As the Web grows, so do the lists of results from Web searches. A new search engine from GoTo.com promises to change that by elevating the best results to the top of the list.
But there’s a catch: Rather than doing more intelligent searches, the Pasadena company is ranking results based on the amount site operators are willing to pay.
The new company is the latest to emerge from Bill Gross’ idealab incubator, which has generated several other Internet firms.
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After working for a year to create an engine that would use some sort of electronic intelligence to give searchers better results, Gross, chairman of GoTo.com, as well as chairman and founder of idealab, gave up. Then his idea struck. “Let the market do it,” Gross said. “The search results are an open market bid for position on price, and every Web site can bid in cents how high they want their Web site to be in the list.”
When there is a tie, results are pushed higher based on how Web sites are rated by viewers.
Gross said that once the Web grew beyond 1 million sites, search engines became ineffective. They returned too many hits that weren’t targeted enough. For example, a search for “autos” on search engine Lycos brings up several car-oriented sites in its top 10 results, as well as a porn site touting “youngest legal girls on the net!”
GoTo.com remedies that, he said, because only the legitimate sites would be willing to pay. “It filters out all the noise; all the junk goes away. It turns the search engine from white pages to yellow pages.”