IAC announces search engine for blacks

[sitetruth]

In an unexpected move, IAC has announced a search engine for black people. It's called "Rushmore Drive".
http://www.rushmoredrive.com

http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2008/04/black_is_the_ne.php

Try searching for "employment" to get a sense of what they're doing.

(This is not a joke. IAC really did this, and it's running.)

[AussieWebmaster]

pretty lame.... where did they get the name

[sitetruth]

pretty lame.... where did they get the name

From their address: 1115 Rushmore Drive, Charlotte, NC., which is also the address of LendingTree, one of IAC's other properties. LendingTree was caught in the subprime mortgage collapse, so they probably had some extra office space available there.

It looks like a desperate attempt to find a niche market in which IAC can survive.

[AussieWebmaster]

Rushmore reminds me of the movie... white and preppy.... could have choosen a better name to brand

[Kevin Heisler]

I think Ask deserves some credit for experimenting with vertical search. While Rushmore Drive doesn't have the same ring as Rodeo Drive, it's not easy to find a cool name for a new site (Kangamurra's already taken.)

I used to live in Charlotte so I can understand why IAC chose Rushmore Dr. Not sure the rest of the world will, though.

[cryptblade]

I have an unique perspective on this topic. Though I'm asian, almost all of my friends are black ("black" church) - and black folks come from all kinds of backgrounds. I can honestly say that with the right type of marketing and promotion, there's a market for this.

I don't know about the name - it does sound white, it sounds too "bougie" and it's not really memorable. I mean... what about something that elicits a sense of being black? Like "OurMarch" or "Oursearch" or something like that? That silicon valley article made Taylor and IAC seem lame.

There are already very good black-centric portal sites out there: blackplanet.com and blackrefer.com. They are popular and widely used.

IAC is on to something. Specialized ETHNIC searches would definitely serve its purpose. Up next would be a Latin-American search vertical - in Spanish and also broken down to the different Latin ethnicities (Dominican, Cuban, Mexican, Salvadorian, Columbian, etc.)

If you look at the way dating websites are splintered, there is definitely a market for this (I've seen dating sites splintered to dating black people, asians, interracial, etc.)

(shameless plug) I am working with a good friend to build a black-focused site dealing with politics and other important matters. Her vision is similar to Huffington Post and Politico - but with a black-focus: politics, policies, social issues, family issues, religion, etc.

The general media definitely does not highlight enough issues important to the black community. You can see that in the reporting of black-centric magazines: Jet, Ebony, Essence, Black Enterprises, etc. But, as I said, black folks come from all backgrounds and the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons do not speak for them all (I dare say those men speak for a minority of the black population now). Having a site (or sites) that represent all of the different voices within the black community would be welcome to that market.

I wouldn't poo-poo this yet, but I also don't think the current execution is very good. I also wonder why they wouldn't work directly with the existing powerhouse portals to promote Ask.com as the search engine of choice?

But regardless, the site is down - so, rule #1 for them is to make sure the site stays up.:rolleyes:

[AussieWebmaster]

lol... yeah you need to be up to work

[sitetruth]

lol... yeah you need to be up to work

As of today, Rushmore Drive is up, but it takes 17 seconds to load the home page of their search engine. Some of that is because their own site is slow, and some of it is because they're hitting too many different ad servers with their ad-heavy home page.

They just don't get it. But then, IAC never did.