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Indian Kosmix Search Engine Challenges Google

London : United Kingdom | 11 months ago  
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London: Two Indian engineers, who missed chances twice to buy Google nearly 10 years ago, have now raked in funds for their own site to rival the search engine giant.

The Indian duo have received funds worth $20 million from media and entertainment conglomerate Time Warner for their search site -- Kosmix.

"Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan, the Indian Internet entrepreneurs, have received $20 million of funding from Time Warner for their site," The Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

Way back in 1998, Google founder Sergey Brian offered fellow Stanford University PhD students Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan the chance to buy the now search engine giant for about $1 billion.

"They said no," the report published online said. The very next year, the Indian pair with Amazon backing offered about $443 million. But Brian and Google co-founder Larry Page had refused to accept less than $1 billion, the publication noted.

Now Kosmix has also got the backing of Motorola chairman and chief executive Ed Zander and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. "Google works if you know exactly what you're looking... But if you have only got a vague idea, it can be quite hard to find the answer," Rajaram was quoted as saying.

"Kosmix allows you to browse a whole lot of topic and recommend areas that might interest you." he added.

Source: Times of India

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  • Blog Source: www.itexaminer.com
    Way back in 1998, Google founder Sergey Brin offered fellow Stanford University PhD students Anand Rajarman and Venky Harinarayan the chance to buy the now search engine giant for about one billion dollars (675000 pounds). ...
  • Blog Source: truemors.nowpublic.com
    A pair of engineers that twice passed up the chance to purchase Google have decided to challenge the internet giant head on with a search engine of their own and have $20 million in funding from Time Warner to back them up. Anand ...
  • Blog Source: techland.blogs.fortune.cnn.com
    He discussed the need for companies like Kosmix to take search to a new level in a way that Google (GOOG) does not. As CEO at AOL, Miller had tried to acquire Kosmix, cofounded by veteran entrepreneurs Venky Harinarayan and Anand ...
  • Blog Source: varun-giridhara.blogspot.com
    It is a search engine which is set to challenge the search-engine-giant, 'Google'. Venky and Anand, two Indians who missed two chances to buy Google way back in 1998 have now raked in funds to start their own search engine. ...
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Posted By maidiya maidiya | 11 months ago
hmmm that would definitely be a new interesting addition. what would be your bet cooldip, kosmix has chances to take a lead over google?

i mean that is what i love about this web world, nothing is for sure!
Posted By cooldiponline cooldiponline | 11 months ago
Yes, why not maidiya.. it surely can; as you yourself have mentioned that nothing is sure about this web world, which is indeed is very true.

Although I love and respect Google as a company, I would prefer Kosmix if it stands out from Google. But for that we will have to wait and see....
Posted By solitaire solitaire | 11 months ago
I really don't see it happening. Google in now a conglomerate, won't be easy to take it down like that. However, sure stands true, one never knows what's going to happen next!
Posted By gzahnd gzahnd | 11 months ago
I just want to point out that we aren’t out to "take down" Google. We're doing something fundamentally different than Google, and it isn't search. Have a look at Anand’s recent blog post, where he says the following:

“The easiest way to explain what Kosmix does is by analogy. Google and Yahoo are search engines; Kosmix is an explore engine. Search engines work really well if your goal is to find a specific piece of information — a train schedule, a company website, and so on. In other words, they are great at finding needles in the haystack. When you’re looking for a single fact, a single definitive web page, or the answer to a specific question, then the needle-in-haystack search engine model works really well. Where it breaks down is when the objective is to learn about, explore, or understand a broad topic.”

http://blog.kosmix.com/press-stuff/kosmix-adds-rocketfuel/

Google is great for searching. Obviously. :-) We simply treat their results as another type of content in a larger picture of building context around a particular concept - we're about the broader topic, and its context in an information-dense environment. Solving the context/intent/info density/relevance problem is a challenge to be sure, and we’re quite enjoying the ride.

I encourage your constructive feedback. As we move forward in this beta, we’re listening closely to folks, and love the conversation.

Regards,
Gino Zahnd
Director of User Experience, Kosmix
Posted By cooldiponline cooldiponline | 11 months ago
Thanks for the explanation gzahnd!
Posted By maidiya maidiya | 11 months ago
i am one of the worst web searchers n now i see the reason why i have a hard time looking for what i want. Usually, i have vague ideas to look for and whenever i hit the search button i get wild answers from these search engines! (i thought there is something wrong with me! hehe)

so i guess Kosmix is for people like me! :) Good luck Gino.

Do update us on your service.
Posted By cooldiponline cooldiponline | 11 months ago
Yes, maidiya, as to what Gini has mentioned... Kosmix, is really going to be handy and affective to people like you.

:)

Cheers!
Posted By smartypants smartypants | 7 months ago
Can we get Kosmix API
Reported by Kuldeep Khadka

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