Dipsie, a new search engine coming Summer 2004, was recently written up in Businessweek (two paragraphs, with no mention of who was behind it). I could not find the site using a Google search (or Alta Vista or Teoma, so hold the conspiracy theories), but found it by simply typing in “dipsie.com.” Gee…that seems odd, or they are so new that they’ve not been crawled, or…they have banned spiders from their site.
The site is very light on details, though it does say they are privately funded, in Chicago, and they are hiring. In the Businessweek piece (I’d link to it but their online site is deeply f*cked up) they also claim they will index 10 billion web pages (Google et al do about 3 billion) and will have semantic ranking (language based) that will be better than Google (the motto is “Get Where You Want In Two Clicks”.) If that’s right, expect them to be bought soon. If they *really do* have great tech, tech that can scale and withstand serious slashdotting, they’ll lash themselves to the mast, ignore the siren call of easy money from Google, MSFT, or Yahoo, and launch. Their price will go up with every new user they pull in. As Eric at Google often points out, the competition is one click away. And as great as Google is, fact is, no one ever gets past what Tim Bray calls the “Google Event Horizon” – result # 1001. In fact, few get past result #10 in any search engine, and therein lies an opportunity.
I had a friend send me the BusinessWeek article. Thought you might want to include it. We’ll see where they go from here.
Will This Make Google Goggle-Eyed?
A new search engine has the potential to steal Google’s thunder. The developers of “Dipsie” claim that when it goes live next July, the program will search 10 billion Web pages, triple the number Google searches.
There’s an appetite for better results. Independent studies show that 50% of consumer searches don’t find the desired information. That’s largely because the specialized programs used by most search engines sniff out mostly “static” Web pages. The majority of the Net’s newest information, however, is in “dynamic” sites featuring sound, video, or material customized to a surfer’s request. Hewlett-Packard Co. ( HPQ ), for example, adds thousands of custom pages to its site each year, and Dipsie execs claim their engine will connect users better than rivals.
What’s Dipsie’s secret? All search engines use algebra to prioritize relevant items. Dipsie adds language-based, or semantic, analysis to the equation, sensing content and context. So it can figure out whether “cat” means a cute critter or Caterpillar ( CAT ). This improves the odds for spot-on results.
By Roger O. Crockett
Would you happen to know the financial institution/firm that is backing “dipsie”?
Thanks
No, but I am in touch with them, they are going through a round, and when they announce it, I’ll post it here.
Hello All
I think that google is about to be toppled, either by Dipsie or by any other search engine start-up company.
There are a lot of companies coming up with new and revolutionary ideas, the one that can organize
the whole web content in a more uselful way will take the trophy.
Carlos Roche
Karpediem
347-728-8866
carlos@karpediem.info
http://www.karpediem.info
Let’s see how long this one lasts…CEO Jason Weiner ran his last company in to the ground, skipping out on paying his employees (hundreds of thousands of dollars) and numerous bills.
This young kid may have great ideas, but doesn’t have the know how when it comes to successfully running a business.
iFoyer just selected Google as its primary search provider, but if Dipsie proves to do what it says it does, primary search on iFoyer will change.