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Three-quarters of all search traffic goes through Google, and their market appears to be nearly impossible to penetrate. In order to take on Google a company needs to differentiate and not offer what Google is already offering which is the lesson Cuil.com learned in 2008. Cuil was founded by former Google executives and claimed its search index is three times larger than Google’s. Initially, Cuil was able to generate heavy traffic as people were curious to see what Cuil offered but after novelty wore off users returned to Google (Buley, 2009). People are not looking for another Google, they want something different. When Google came onto the scene in 1998, Yahoo was the most popular search engine. Google did not follow Yahoo‘s formula and offered a basic page with only two buttons and its search engine was more specific then Yahoo’s. Google did not copy Yahoo; they started a new way to do a search.

Forbes has a list of the top ten search engines to watch and out of that ten Kosmix, Think, and Aardvark are the most interesting. The goal of Kosmix is to “tell me more about something.” Kosmix front page offers a variety of information ranging from top news stories, entertainment news, popular videos, top pictures, current Twitter trends, and a lot more (Helft, 2009). The nice thing about their page is the user can easily rearrange the information, now if all websites would allow us to rearrange the front pages.

Kosmix combines results from other search engines and creates a multimedia encyclopedia. When I did a search for Venice, Kosmix returned a short description from WikiTravel, events, video, pictures, reviews and guides. Kosmix is a great place to start when planning a trip. Another search on Manchester United brings back pictures, links from Google, News and Blogs, and the team roster. “By scouring the Web, the company has built a huge taxonomy, a set of nearly five million categories on topics from people and locations to car models, music groups and types of cheese” (Helft, 2009). Kosmix gives a user a broad overview of a topic and from there the user can narrow down the information to specifics.

Aardvark is unique in the fact that when a user poses a question for example, “Where is the best restaurant for Sushi in Indianapolis? “ Aardvark will look through your extended social network and find the people in who are most knowledgeable in that area and ask them if they would like to answer. Once Aardvark receives an answer it will send the answer back to the person who asked the question.

Like.com it will return results based on a pictures. When a search was conducted on a Fossil Purse, Like.com returned a list of places to buy the purse as well as alternatives. It is a shopper's paradise.

The biggest problem for these companies is pulling users away from Google. Google has a large web presence that goes beyond the search engine and many of Google’s users are very loyal. There is also the possibility of Google pushing these start-up companies out of their market or if the new search engines become popular enough they may become a Google acquisition target. It may be possible for one of these companies to take on Google, but they will have a lot of work to do and only time will tell. Google will always have a strong presence and will never completely go away. The company is always changing and adding something new which will help them stay ahead.

Achenbach, Joel. (2004 February 14). Search for Tomorrow: We Wanted Answers and Google Really Clicked. What’s Next? The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42885-2004Feb14?language=printer.
Buley, Taylor. (2009, March 24). Life After Google. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/24/google-search-engines-technology-internet-google.html
Helft, Micheal. (14 March 2009). Ping – Just Don’t Compare Kosmix to Google. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/business/15ping.html?scp=1&sq=kosmix&st=cse