Two Stanford Graduates hope to challenge Google

Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan both studied at Stanford university, at the same time as Lary Page and Sergey Brin.
Anand and Venky are launching a promising search engine called Kosmix. They hope to challenge Google that they judge not relevant enough.

Kosmix is basically a search engine whose main feature is the categorization of pages in different categories/sections, and then allow the user to choose the category his query is related to when searching. This is a really neat feature, as people are often frustrated when they don’t get the information they need, for example receiving only search results about products for sale, other that purely informative pages.

Also, Kosmix is different than Google as it will rely less on popularity (links, age, etc) to rank results.
According to today’s article in Mercury News:

Kosmix hopes to make online search even better and more relevant than Google — especially when people are researching information on specific topics. So far, Google, has searched for pages based on a sort of popularity contest. You enter a word or phrase, and Google will search its database of Web pages to find out which pages with that word or phrase have been linked to the most. Google has made many refinements, but a page’s popularity — not necessarily its content — still drives its approach.

Instead, the start-up has developed a new kind of technology called “categorization.”First, it asks users to define a category for a search. If a search term is related to health, for example, users can make a query in a health-related search box. That way, Kosmix can find Web pages that are more closely associated in meaning with the search terms.

Kosmix will also use the content of the page that’s linking to you in order to know what your page is about and then categorize it.

“Kosmix then looks at what pages that link to other pages are saying — to take a bigger stab at judging the meaning or subject of the page. If a page is saying something similar to the page it links to, you can get enough information to categorize it by topic, Harinarayan says.”

Kosmix hopes to help people find more relevant results by allowing them to narrow their search with the category feature. Kosmix is currently testing their first search engine based on health. They are planning on adding different categories throughout the year. I tried their health search engine at www.kosmix.com and I have to admit that they have done a very good job. It’s a very comprehensive and intuitive search engine, when you do a search, it presents you all kind of categories, such as “Symptoms”, “Definitions, “Case Studies”, or even “Blogs”.

For example, say you are researching prostate cancer. Type in “prostate cancer” into Google, and you get millions of results, and most on the first page are highly relevant — offering information about symptoms and treatments. But it is hard to know what comes after the first page, without doing a lot of scanning.Type “prostate cancer” into Kosmix’s health search, and you’ll get relevant pages straight off, but also a helpful categorization of results along the left-hand column, including things like “men’s health,” indicating it is a male problem, “alternative medicine,” something you may not have thought about looking for, “blogs” and “message boards.”

It seems like a very promising search engine, I really wish them good luck. They are doing something that none amongst the big three Search engines has tried to do yet, being too focused on purchasing other services than investing money in research.

7 thoughts on “Two Stanford Graduates hope to challenge Google

  1. Pingback: Kosmix launched 4 new vertical search engines @ SEO Principle | Search Engine Optimization Blog

  2. nikos sikloglou M.D.

    I am interesting to get in touch with the two Stanford students with the aim to develop and introduce a “Different Piont of View” regarding the “ACCESS at Internet” that will go beyond the vision of Lary Page and Sergey Brin.
    I do practice medicine in Rome and I have been introduced to the magic world of the Expert System in Medicine -and not only- by Prof. Ralph Eagle of Cornell University Medical College in the year 1976.
    I will be happy to hear from you
    yours most sincerely

  3. Nikos Sikloglou M.D.

    I am looking forward to get in touch with you with the aim to develop and introduce a “Dufferent Point of View” regarding the access in the WEB and its hidden wisdom that it is not given easily to the searchers of the true knowledge.
    Yours most sincerely
    Dr.Nikos J. Sikloglou
    Hematology-Oncology Specialist
    President and Founder of Medical Mentoring Academy

  4. dr nikos sikloglou

    I am looking forward to get in touch with you with the aim to develop and introduce a “Dufferent Point of View” regarding the access in the WEB and its hidden wisdom that it is not given easily to the searchers of the true knowledge.
    Yours most sincerely
    Dr.Nikos J. Sikloglou
    Hematology-Oncology Specialist
    President and Founder of Medical Mentoring Academy

  5. dr nikos sikloglou

    I am interesting to get in touch with the two Stanford students with the aim to develop and introduce a “Different Point of View” regarding the “ACCESS at Internet” that will go beyond the vision of Lary Page and Sergey Brin.
    I do practice medicine in Rome and I have been introduced to the magic world of the Expert System in Medicine -and not only- by Prof. Ralph Eagle of Cornell University Medical College in the year 1976.
    I will be happy to hear from you.
    I NEED TO GET IN TOUCH WITH YOU PERSONALLY.
    IF YOU COULD ONLY IMMAGINE HOW IMPORTANT THIS COULD BE FOR YOU I AM CERTAIN YOU WOULD SEARCH FOR ME AT ONCE.
    TOO MANY FILTERS DELAY THIS IMPORTANT EVENT.
    yours most sincerely

  6. dr nikos sikloglou

    GRETA DISCOVERIES ARE NOTHING MORE THAN DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW…AND WE HAVE ONE USEFULL FOR HUMANITY !

    IT IS TRUE THAT INTERNET BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER…TO DO WHAT?
    THIS IS THE CRUCIAL QUESTION
    !!!!
    WHEN IT COMES TO MAKE THE DIFFERENCE THE SO CALLED “SPECIAL ADVISORS” COME INTO THE CASE TO MAKE IT MORE DIFFICULT AND TRY TO STOP THE DREAMERS AND HIDE GREAT OPPORTUNITIES FOR THOSE WHO ARE SEARCHING FOR THEM !!!
    TWO MAIN REASONS SUPPORT THE ADVISORS OF ACTING SO.

    FEAR THAT THIS UNKNOWN HUMAN BEING COULD HAVE SOMETHING GREAT.

    DOUBTS THAT NOBODY ELSE CPOULD BE MORE INTELIGENT THAN THEM…AND JUST IN CASE THIS COULD BE TRUE
    THEY CHOOSE TO ELIMINATE THE GOOD THREAT OF JOY AND HAPPINES!

    I RECEIVED AN E-MAIL FROM THE ADVISORS OF BRIN AND PAGE PROMISSING THAT WE COULD MEET AND FIND OUT IF THERE ARE GOOD REASONS TO DO SO,AND AFTERWARDS THEY DECIDED NOT TO MEET.
    I BET WITHOUT ASKING THE TWO BRILLIANT MEN,THEY JUST HAVE SUBSTITUTE THEIR MINDS AND HAVE DECIDED FOR THEM.

    THAT IS WHY HUMANITY DOES USEFUL THINGS AT THAT TERRIBLE SLOW SPEED.
    THE ADVESORS ARE NOT EQUAL TO THE DREAMERS AND WHEN THIS HAPPENS THE HUMANITY SUFFERS.

    IS THERE ANYBODY-GOOD WILL MAN OR WOMAN- OUTTHERE TO INFORM PAGE & BRIN THAT THERE IS SOMEBODY ELSE WHO THINKS ALIKE AND IS WILLING TO SHARE HIS IDEAS WITH THEM TO BENEFIT HUMANITY!!!

    I AM AWARE THAT ONE MORE “STUPID DREAMERW ” WOULD NOT MAKE THINGS ANY WORSE FOR THEIR LIFE .
    I AM SURE THAT THEY CANNOT AVOID TO MEET WITH STUPIDS ANYWAY…SO WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE TO MEET ONE MORE?

    WHAT ABOUT IF HIS DREAM IS NOT THAT STUPID?

    I BELIEVE THAT THERE MUST BE SOMEBODY WHO KNOWS THEM AND WILL WANT TO CONTRIBUTE REALIZE THE LAST STEP OF THIS DREAM: MEET AND TALK TO THEM.

    THEY HAVE BEING DOING THE SAME EXACT THING,THEN WHY EXCLUDE THIS ONE ?

    I WILL WAIT AND SEE.
    DR NIKOS SIKLOGLOU
    aristotelion@tin.it
    mob. +39 335 6063133

    I am willing to pay any price,just ANY PRICE , TO MEET THEM !

  7. Nadir Post author

    Hi Nikos,

    I am afraid I cannot help you get in touch with Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

    Good luck,
    Nadir

Comments are closed.