• NY Times, Monday, March 13, 2006 10:30 AM

Accoona may be a much less cool name than Google, but that won't stop the Jersey City-based search engine from going after the top spot in search. The new search player has $65 million in funding it plans to use to market itself to the unknowing world, starting with a campaign that includes TV, print, and word of mouth. But, once people know about it, why would they want to switch? Accoona says its search technology doesn't just use keywords and page ranking to come up with results, it can also deliver relevant pages that don't mention the keyword typed into the search box at all. For example, you could type "Oscar winners," in Accoona, and instantly see stories about Philip Seymour Hoffman, George Clooney, and Reese Witherspoon, whether the stories contain that term or not. Analysts The New York Times talked to seemed to like the search engine, but they understand the main problem: "I really like the kinds of searches I can do on there," said one. "Getting people to try it, though, is the big problem. I've seen so many absolutely terrific approaches fail." Accoona may be able to leverage its Chinese heritage to help it attract market share, as it has several exclusive partnerships with official Chinese-government backed communications companies. Ultimately you want to know, can it compete? Well, I personally don't think so. Should you try it? Absolutely.

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