A New Search Engine, Not Ready for Prime Time

[Chris Sherman]

Accoona, based in the U.S. but majority owned by the largest English language web site in China, launched today after months of touting its unique "artificial intelligence" capabilities applied to web search.

In today's SearchDay article, Accoona Launches, But Isn't Ready for Prime Time (http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3444321), Gary Price puts Accoona to the test and comes away unimpressed, albeit encouraged that there's a new player entering the scene. Though Accoona has rough edges, Gary's hopeful that the company will improve and enhance its technology, offering a unique "voice" for finding content on the web.

Comments welcome!

[MrMackin]

"I hope you all make lots of money," Clinton told executives at the launch of Accoona Corp., which donated an undisclosed amount to the William J. Clinton Foundation.

[recdream]

We'll be putting Acoona through it's paces this week and next. I rate, review and train on search tools for recruiting industry professionals. IF this engine has any value, I'll include it in my next book (Search Soup) and work it into a training session.

I would appreciate any pearls, tricks, tips, techniques anyone finds that are useful to this engine.

Dan Harris
RDN
Dallas

[tferraro]

Search for "Senate Armed Services" looking for the website of the US Senate Armed Services Committee at: http://armed-services.senate.gov

Accoona: 43rd item
Google: 1st
Ask Jeeves: 4th
Excite: 1st
Hotbot: 1st
Lycos: 1st
MSN: 1st

Whatever "Artificial Intelligence SoftwareTM" they tout in their news release is certainly alien to my intelligence.

[recdream]

I have been trying to run a number of search strings that recruiters would use to look for resumes or people and coming up with all kinds of irrelevant data, if the string works at all.

I get lots of "try again" messages.

They are probably still working on refining the engine. PR probably had the management jump the gun before the tekkies were done....

[idahoguy]

I just ran ten or so queries and wasn't impressed by any means. I also ran 10+ queries for other sites I run... same impression; not impressed.

Not sure why we need another search engine when all you see after you search is the same 5 or so sponsored listings up top.

So, my questions is: what will be different than the three top engines? How can this better our life? :)

Snowing in Idaho...

[Nacho]

Well, one thing is for sure. Their ranking algorithm is completely different from the other engines. From minor testing, it seems to be favoring more on-page factors and content than the typical off-page stuff. Same reason why I found a few pages ahead of mine with lots of spam (example of this type of spam: hidden text).

Definetly any new search engine deserves an opportunity. I'd love to see one climb their way to the top.

Good luck Accoona! Hmmm, strange name. Does any one know what it means?

[hooter]

Good luck Accoona! Hmmm, strange name. Does any one know what it means?

From The Lion King -
accoona matada - "no worries"