Coruscation

Building a Smarter Search Engine"
Business Week (01/04/05); Green, Heather

Search engine startup Vivisimo uses artificial intelligence technology
developed at Carnegie Mellon University to organize search results
more neatly. The company launched a consumer metasearch service called
Clusty three months ago that pulls results from other search engines,
then uses its own technology to cluster those results according to
major themes. A search for "seal" will produce the normal mix of
references in the main results--including pages referring to the sea
mammal, Seal the musician, Wet Seal-brand clothing, and Navy SEALS--as
well as folders on each of those topics on the left-hand side. By
opening the appropriate folder, users will be able to drill down to
find more relevant results. Clusty is a good tool for managing a
growing amount of online information and makes search technology
easier to use, says Search Engine Showdown operator Greg Notess.
Analysts say Vivisimo faces an enormous challenge in the general
search space as much larger companies such as Google, Microsoft, and
Yahoo roll out more features, such as desktop and multimedia search.

Although Vivisimo has been profitable for the past two years, it will
need to focus on niche search markets in order to grow in the consumer
search space. Vivisimo's unique search technology could be used to
produce superior results for health care, travel, or other
industry-specific searches. Founder Raul Valdes-Perez, who started
Vivisimo with two other CMU researchers and a $1 million grant from
the National Science Foundation, says Clusty will gain market share
because it makes Web searching easier. Vivisimo also provides
enterprise search tools and licenses its technology to popular
consumer Web sites.