Hakia and Ask release search redesigns in fresh bid against Google
A pair of new redesigns being rolled out this morning for the mass-market search engine Ask, as well as semantic search company Hakia, aim to notch up their challenge to Google’s statistic-based search results.
Oddly, the change Ask is making harkens back to its origins as Ask Jeeves, a comic butler that tried (and usually failed) to give sensible answers to search queries posed as questions. While, thankfully, it’s leaving Jeeves to rest in peace, Ask… Continue Reading
Semantic search startup TextDigger unearths a business model, and some venture funding
TextDigger, a semantic search startup that launched early last year at DEMO, has been much quieter in the interim than other companies in the space like Hakia, Powerset and Radar Networks / Twine. But now the company has come back to light, at least for us — a filing document reveals that the company has finally landed venture funding, raising $3.8 million so far.
A year or two ago, it wasn’t uncommon to hear the term… Continue Reading
Hakia narrows search results by vertical, starting with healthcare
Semantic search engine Hakia is following up its recent licensing news with a new scheme to attract users: Results that are narrowed according to the vertical you’re searching, starting with healthcare.
When you search on a health-related subject in Hakia — whether you’re looking for a medication, treatment or condition — the engine will recognize it as medically related and restrict its initial search to “credible” resources, in this case, those vetted by the Medical Library Association.
Hakia’s… Continue Reading
Hakia begins licensing out semantic search technology
Semantic search engine Hakia has started to license its technology to other startups, starting with RiverGlass, a company that digs through and summarizes information on behalf of government agencies.
Semantic search technology seeks to understand word and sentence meanings in order to provide you better results than the key-word approach used by say, Google. Semantic search competitors such as Powerset hoped to become a destination search site that would compete with or at least complement results… Continue Reading
Hakia tries to stay in search engine race, gets more funds
Hakia, another search engine company that is trying to understand “meaning” of your search terms, as a way of competing against Google, has raised $5 million more in capital from Prokom Investments, an existing investor.
The investment comes at a time when activity in new search engine approaches is robust. Just today, Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales launched a new search engine, Search Wikia, that hopes to recruit people to edit its results. Mahalo is another people-based search… Continue Reading
Hakia raising $5M for semantic search
Semantic search outfit Hakia is on its way to launching in 2008, with a new $5 million round from an undisclosed investor.
The New York-based company opened for beta testing earlier this year, and has since been adding on services, including a recently-added option to “meet” others who perform the same searches (although people seem to mainly be using the feature for classified ads).
It also recently released a survey result showing that 17% of its beta… Continue Reading
Roundup: Medio v. Google, Sprint jettisoning WiMax?, BugLabs & more
Here’s the latest action:
1. Medio’s roar turning to a squeal?
2. Sprint changing WiMax plans?
3. AOL rumored to be considering buying ad targeting network Quigo for $300 million
4. Bug Labs, for open-sourced electronic devices
5. Semantic search engine Hakia releases social networking tool
6. The amazing $200 Ubuntu Linux “green” PC at Wal-Mart
7. Cisco does its 125th buyout
8. Facebook’s stock has appreciated 33-fold, and then some
9. Internet Brands going public with growing losses, declining sales?
10. Shopstyle signs deal… Continue Reading
Roundup: Murdoch closer on WSJ, Scoop Bar, Wikia-Grub, Hitachi and more
Here’s the latest action:
Murdoch appears to have enough Bancroft family support for purchase –The jury is still officially out, but the NYT is saying it looks like Dow Jones and its jewel, the Wall Street Journal, will indeed to go to Murdoch’s News Corp.
Hakia’s Scoop Bar — Hakia, one of the new search engines trying to take on Google by using “semantic” technology, has released a so-called Scoop Bar, which takes you more directly to the text… Continue Reading
TextDigger, Hakia say they can improve search
TextDigger is the latest company seeking that Holy Grail: Improving on Google’s results by understanding the sense of the words you’re looking for.
TextDigger’s search engine is called Digger, and it just launched at the DEMO conference.
First, some context: Digger, of San Jose, joins Powerset, the San Francisco start-up, and Hakia, of New York, and others which are trying to do something similar. Our piece on Powerset sparked debate within the search industry, namely because some… Continue Reading
Roundup: All Hail Google, WiFi in cars, Wallop walloped, Ahnold’s funding
Round-up of the latest action in Silicon Valley:
It’s all about Google — Notable post by Rich Skrenta about how Google is becoming ever more important. Having become the “start page” for the Web, Google makes $90 to $120 for every thousand times its pages get viewed (or CPM), compared to a mere $4-5 for an average page view elsewhere, he calculates. We asked him for his assumptions, and it turns out he mixes a lot of… Continue Reading