Can Microsoft find the right balance of monetizing music without being over-bearing, enabling multi-platform use without being confusing and satisfying millions of mainstream users without being boring? Those seem to be the looming questions.

Could Seeqpod Be Under The Hood?

It's possible that the new project is being rolled out quickly because it's built on acquired technology. This Spring there was widespread speculation that Microsoft had acquired failed but awesome MP3 search engine Seeqpod. Seeqpod did a great job searching for media around the web and offered an API that developers liked quite a lot - but the company got slammed by repeated lawsuits. Seeqpod argued that it was only indexing media files that other people were posting, not posting them themselves. That kind of argument tends to hold up best when you are big enough for music companies to look the other way. Surely Microsoft wouldn't be so bold, would it?

Bale says the new Microsoft music service will compete based on scale and quality of product. If it can simply deliver more variety than Pandora or Last.fm do, that alone will make it a viable competitor for many users.

In terms of user experience, the gap between the major search engines and their alternatives continues to widen -- a lot. Google has been compared to a luxury liner that turns around very, very slowly, whereas the startups are speedboats that can turn (or innovate) on a dime. I guarantee that if you try any of these top 10 alternative search engines of 2008, you won't come away saying, "Hey, that was just like Google."

As evidence of just how much the landscape is changing, three of our top 10 products require one-time downloads: once thought to be the kiss of death when Google sits in wait. But AltSearchEngines thinks that 2009 will be the tipping point when the rewards outweigh the "risks," at least for power users. For everyone else: 2010. Faroo, KallOut, and Surf Canyon (and, again, Tazti) are all well worth leaving your comfort zone for.

How many of these 10 search tools had you used, seen, or even heard of before today? The latest data from Hitwise shows that the four major search engines get over 98% of all US search traffic; the rest, combined, get less than 2%. These wonderful inventions need and deserve more exposure, so do your part and take the time to try out each one! On that note, let's begin.

This is the ninth in ReadWriteWeb's series of top products of 2008:

• Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2008
• Top 10 International Products of 2008
• Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2008
• Top 10 RSS and Syndication Products of 2008
• Top 10 Mobile Web Products of 2008
• Top 10 Enterprise Web Products of 2008
• Top 10 Real World Web Apps of 2008
• Top 10 Digital Lifestyle Products of 2008

Note: these 10 search engines are listed alphabetically.

1. ChaCha

ChaCha, as a search tool, is human-powered, general, and mobile. There is no website, no search box, and no page witih a list of ten links. To use ChaCha, simply call 1-800-2ChaCha (1-800-224-2242) in the US, or send a text to 242242. When you call, leave your query just as you would any other voice-mail message, and hang up. Within 2 to 5 minutes, a human guide will have researched and texted you the answer. I used ChaCha with only my cheap cell phone when I was lost in New York City at midnight. And that's an important point: you can call ChaCha at any time with any question for any reason on any phone -- as long as that phone can receive text messages. And, aside from your carrier's incoming text fees, ChaCha is free. We recently reported on ChaCha over at AltSearchEngines.

2. Cooliris

2008 was the year when search visualization met the iPhone. Cooliris has already won one ReadWriteWeb award, making it onto the list of the Top 10 Consumer Apps of 2008. RWW wrote in that post, "Visual browsing is still coming into its own, but Cooliris is leading the charge in a way that consumers will embrace." We at ASE have been following Cooliris since its PicLens days. Following right behind are SearchMe and Viewzi. Each of these three visual search engines displays your search results beautifully and fluidly on your iPhone, but with different styles, so you might as well download all three and experiment. There is a demo video on each site.

3. Faroo

Alternative search engines need at least one thing that differentiates them from the major search engines. Faroo, for its part, turns your conception of search around 180 degrees. Instead of one giant company (say, Google) storing billions of web pages on thousands of servers at a cost of millions of dollars, Faroo, now in public beta, relies on the P2P (peer-to-peer) network, which connects Faroo members with each other through their PCs. The result is an organic-looking web that can grow as the Internet grows, but without the need for massive server farms. So, check out Faroo by downloading it here.

4. KallOut

KallOut was one of our favorite discoveries this year, as we noted in the ASE review. Once again, it's time to put away that image of a rectangular search box! It's 2008! With KallOut, you don't have to stop what you're doing and mess around with a toolbar, tab, or window. You simply drag your cursor over content with your mouse, and KallOut performs the search for you right there -- literally, right there. Download KallOut here, and then practice a bit until you get the hang of it. No, it's not a harder way to search; it's a more efficient way to search. You'll see.

5. Kosmix

Kosmix is, in a way, an evolution of the old meta search engines. Kosmix answers your query with a long tabloid-like page of results in every possible category you might want. There are multiple news sources; images from various sites; audio from SeeqPod; opinions from Omgili; video from Truveo; info from Mahalo and Snappyfingers; plus content from all of the major sources, such as eBay, YouTube, and Wikipedia. Just about everything! For every search query, you essentially get an on-the-fly multimedia encyclopedia laid out on one page. Kosmix recently came into a little money, too. (Disclosure: Kosmix is an AltSearchEngine sponsor.)

6. Mednar

We had no idea how many health search engines there really were until Hope Leman started covering them on AltSearchEngines. Mednar is one we're particularly fond of: "I am in jaw-dropping, stupefied awe at the general excellence of the products of his (CEO Abe Lederman's) firm. Anything that saves all of us time as we hunt for relevant data amidst overwhelming amounts of information on every conceivable aspect of disease day after day catches my attention, and it has been caught today by Mednar."

7. Quintura

When you search with Quintura, you'll see a two-dimensional tag cloud (i.e. not a list). The other words in the box are there to allow you to explore concepts related to your original query. See something you hadn't thought of? Click on it and the cloud re-orients itself around that new term. You can delete irrelevant terms as well. But don't worry, it also provides a traditional list for you, just in case. Quintura is now available in several language "flavors" as well! Content publishers should investigate Quintura for possible use on their sites. (Disclosure: Quintura is a sponsor of both AltSearchEngines and RWW.)

8. SeeqPod

Speaking with SeeqPod's CEO Kasian Franks, I was shocked, shocked, to learn that not everyone owns an iPhone! Apparently there are millions of people who have nice smart phones that run something called "Windows Mobile." Anyway, SeeqPod has been constantly improving its music search engine ever since we came across it. And now, it can be installed on millions of smart phones that use the Windows Mobile platform (v.6.0 or higher). This, as RWW noted the other day, "is a bold move from one of the most innovative companies in online music. The SeeqPod API is already one of the most popular for third parties to integrate streaming music into other apps, and the company seems to launch something unexpected every month. This has got to take the cake, though."

9. Surf Canyon

Can I say it again? Search, after ten years, is no longer that ubiquitous box in the middle of the web page. In 2008, it gave way to innovative search tools that integrate useful features in new ways. Surf Canyon is also a download. I wonder how many commenters will say that no one will download an app? (Sigh.) The reason it's worth the download is that it turbo charges your regular searches. Surf Canyon actually watches what you do -- and don't do -- and what you click on, and it instantly pulls search results from deeper pages (say, page 8) and brings them forward if it determines that they can save you time -- a lot of time. And if you're still hesitant about the download, watch the video.

10. Taggalaxy.de

What's this? A personal favorite? This write-up is just a sneak peek of Taggalaxy.de; the rest is up to you. Taggalaxy.de (in German) was created by a German graduate student for a class project. There are almost no instructions: I had to learn how to use it by clicking, double-clicking, dragging, and just playing around with it. But I can tell you this, once you've got the hang of it, find a dark room with a monster screen, and then perform a search. What you see will be not just an alternative search engine, but an alternative search galaxy!

So, there it is. In 2006, I began a mission to find every search engine, one by one. The resulting list of 100 Alternative Search Engines was published on ReadWriteWeb in January of 2007. Four months later, AltSearchEngines was launched by myself and Richard MacManus, with an index of 1,000 alternatives to the major engines. Since then, AltSearchEngines has published over 2,000 posts about, "the most wonderful search engines you've never seen." Having honed our search-engine-finding skills, I can tell you that this list of the top 10 alternative search engines for 2008 is as current as today's news. Want more? AltSearchEngines reports on important updates, features guest posts from search experts, and of course explores the as-yet-unseen search engines of 2009, every day. Come and join us!

The company says "Any Windows Mobile device is now essentially an iPod, but streaming." That's putting it lightly; if this app works well then any Windows Mobile Device becomes an iPod with all the free music posted around the web on it.

It's a bold move from one of the most innovative companies in online music. The SeeqPod API is already one of the most popular for 3rd parties to integrate streaming music into other apps and the company seems to launch something unexpected every month. This has got to take the cake, though.

The app will include links to purchase songs, a fully skinnable player and it will be Bluetooth capable for streaming to car stereos and home audio systems. There will be affiliate sales opportunities as well.

SeeqPod has faced some substantial legal pressure from record labels that don't like the way it unearths MP3s around the web, many presumably posted illicitly. Selling a mobile app strikes us as incredibly gutsy.

Full details can be found at this page and requests for early access can be made via this link.

We hope to get our hands on the app later today so we can give the UI a look. A public announcement and availability is expected tomorrow. We love using SeeqPod and we're very interested in this mobile app.

What if the perfect service rose from the noise and gave you exactly the user experience you wanted? What would such a service look like?

Note: it's not clear how viable any of this is going to be if small players aren't able to compete with innovative features. If you haven't yet, read the bad news about Pandora. Justin Dorfman has a good little blog post about things you can do to save Pandora.

Assuming that the pace of innovation online in music streaming can continue, here's what we're looking for in our dream service.

Quantity and Breadth of Music

The music business fights a constant battle against homogenization and in favor of the long tail, or at least some people in it do. It's hard to judge the quantity and breadth of music on a given service, it's a "I know it when I see it" kind of phenomenon.

Obviously many people want to make sure all the big hits are included, but we'd love to see the crowd pleasers be followed up with high quality music just being discovered. The infinite distribution of the web should make this a fundamentally different content experience than commercial radio has been.

Services that allow users to upload MP3 files offer a powerful opportunity to engage the long tail of musical tastes. That's becoming an increasingly common feature.

International Support

We'd be doing our friends in the rest of the world a real disservice if we said any music service was perfect if it didn't make itself available to listeners anywhere on the planet. For all the love it gets, Pandora is limited to US users. Copyright in music rears its ugly head again.

Continuous Playback

Services like Seeqpod and Imeem require too much intervention. It's preferable to at least have the option to click play and leave your music player alone for hours. Hey Muxtape, how about letting me turn on a mode that automatically follows all the fans and "fan of" connections from any collection I start with?

DRM Free Purchases

We love Amazon MP3 for its DRM free downloads and highlighting DRM free links to buy is one of the many things we love about MP3 blog aggregator Hype Machine. Sometimes streaming just isn't enough and you want to buy tunes. There are any number of ways to get music files for free, but when you find an artist you really respect - it's nice to send them some money.

We like the GrooveShark model of P2P downloads with revenue distribution to artists. The revenue sharing among listeners seems a little silly and we'd probably prefer lower prices, but whatever.

Good Recommendations

Music recommendation is something many, many people have aimed for. Few have nailed it like Pandora and Last.fm. Grooveshark rolled out a new recommendation feature today, but after just a little bit of use we found it unsatisfactory. The service generally has too much down time and it wasn't clear what recommendations were based on.

Social Features

It might sound silly, but there are two reasons that Last.fm really rocks and the social features are one of them. It's easy to discover other users and to listen to what they listen to. We've had a lot of fun going through our FriendFeed connections and seeing what different people we know online like to listen to.

Compare this to Pandora, where social features are buried in the back of the feature set and the gestures that result in populating your social profile (bookmarking songs or bands) aren't at all the most common gestures that users make (thumbs up or down). Even though there are millions of users, Pandora feels like a solitary place.

RIght: Sometimes we like to listen to what Chris Pirillo likes to listen to, just to see what makes him tick.

Atractive and Easy to Use Feedback UI

Pandora makes it easy to like or unlike songs, even if you haven't created an account. It's UI is more attractive than Last.fm's and these two services are among the only ones to really make the feedback UI simple and powerful.

Quality Ancillary Content

In addition to the social features, the second thing that makes Last.fm awesome is the additional information about artists. It's nice to be able to browse bio and background info, to see photos, etc.

It's nice to be able to view the lyrics of the song you're listening to sometime. LyricWiki is ok for this. Favtape pulls in lyrics from LyricWiki when they are available. The service plays your favorites from Pandora or Last.fm, using the Seeqpod API. It also links out to ringtone download sites. It's pretty cool.

We want to love IdioMag more than anyone for this. This little service grabs your publicly available musical taste data from other services, like Last.fm and Pandora, and then builds a "personalized music magazine" for you. For whatever genre you like, IdioMag identifies new and interesting bands, then plays them through an interface that supplements the music with photos from Flickr, videos from YouTube and text from syndicated blog posts. It even uses the dominant colors from the photos to determine the color scheme for the associated "pages." It's totally hot, in theory. In practice the writing tends to be unbearably bad and layout ends up being sloppy. We hope the service will improve because it's a great idea that we honestly tell people about weekly. Idiomag and Grooveshark are doing some cross-promotion for each other; we're happy to see that.

Playlist Publishing With Good Interface

Everyone likes to share good music with anyone who will listen. It's one way we win cool points and express ourselves. From the austere Muxtape to the super cute if unscalable casset tapes of MixWit, there's a world of interface options.

There's no reason for a service like Seeqpod, who are already being sued anyway, to offer such an awful playlist publishing widget. We're guessing that almost no one ever uses that part of the service.

Band in Town Notifications

When a band we're listening to on a service is going to be in our town any time soon, we'd love to know. It's a real lost opportunity whenever a service doesn't provide this kind of information - there are any number of ways to get it.

A Space for New Bands to be Discovered

How about a service that scans my iTunes library and my online listening history, determines my genres of interest and then never plays music from artists I've already listened to. Or makes sure to play some that I haven't.

Desktop Notification

You know how good online IM programs will sound a tone and show a message in your browser tab when a new message comes in? That way you can be using other applications but still know what's going on with your IM. Music apps should do something like that. Growl notification of artist and song title would be awesome.

MP3 Blog Discovery

Have you seen the Hype Machine? It's an MP3 blog aggregator and it's fantastic. Any music discovery system should include links to recent blog posts about the song you're listening to. It's a great way to learn about an artist and discover related music.

Oh So Much More

Friends of RWW have also told us they would like good mobile access and a clear path to revenue sharing with artists. What would your dream service for music streaming look like? Let us know in comments - maybe someone else will read this discussion and build it.

Photo at top "I Love My Music" by Flickr user shankar, shiv.

For fans of Muxtape, the new PodLists feature may hold some appeal - the only difference is that instead of searching through various online mixtapes identified only by username (you should at least be using Muxfind for that!), you'll have daily access to a fresh set of what are, essentially, online mixes identified by theme or genre instead.

As you listen to the PodLists, you can use SeeqPod's built-in features to remove the tracks you don't like and save the rest to a playlist of your own.

At the moment, the PodLists aren't customized to a particular user's tastes, but the SeeqPod team does look at the most popular search queries by topic or artist, and, based on the data found, they then create a list that suits that particular demographic. However, sometime this summer individual users will be able to search for lists by username, list name, or date - which will make the service more Muxtape-like, considering that users could then create playlists that others could discover.

For anyone in search of more ways to discover new music, this service is worth a look...as long as they keep their recommendations fresh.

For more information on SeeqPod, you may be interested in checking out our recent Alt Search Engines podcast which featured LaurieAnne (LA) Lassek of Seeqpod and Aza Raskin of Songaza (who partnered with SeeqPod this year to offer more music).

Within your ubuket, you can create playlists of your media. To include media from the online services, you first enter in your credentials and then look for the "Action" button next to your files. With one click, you can add the file to a list or send the file to your friends.

The Ubuket Player

What's nice about the ubuket service is that it's accessible (or soon to be accessible) in so many different ways. There is an Adobe AIR app (download link) for running it on your desktop, Songbird users will soon be able to utilize a plugin to upload music from their library, iPhone and iPod Touch users can access ubuket from iphone.ubuket.com, and the app is available as an application on Facebook and Bebo. Your ubuket can also be embedded on any web site or blog. Sometime in April an iTunes plugin will arrive, as will apps for Hi5 and MySpace. By May, an Orkut app will be available and you'll be able to access ubuket from other, non-Apple mobile devices.

That being said, I had some issues when I tried ubuket this morning - initially my photos didn't upload, giving me a red circle - the sign of a failed upload, but on a second try the upload succeeded. Also, clicking on the "Home" button didn't seem to do anything in some cases, an accidental click on "Login" required logging in again (it didn't remember me), and overall, the Flash-based widget seemed a little clunky. However, the service is new and still being developed, so it may be worth waiting and seeing what comes of it. I like the idea of a centralized place for online media - especially one that would be accessible from my mobile phone and from facebook. But whether ubuket becomes anything more than a glorified widget is yet to be seen.

"We're excited about these partnerships -- they allow our users to find and listen to a much broader range of music," said Songza founder Aza Raskin. "Being able to listen to entire songs -- not just 30-second clips -- is a great thing for music fans. It will lead to more informed purchases of music, and more purchases overall."

Songza also announced a promotional program in collaboration with Creative Commons where independent artists can have their tracks featured on the site's recommended page for 24 hours for 99 cents. According to Songza, the recommended page receives 40,000 unique visitors each day.

Last.fm announced on their blog that beginning today users would be able to stream full-length tracks. People from EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner are all on board, as well as "thousands of independent artists and labels." The service is available immediately in the US, UK, and Germany.

The CBS-owned site already has deals in place with various royalty collection agencies, but under their new program, unsigned artists can upload music and be paid directly for every stream.

In a bit of Facebook-esque hyperbole, Last.fm co-founder Richard Jones proclaimed on the company's blog that Last.fm was "redesigning the music economy."

Last.fm claims that their service is "the biggest legal collection of music available to play online for free." However, with Songza's 28 million songs, it may not be the biggest collection of music available for streaming (the legality of Songza's music might not always be clear since the site is a music search engine, rather than a host like Last.fm). So how do they stack up?

I first tried a search for a relatively obscure artist -- Lemon Jelly -- in Songza. 45 results. In Last.fm: "Lemon Jelly isn’t yet available to play on Last.fm." Next a more popular artist -- Radiohead. Songza yielded about 35 results with a lot of duplicates. Last.fm had 4 tracks, but only one was full-length. How about contemporary rap artist T.I.? 45 results on Songza, a handful of 30 second clips on Last.fm.

I'll leave you to do your own tests and draw your own conclusions.

Update: According to paidContent Last.fm's service will only allow tracks to be streamed 3 times under the current structure of the deal with the record labels. Also, see the comments for info on why my math above a little wonky.