James Delahunty
1 Nov 2010 1:35
A well-backed Silicon Valley company is launching a test version of a new search engine that it says adds a human touch to the process.
Blekko claims that the Internet has become increasingly populated with spam-like websites that have been specifically designed and optimized for good performance through Google's services. Such websites have content heavier on marketing pitches than substantive information, according to the company.
Blekko Chief Executive Rich Skrenta said that the key to eliminating this problem is to narrow searches to groups of websites that have been approved by people. This almost seems like a step backwards when you first hear it since search services have utilized increasingly complex algorithms to order and index the massive amounts of information in cyberspace.
Nevertheless, Blekko has raised $24 million in funding from some big name backers. Investors include Marc Andreessen, who co-authored Mosaic, the first widely-used web browser, and Ron Conway who has previously invested in Google, Foursquare and Twitter.
Blekko is certainly brave to take on Google, as many have tried and failed to dethrone or even significantly compete with it. Cull, which was founded by ex-Google employees, quietly threw in the towel in September, two years after launch.
Google says that it welcomes such competition because it brings benefits for everybody. "Having great competitors is a huge benefit to us and everyone in the search space-it makes us all work harder, and at the end of the day everyone benefits from that," Google said in a statement to Reuters.