So, Wolfram|Alpha is sort of live after a lot of hype and blogger salivating.
Not surprisingly, the reviews are mixed: TechCrunch is “not super-impressed”, although “it shows a lot of promise”, while Plugged.in suggests Wolfram not a “Google-Killer But a Serious Threat”.
At the end of the day, Wolfram may or may not live up to expectations, and it may or may not become a successful search engine/search engine business. But what Wolfram’s launch illustrates once again is the challenges and perils of being the new kid on the search block.
Google has set the bar so high that the launch of new search engines can be a treacherous experience if not handled properly and positioned really well. To pitch yourself as a Google-killer will certainly attract a lot of attention but it’s likely to blow up in your face.
Look at what happened to Cuil when it burst on the scene claiming to have a larger database than Google. The problem was although Cuil’s database may have been larger, the user experience failed to be significantly more impressive so Cuil failed. (Look at the traffic numbers below to see how badly Cuil has struggled since its launch).
So, what do you do if you’re a new search engine? How do you give yourself a chance of successfully launching? How do you get the media, bloggers and consumers to give you the chance to prove yourself?
The key may be loudly proclaiming that you’re not Google, and don’t want to be Google. In a sense, Wolfram has tried to do it but when bloggers and the media think about search, they think about Google. This is why Wolfram is finding it difficult not to be compared to Google even though it’s not really competing against Google.
The second important consideration is having a service that’s amazing right out of the gate. As much as companies can learn a lot from public alpha or betas, they also provide a forum for public failure.
Look at what happened to Flock, the social media browser, when it launched a public alpha. The product wasn’t ready for prime time let alone a friends and family beta so Flock was crucified – and it’s never really recovered.
Finally, a new search engine needs to have a well-honed plan to keep pushing forward after launch. It’s one thing to throw a lot of time and resources into getting the product out the door but it’s also important to keep moving forward from a communications, marketing and business perspective as the product improves and evolves. At the end of the day, great services should, in theory, be successful. Sometimes, you need to keep telling people how well you’re doing.
Update: Henry Blodget dismisses Wolfram as having “big dreams but no chance” because “search isn’t broken. It can be improved, yes, and companies like Wolfram Alpha will show Google how to improve it. But no search engine we’ve seen, including this one, comes close to making the quantum leap in performance required to get real volumes of Internet users to switch.”
4 Comments
Right on the money, Mark. I just tried alpha. Asked it which Canadian Prime Ministers had birthday's in January, and it couldn't compute it. Isn't this what it's supposed to be able to do?
First I am thinking the same as many of the reviews, it is got some potential, but certainly not a Google Killer.
But you posed a question as to what a new search engine is to do when entering the market to be successful? Simple, don't hype it at all. Enter the market low key and simple, let its magnificent features and useful results do the talking. If the search engine is really destined to be the next Google killer, it will have enough power to prove to any visitor its worth and that will lead to word of mouth and eventually media coverage. But never jump out there with any hype or grandiose claims because your results are sure to not live up to the hype.
Something this complex in the world of software is going to need fine tuning and upgrades to compete. You can't have the perfect search engine out of the box. How long has Google been working on perfecting their algorithm and they are still working towards perfection after all these years.
I agree with the plugged in review. I dont think it's that bad, but I've just tried it a couple of times. Seemed decent to me.
I was testing wolfram alpha out the other day, I asked it about 25 computational type questions, it successfully recognized and answered 17 of them. It had no problem in answering math type question, such as probability's etc.
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[...] So, Wolfram|Alpha is sort of live after a lot of hype and blogger salivating. Not surprisingly, the reviews are mixed: TechCrunch is “not super-impressed”, although “it shows a lot of promise”, while Plugged.in suggests Wolfram not a “Google-Killer But a Serious Threat”. At the end of the day, Wolfram may or may not live up to expectations, and it may or may not become a successful search engine/search engine business. But what Wolfram’s launch illustrates once again is the challenges Original post by The Perils of a New Search Engine [...]
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