A Search Engine to Watch

The other day reading some of the raw data from my Google Analytics report one unknown domain catched my eye and of course, there I go, to see what this url is about.

It ended up being a search engine, called Hakia, a development still in beta but with great potential if it is done right.

Part of the approach that can make this search engine different is the "components" they are developing, apparently since 2004. Some of them are:

1. The use of Ontological Semantics

2. Semantic Ranks: Hakia's algorithm, that deploys a collection of methods to score and rank paragraphs that are retrieved from the QDEX system for a given query. The process includes query analysis, best sentence analysis, and other pertinent operations; in this operation there is no keyword matching or Boolean algebra involved.

Last but not least their "conversational systems" that allows people doing a search to go directly to a forum made by people that have performed the same search seems an interesting feature to develop further. Something they seem to be doing, as according to the Hakia Team, more ways of "conversation" will be available soon.

A couple of days ago, when I find their site for the first time, they had a tool to compare their results with Google results. Today I couldn't find that link but from what I remember using it, Hakia results took a couple seconds more to appear but they were better results indeed.

So, my take is that is a product to watch and to use periodically, if anything to see how they can improve results (or not).

You can check them our by yourself at Hakia.com (and let me know how you like it or not!)