Everyday new search engines rise through the ranks just enough to get a mention on a blog or two; and most of them turn out to offer nothing except regurgitated or outdated results scraped from some other useless engine, but sometimes they offer something unique.
Stumpedia, a new human powered search engine, came on the scene in early 2008 but didn’t make a big splash, in fact, they got by me which is rare – I’m always looking to get behind someone that can give Google a run for their money. Thanks to our ever-evolving love of social networking, people of the web may be ready to accept a new engine with some pretty groovy capabilities.
According to a press release from Stumpedia,
“Stumpedia.com will enable users around the world to share their knowledge and interests with one another and provide an alternative to traditional search. Users are encouraged to create custom content pages for any possible search term in the world and links that will help people find relevant results and answers to their search requests. Links to social bookmarks, social profiles, blogs, news stories, authoritative articles, videos, images, and web pages are welcomed.”
The simple fact that Stumpedia is just now being recognized may be a blessing in disguise. Last year, social networking was big, but not this big. These last few months, people have fallen in love with Twitter like never before, StumbleUpon has been brought back to its original family of developers and Facebook is getting a new facelift. This wouldn’t be possible without people-power.
If, like me, you’re ready for search to breakout of the ordinary and into the extraordinary, I encourage you to drop in at Stumpedia, give their engine a whirl, setup an account and post a link to your site or blog – play around with it a bit. Then tell all of your friends because honestly, we need something different – it has been too many years with Google and Yahoo. We need a change and what a better way than incorporate search engine technology with social networking.