Ex Googler Sets Up "Neeva" Subscription-Based Search

[engine]

An ex Googler, Sridhar Ramaswamy, is raising the profile of his new project, Neeva, a search service based upon a subscription-based model, unlike Google's advertising-based model.

Nearly two years after he left Google, he is testing his newfound conviction by mounting a challenge against his former employer. His new company, Neeva, is a search engine that looks for information on the web as well as personal files like emails and other documents. It will not show any advertisements and it will not collect or profit from user data, he said. It plans to make money on subscriptions from users paying for the service.

[nytimes.com...]

[neeva.co...]

[Brett_Tabke]

Awe shucks, I salute the effort, but it sounds like the results are from Bing.

[jmccormac]

Yet another scraper to block!

Regards...jmcc

[phranque]

Yet another scraper to block!

that would require blocking bingbot

[jmccormac]

It is using Bing as a feed at the moment but the limitations of Bing compared to Google will become evident. Once that happens, it will start looking at other options. The business model. just like that of Google, depends on Other People's Data. Perhaps I am being too cynical but I remember Cuil.

The information in its site is quite sparse and aspirational. The talk of prioritising quality review sites makes it sound like a super affiliate wannabe. The "answers engine" is very much the direction in which Google was moving (trying to copy Woolfram Alpha) since it started to use its Yahooicisation of SERPs with its zero click content to prevent users leaving Google sites. Making personal data is searchable (if stored on the Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365 services) is something that both Google and Microsoft can do easily.

Perhaps remembering the millions of sites and businesses that Google has destroyed over the years has made me more cynical about Google, Googlers and ex-Googlers. Maybe these guys can produce something useful but we won't know for years and by then, its burn rate could have killed it.

Regards...jmcc

[jmccormac]

Just checked the hosting history on the "searchreimagined" tag line and the .COM is registered via CSC to a company in Armonk, New York. Using a .CO rather than a .COM is a brand confusion issue that will cost it traffic.

Regards...jmcc