tag:,2008:/1/tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3664- 2008-08-22T19:00:21Z Comments for Poll: Will UI innovations really be competitive with Google? Movable Type 4.1 tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3664 2007-04-02T08:35:24Z 2007-12-16T23:11:19Z Poll: Will UI innovations really be competitive with Google? This week's poll is a companion to a thought-provoking post co-written by Emre Sokullu and Charles Knight. The post is a review of alt search engine Quintura, which differentiates itself with clustering technology. But there is a larger question: can search engines such as Quintura, that rely on UI innovation, really be competitive with Google?... Richard MacManus http://www.readwriteweb.com This week's poll is a companion to a thought-provoking post co-written by Emre Sokullu and Charles Knight. The post is a review of alt search engine Quintura, which differentiates itself with clustering technology. But there is a larger question: can search engines such as Quintura, that rely on UI innovation, really be competitive with Google?

Emre argues that the problem with relying on UI innovation is that the barrier to entry is too low. The big players Google (SearchMash) and Microsoft (Live) are actively experimenting with UI innovations, not to mention a number of other alt search engines (e.g. Snap). Meanwhile Charles says that "I do not believe that any of the Top 100 alternative search engines is a 'Google Killer;' but: they all are!". He cites an Aesop fable about a lion and 4 oxen to back this theory up.

So what do you think? Take part in our poll below - and don't forget to read Emre and Charles' review of Quintura.

]]> tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3664-comment:31110 Comment from Sebastian Moser on 2007-04-02 Sebastian Moser http://www.looocal.com/ United we stand?

That's bullshit - everybody who knows a little bit about usability knows, that people don't want to have more than five different products in a certain field, because they don't remember more then five (unless they dig into the topic, which isn't the case for 95% of all search users).

That's the reason why the Google homepage doesn't provide links to more than five services and took away the link to Google Groups when they started to promote Google Video on their homepage.

Alternative Search Engines can occupy tiny niches - unless they aren't covered by Google one day. Google is good in guessing what you want to find and will get even better as time progresses.
The ultimate killer to alternative search engines are Google OneBox and MultiBox-results.

There is no need to go to a finance site any more. I enter the name of the company and either get the OneBox with a link to Google Finance, or I get the MultiBox - again to Google Finance.
There is no need to go to a mapping site any more. I enter the town and get a OneBox or MultiBox to Google Maps.

And IF there was a really good U alternative to Google, it wouldn't take them long to release it to the public. Or they are the first to release them, anyway.

]]> 2007-04-02T09:47:39Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3664-comment:31111 Comment from Yakov on 2007-04-02 Yakov http://www.quintura.com Richard, thank you for this pool! Its result and discussion are going to provide alternative search engines with a very valuable feedback.

I would like to point out that we at Quintura know that we can only compete with GYMA (Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Ask) if we manage to build own web index based on context to fully utilize our proprietary neural networking technique for searching. This is where we at Quintura currently spend most of our resources.

In the meantime, Quintura Kids or other user community-oriented search engine is where Quintura not only touches GYMA but can also become number one in this targeted market.

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