha Ramdas (from OuterJoin ) last week, he shared a perspective that really resonated with me. In a nutshell, he believes that the Marketing of online products and sites is rapidly becoming an Engineering function, both in terms of operational activities and measurement.

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that he's on to something. Marketing of online products and sites is inherently different from classical marketing. Unlike regular marketing channels, online campaigns allow marketers to proceed systematically step-by-step along a predetermined course. The results of each distinct campaign can be measured precisely, even when multiple campaigns are going on simultaneously. Most important, the market can be broken up into thousands of micro-segments, with targeted campaigns aimed at each one.

Introducing: Gmail Custom Time!

In the grand tradition of Project Teaspoon, Google unveiled yet another profound and significant product today: Gmail Custom Time .  This exciting new product is sure to be a life-saver for many a forgetful techie.

To quote Google's own marketing content:

Ever wish you could go back in time and send that crucial email that could have changed everything -- if only it hadn't slipped your mind? Gmail can now help you with those missed deadlines, missed birthdays and missed opportunities.

If you want to see what it looks like, here's the image:

Remember: you heard it here first! :-)

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