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Blekko Review
- obelix 16y agoSlashtags are a neat idea, can't wait to try it out.
- ora600 16y agoI liked the idea of "unprecedented level of access to the algorithms and data that Blekko uses to determine relevancy". This is a great differentiator from Google. Google can copy features like slashtags easier, but I can't imagine a large company known for its secrecy suddenly exposing their algorithms.
- teebes 16y agoYes, I wonder how involved they will be with Open Source. Could really shift things a bit if a startup like Blekko shoved Google further to the center by being more 'Open' (whatever that word has come to mean) than them in the eyes of the media.
- amichail 16y agoGoogle could combine its search engine with its app engine to allow third party developers to implement custom searches. Third party developers could even get paid via ads that appear whenever their algorithms are used in the search results.
- yurylifshits 16y agoActually, you just have described Yahoo BOSS ("Build your own search engine") program :)
- SandB0x 16y agoThe Slashtags concept looks awesome, and as buzzwordy as it sounds, adding a social aspect to search by allowing Slashtag sharing could really take off. For example, a lecturer could put make a /thiscourseonly Slashtag, searching only hand picked sources. What would be especially great is a smart form of autocomplete. Eg once you typed /date you would get dd/mm/yy or dd monthname year or similar ghosting in front of the cursor. The only concern would be that Google and Bing could copy it fairly quickly, so hopefully their other features are strong enough.
- ggrot 16y agoIn a sense, Google already has something like this, the Custom Search Engine: http://www.google.com/cse/ http://www.google.com/cse/ - the interface is a little different though, you create a "search engine" which has something like the slashtags built in, rather than specifying a slashtag as part of the query. Has it's pros and cons.
- evgen 16y agoAs they VC query used to go: "is this a feature or a company?" So far Blekko looks like a feature, but I will reserve judgement until I can actually play with it a bit. I really hope that this slashtags bit is not the only interesting thing they have to show after several years of work. OTOH, this does fit what seems to be a pattern for Rich Skrenta and his team: find an already occupied niche and crank out something that has 60-70% of the polish of the leader with a few new features and then flip the whole thing to someone who is desperate to get in or stay in the game.
- mey 16y agoDuckDuckGo provides some of this now as I understand it. http://duckduckgo.com/bang.html http://duckduckgo.com/bang.html and http://duckduckgo.com/goodies.html http://duckduckgo.com/goodies.html
- agscala 16y agoKindof, I think that DDG's bang searches take you to the respective website's search API. This one seems like it shows results in blekko's website simply filtered any way you create.
- TotlolRon 16y ago"alternatives are a prerequisite to the illusion of choice" -- just made it up 2010
- moultano 16y agoI'm really excited about having a new search engine to try. More competition isn't just good for consumers, it's also good for the field of IR. I work in search quality at Google, and it's really exciting for me to see a result that another search engine returns that I don't understand. It inspires me to think of all the ways they might have returned it, and leads to a lot of neat ideas. For the same reason, I enjoy reading the reaction in the SEO community to major changes to Google's rankings. Sometimes we're too close to a change to see what it does effectively instead of in principle. What the SEOs conclude often ends up being a really good first-order approximation of an unintended side-effect. If you believe that your competitors are doing incredible things, it's a great inspiration to try doing incredible things yourself, regardless of whether you're right about what they're doing.
- prakash 16y agoI'm really excited about having a new search engine to try. Give DuckDuckGo a try for a couple of weeks, you probably won't go back to whichever search engine you are using currently :-)
- qeorge 16y agoThis is wonderful news. In addition to the slashtags, I'm excited about all the ranking data they're showing off. Right now your only source of ranking data straight from a search engine is Yahoo's Site Explorer, and even that data is quite limited and its future availability uncertain. I've never seen duplicate content exposed so openly. And as ora600 said, that level of transparency is something Google exceedingly unlikely to copy.
- evgen 16y agoThe problem with making ranking data a "feature" is that the only ones who care about this information only care about what the ranking data is on Google. What the rank is for your site on Blekko is of no value whatsoever.
- krishna2 16y agoThe screencast: http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/19/blekko-screencast-and-founder-interview/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/19/blekko-screencast-and-found...
- speek 16y agoAnybody here from Blekko? I'd love a special HN invite :-)
- jsrfded 16y agoYes, being an HN reader is definitely a plus. :-) The best way to get an invite is hit us on twitter or facebook (see links from blekko.com). Then we can DM you an invite when we have them ready.