blinkx.com

tipped to take over the world?

[subway]

I've read a load of articles (in the Sunday papers) regarding the new search engine, can't find any info about it on WW yet. Does anyone know anything about it?

- whoops just found a load of stuff regarding it - suppose you may as well delete this post :-)

[encyclo]

Welcome to the wonderful world of media hype ;)

There are a load of companies which announce to the world that they are the next big thing. Sometime the media will believe them. But it's not the hype which will make them big, it's the product.

As for the company you mention, I wouldn't hold your breath.

[Shak]

great pr company, and fronted by a pretty woman combined with the media's desire for anything remorely related to search at the moment ...

Shak

[jmccormac]

Wasn't this the program that integrates websearch with desktop search? Saw it in the Sunday Times or Observer a few weeks ago. Sounds like a nice idea right up until the point you start thinking about where the money/revenue will come from and who the primary competitors are (Google/Microsoft). Still stranger things have happened.

Regards...jmcc

[robjones]

I've tried blinkx and think it's a cool piece of software, very interesting concept of taking keywords out of searching.

[TheWhippinpost]

Been usin it for about 3-4 weeks.

Wouldn't recommend it for dial-up users, purely because of the dial-up boxes at periodic moments when it tries to do its job of searching.

It'll take a behaviour-change to switch to this app if your instinct is to hit G first.

Havin said all that, I'd say there is defo potential and it's probably the closest thing I've used that possibly offers a hint of search-apps to come, whether that be M$, G, Blinkx, or whoever.

It's certainly a quick way to find related stuff on your own HD (which you probably even forgot you had!)

[jmccormac]

Something has been bothering me about this kind of software. As a search engine/directory operator I have no qualms about blocking specific user agents or IP ranges if they pose a threat. Does Blinkx run its own SE or is it merely acting as a meta-agent like Copernic? What would happen if the major sites launch their own search/desk program and decide to block competing programs? Obviously the UA could be changed but automated searches have their own characteristics that allow them to be easily blocked.

Regards...jmcc

[subway]

As for the company you mention, I wouldn't hold your breath

I must admit, I downloaded it about 5 hours ago and am already considering removing it. It's intentions are pretty cool but it's a donkey of a program. Certainly no threat whatsoever to google (which is what the papers were saying.?

[robjones]

subway, give it a chance, I've found it to be very interesting to see what it brings up as related info for the pages I'm viewing, and it's almost always on the money.
Also check out the text selection part of it; select some text on a page, and it gives you related sources for what you selected.

I'll agree the program needs to be smoothed out, but what the articles praising it mean is the whole concept of implied queries is a new step for search.

[jmccormac]

"I'll agree the program needs to be smoothed out, but what the articles praising it mean is the whole concept of implied queries is a new step for search."

Not exactly robjones,
The idea behind it is that of hypertext and that's been around for almost 60 years. The people writing the articles are typically "technology journalists". While these people may have an elementary grasp of journalism, they generally know very little about technology. :) I'd tend to agree with Shak's opinion to a large extent.

Purely from a business point of view, it is an exceedingly risky operation. There is nothing to stop Google or Microsoft doing the same, or doing it better. Even the results clustering /related options seem to be doing the same as the program.

Regards...jmcc

[robjones]

It's a new idea to the search marketplace now though, jmccormac. Maybe Shak is right (apart from the pretty woman part, don't know where that's relevant to the company), but the way I see it, Google dominates at the present time with it's familiar keyword input, this is a new idea that takes the current search idea and builds on it, taking an aspect (keywords) out of it to make something fresh.

I doubt blinkx is expecting to go it alone against the big guns though, they would be more effective if they were acquired by one of the bigger companies.

[jmccormac]

It's a new idea to the search marketplace now though

Yes to some extent robjones but it is only one of a lot of other innovative products.

It is a different method of searching in that the page or highlighted text is linked via background searching. It is not natural language searching. Microsoft, or more accurately Gates, has been talking to the press about Microsoft's great natural language searching research. The keyword searching method seems very deeply ingrained with most search engine users and it is this barrier that Blinkx will have to get over.

Maybe Shak is right (apart from the pretty woman part, don't know where that's relevant to the company)

Sex sells and any editor will consider running a story if there is a good pic. Search and SE developers are mainly male and this is a good story for any newspaper as it is about a business bucking the trend. The article, from what I remember was about two women running the business, an computer scientist who developed the program and a US based entrepreneur who was running the business. The US entrepreneur (entrepreneuse?) was shown in the pic.

Google dominates at the present time with it's familiar keyword input, this is a new idea that takes the current search idea and builds on it, taking an aspect (keywords) out of it to make something fresh.

But is it independent of Google and the other search engines or does it just act as a front end for these search engines, parsing the webpage or highlighted text into a query? If it is truly innovative then it should be easy to market. If it is just a search engine interface it is not that fresh an idea.

I doubt blinkx is expecting to go it alone against the big guns though, they would be more effective if they were acquired by one of the bigger companies.

The big pay off - it sounds very dot.bombish to have a plan to be taken over. However the larger SEs may just decide to continue with their own products and lock out any users of the smaller products.

Regards...jmcc

[robjones]

The keywords are definitely deeply ingrained at this stage, to me this looks like one possible way for a natural progression away from what we're used to.

Sex sells and any editor will consider running a story if there is a good pic.

Well, I haven't read the article in question, Shak's comment just looked out of place to me.

If it is just a search engine interface it is not that fresh an idea.

It is a new interface to current search, but it is the first (I think) to leave keywords out of it and include desktop and media search. They're not reinventing the wheel, rather taking the underlying tech we're all using and applying it in a new way to make something fresh.

The big pay off - it sounds very dot.bombish to have a plan to be taken over.

I'm not sure they have a plan to be taken over, but I wouldn't blame them for grabbing an opportunity for publicity, especially when (for me at least) the software is very useful and offers something that doesn't exist elsewhere.