YASE.

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Author: Jane, Paula J. phane@infotoday.com

New search engines continue to pop up; I counted at least three new ones in the last few weeks. In my January NewsLink Spotlight article, which highlighted a new search engine for the "tagosphere" called Wink, I termed this phenomenon YASE--Yet Another Search Engine. Entrepreneurs will continue to chase that elusive goal el' devising technology that improves search results for users and that takes searchers away from Google.

One newcomer has chosen the unfortunate (IMHO) name of DumbFind. It generated some buzz among search engine watchers and bloggers last September while in beta. DumbFind uses a two-box search method to let users combine traditional keywords with topics or categories. Then, before results are served up to users, the DumbFind engine sorts its findings into related "tag clusters" so they can be more intelligently ranked to match the searcher's real intent. It's an interesting concept that could appeal to those with social tagging experience, though I wasn't very impressed with the search results in my limited testing.

Social networking is also the basis of a new community-oriented search engine from iLOR, LLC called PreFound. But PreFound sets itself apart from the "often difficult to understand 'tagging' sites." It calls itself the "ultimate search blog --A place to see and share information you and others have found."

Another newcomer has boldly called itself the "Google-slayer." According to a press release, Megaglobe promised an "innovative new page rank method and a strategy to minimize click fraud for advertisers" and is poised to shake up the search engine industry. It's due to launch in April and, according to the company, will offer search results translated into more than 150 languages. We'll see …

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http://www.sony.com/reader

http://www.eink.com

http://www.gale.com/gvrl

http://www.vivisimo.com

http://www.swets.com

http://www.serialssolutions.com

http://www.firstgovsearch.gov

http://www.google.cn

http://www.video.google.com

http://www.truveo.com

http://www.pictures.ask.com

http://www.infotoday.com/newslink/newslink0601.htm

http://www.wink.com

http://www.dumbfind.com

http://www.prefound.com

http://www.megaglobe.com

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By Paula J. Hane

Paula J. Hane is Information Today, Inc.'s news bureau chief and editor of NewsBreaks. Her e-mail address is phane@infotoday.com. Send comments about this column to itletters@infotoday.com.