2011 Could be the Year of the Search Engine, if 2010 is Any Indication

As we pull up on the end of 2010, it’s kind of hard to tag this year to one monumental moment in SEO. This is simply because so many things occurred.The ongoing Google/Facebook spat saw both sides releasing updates and improvements and redesigns, etc. throughout the latter half of the year. Is Google Instant Previews really more important than Facebook Places? Only time will tell.

But one area of SEO that was very busy – and really didn’t get that much press – was in the development of new search engines. Here's a review of the four new contenders who head into 2011 hoping to grab at least a piece of the action.

Quora: Billed in the press as a type of search engine, Quora calls itself as an online knowledge market. It doesn’t so much help you find information as much as it lets you ask questions, which other Quora users can answer or not. It's up to you to check on their authority.

Advantages: If someone has answered a question in the ballpark of the answer you chose, you might find the information you need.

Disadvantages: While probably millions of questions have been posed, very few answers seem to exist so far on Quora. It does not appear to be catching on.

Swingly: You could call Swingly a spiffed-up version of Ask.com. But you'd be selling it short. Its developers have gathered together more than 100 billion question and answer pairs of information. All of the info provided in a Swingly question is accessed from other web sources, like a traditional search engine.

Advantages: Swingly can offer answers to virtually any fact-based question in a flash. By paring down the search parameters, the answers provided can be extremely succinct.

Disadvantages: Swingly is NOT very good at all with speculative or opinion-based questions. Questions starting with the word “Did” or "Will" can cause confusion. Also, it's a bit confusing to figure where to click to go to your chosen result site.



Blekko: Blekko invites the user to “slash” search, literally, by breaking down search queries using a slashtag. For example, if you want to look at political websites that appeal mostly to conservatives, for example, you can enter “political/conservative” and the first results to come up are for Fox News. Type “political/liberal” on the other hand, and results for more liberal sites appear (Washington Monthly, Huffington Post, etc.).

Advantages: Blekko is capable of searching by categorical breakdown, as opposed to simply raw terms that have a page in common. This is why you can pull up conservative or liberal pages, for example, as opposed to just pages with those words on them.

Disadvantages: It's “geeky.” "Normal" people don’t want to have to add an action (separate terms by anything other than a comma) in order to get results. They want answers now. By adding a task before getting a result, Blekko leaves impatient searchers behind.

Qwiki: The latest addition to the search engine field, Qwiki is currently in Alpha testing (go to Qwiki.com to get on their troubleshooter list). You're in for a surprise. Enter a term into the search window (Qwiki says there are 2,000 entries at the moment, but experimenting with it implies if it’s in Wikipedia, you’ll get results), and you’re treated to a 30-second, audio visual summary of your product.

Advantages: It sure is fun! Qwiki should prove to be very popular in schools.

Disadvantages: What’s the point? That’s what most people will ask about various aspects of Qwiki. You get the idea that Qwiki was developed in the hopes that one of the big guys – Google or Bing, for example -- will buy it and incorporate it into their search engines.

Own a Small Business? Mashable Serves Up Five Problem –Solving Sites

Mashable.com’s Ben Parr owns a small SEO-related startup business – namely, Mashable.com. Like any small business owner, he’s often faced with decisions that he’s never encountered before. What’s more, his mentors and co-workers frequently have no answer either. This caused him to do what millions of entrepreneurs do when they need a question answered – he turned to the internet. Then he compiled “5 Online Tools for Answering Your Small Business Questions.” The five sites he finds most helpful for answer his own questions (and believes you’ll benefit from them too) include:

• Quora – A Q&A tool that allows users to ask primarily technological and startup-related questions. It’s particularly known for being the place to reach prominent CEOs and technological experts online. You can also read posts grouped by topic.
• OnStartups Answers - As the name implies, this site caters to founders of startup businesses and the particular problems they may have getting and keeping the ball rolling.
• Hacker News. This is a friendly “startup-centric” community. Its members are very open to questions and frequently go out of their way to help get something answered.
• Twitter: This social media staple could be your immediate access to advice from other entrepreneurs you are following online.
• OPEN Forum: The active discussion areas at this American Express site allow you to ask questions and get them answered quickly. While it’s not Parr’s first choice, as he says, “it can’t hurt to ask.”

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