• ReadWriteWeb , Wednesday, April 23, 2008 12:15 PM

"The overarching theme to AltSearchEngines Day is to encourage the alts to band together and help each other reach the mainstream audience," says Richard MacManus, describing Alternative Search Engines Day, a San Francisco-based event focused on fostering (and funding) innovation in the search space.

Charles Knight, blogger behind AltSearchEngines.com, is leading the initiative to gain more visibility for alternative search engines (which include mobile, health and multimedia search platforms) by encouraging their founders and technologists to work together.

One strategy for increasing overall market share discussed was the idea of "federated search"--like the dashboard provided by Sputtr--which aggregates many of the alternative engines in one window and lets users choose to search on one or all of them. "Another approach is to create a common platform for alts, using APIs and UI standards," MacManus said.

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