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Vipin V. Nair

A new search engine has come onto the scene, looking for action amidst giants. A look at how it helps you search on the Net.

IT calls itself `young and inexperienced' and begs for your mercy while being used. The Economist terms it as a `bright new upstart' that has the potential to undo a giant, Google. Whatever it is, this new search engine, Mooter (www.mooter.com) , is definitely worth checking out. And not just for the heck of it.

Ever since its debut in the late 1990s, Google has been a prominent link in our computer. We have loved its simplicity, straightforwardness and efficiency in ferreting out the information we want. Search engines like Alta Vista were eclipsed by Google, started by two Stanford alumni, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. And now Mooter's on the scene. Born in Australia barely a few months ago, Mooter, still in the Beta server mode, has already got the attention of the world, so much so that it has had to boost server capacity to accommodate booming international traffic.

The fundamental difference between the two is the way in which Mooter comes up with search results. Instead of throwing up thousands of results, Mooter gives information, categorised in various clusters. For instance, when one looked for `backwaters in Kerala' in Mooter, it came up with clusters, varying from `Kerala', `backwaters', `tour', `beaches', `tourism' and `holiday packages.' You can click on a cluster that is most appropriate to your needs. (Mooter also gives one the option of seeing all the results on the page, if you prefer it that way). Compared to this, other search engines bring page full of links to Web sites, which often is cumbersome to navigate through.

Mooter claims it uses algorithms based on `psychological modelling' to process the information sought by users. According to Mooter's CEO, Liesl Capper, the search engine analyses the choice of a user while searching and then records the results. The algorithms shuffle the results in the background and more relevant results are displayed, Capper, who has a degree in psychology, says. The Mooter technology thus `pre-empts' the needs of the user in order to provide the relevant result to him/her by eliminating unwanted information.

But it is not just the arrival of Mooter that could make things a wee bit difficult for Google, which has now announced its initial public offer to raise $2.7 billion. Yahoo!, which till recently used Google on its Web site, now has its own search engine. This has deprived Google of millions of hits. And Microsoft is also planning something in the area of search engines.

In order to fight these rivals, Google also is increasing its offering, which include a shopping portal called `Froogle' and a free e-mail, Gmail.

Mooter and the others could make life tougher for the world's most favourite search engine in the coming days, but searching on the Net could likely always be `googling' for most of us. And that's where Google will keep scoring over its rivals.

vipin@thehindu.co.in

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