Privacy wins
Each of these three search engines has one other big advantage over Google: privacy. Since Google is our default search engine, it has access to mountains of search information, tied to IP addresses and kept on record for years. Privacy advocates continue to be furious about the amount of information Google keeps on its users. But what if we didn't have to worry about privacy from the get-go?
"Our approach is we don't retain any information about you at all," says Chandratillake of Blinkx's approach. "We just don't want to open that can of worms. We just don't think we need it to provide great relevance, so we'd rather not do it."
Cuil is much the same. "Because we provide results based on content analysis rather than popularity, we don't need to retain and analyze our users and their information and their IP addresses and their search history," says Sollitto. "We're not really interested in what is most popular; we're interested in what's most relevant."
Calacanis of Mahalo notes that, while privacy is a concern, it's just not that big of a deal to Americans. "The sad fact is that users in the U.S. don't currently care about privacy," he says. "The European market will be the one to keep U.S. internet companies in check with regard to privacy policies, it seems." While Mahalo does track all searches in its system, it doesn't tie the searches to IP addresses and throws out any IP data after 90 days.
It's a changing era, and for privacy nuts, this is good news; these search engines are disarming this thorny issue before it becomes a problem. Google should take note.
End game
David and Goliath fought on a level battlefield, but Google doesn't. You can't knock out Google with a rock. (Well, maybe with a lot of rocks aimed at Google's server farm.) But regardless, Cuil, Mahalo and Blinkx are not rocks, nor are they Davids, so it's a good thing knocking out Google isn't necessary.
These new search engines know that Google has basic search down cold, so all three have decided to tackle something more difficult. Blinkx wants to do for video what Google did for text. Mahalo wants to involve the community in its searches, ensuring every link is a great one. And Cuil wants to index the entire net. It's simply what startups do: attempt that which hasn't been done yet.
Blaise Nutter is a freelance writer.
