Alternative Searching

BusinessWeek: They aren’t the only ones coming to that conclusion. Increasing numbers of Web surfers are going to alternative search engines, which specialize in finding certain kinds of information or offering additional capabilities to well-known search sites.
Though exact data is hard to come by, entrepreneurs say venture capitalists are sinking new money into search startups. Tech pundits believe that if one area has lots of room to grow, it’s search, given that advertising sales in the field alone are expected to increase more than 40% this year. “I do believe there’s every opportunity for another company to become another Google,” says Ken Cassar, an analyst with researcher Nielsen/Net Ratings in New York.
Hoping to become just that, a trickle of new search sites is turning into a flood. On Mar. 21, AOL launched a test version of its new travel search site, PinpointTravel.com. Nextaris.com, which allows customers to search for and share online files, opened its virtual doors on Mar. 7. Yang and Yun plan to introduce their new shopping search site, Become.com, in April. Indeed, even Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban invested in search engine IceRocket.com last year.
Search, the Next Generation [BusinessWeek]