caito

A while ago (in 1999 to be correct) I had various ideas for new business models on the net. Among them there was something code-named “Freelance.com”. Of course, it had nothing to do with any of those freelancer websites.

The basic idea behind “Freelance.com” was to use people power over the internet for those things where you don’t need to have physical contact and those things which can be done purely on the net.

One of the major, major task you could “outsource” was of course … search. Usually, if my friends are searching for something difficult to find or they have some specific interest, they ask me to search it on the net for them. Why? Because I have accumulated a huge number of tools as well as extensive methodology on how to search.

This goes back to my time when I was implementing a search-engine based on PLS’ CPL back in 1995/96. We needed a search engine for our website (at that time around 40GB of data, which was a lot) and especially for searching our copy of MEDLINE. Additionally, we wanted to integrate search-word related advertising in the result pages.

I worked hard to implement a working system - just to be dismantled, replaced by a way inferior third-party application after our company was merged with the smaller competitor.

Anyway, that’s not the story I want to tell but the story I want to tell is basically that I know how to search and do research on the Net. That’s why my friends ask me if they are searching for something specific.

So, my idea in 1999 was, why not sell this as a service to other people on the Net. I mean not selling my own service but setting up a platform where people can offer search specialties and are experts in various subjects, etc. Don’t ask me why we didn’t implement it (the same goes for something code-named “Internet News Network” but this will be a different story), I was happy that we did implement at least 2 ideas by that time with the management involved…

Now, most of the ideas are old, they just seem to need their time to get into the mind of the big-business people. So, everybody is really jumping on board now and trying to figure out how to make money with so called “social-networks”. Now, finally, they have found a nice-sounding name, “social search” and all of them will go that way. Lets see what comes next… “Social programming”? “Social mailing”? … Actually, I am waiting for (tataaaaa) … Social socializing!

Indeed, the next round of the Web-search wars is likely to center on the ability to networking features. Since Google came out with its Web page ranking system, “we really haven’t had another breakthrough [in search technology] for some time now,” says Bradley Horowitz, vice-president of advanced products at Yahoo, “until social search.” (Microsoft Gets Social - BusinessWeek)

Links:

• eBay buys stake in social networking firm (CNet News.com)
• The Importance of Being at the Top of Search Results (CIO Today)
• Live.com (Microsoft)
• Lycos IQ (Lycos Europe)