Teoma Aims To Kill Google

gwernol writes: "SFGate.com has an interesting article on the relaunch of Teoma's search engine. They are trying to topple Google as the leading search engine. If their technology delivers on its promise then it will at least be some real competition for Google which can only be a good thing."

Similar to

[Joe the Lesser]

So Teoma is basically the Kia of the search-engine industry no?

I don't think so

[Kizzle]

Even if it is as good as google, its still not going to kill it. Google is the search engine everyone knows and loves. Unless this engine comes out with some great feature like reading your mind instead of you needing to type, It's not gona take away too much of google's traffic.

Re:Ask.com?

[great throwdini]

Did ask.com buy out teoma?

It isn't too hard to follow the link labeled Press Information [teoma.com] at the Teoma site [teoma.com] to find another link to the Search Engine Watch [searchenginewatch.com] report entitled Ask Jeeves Acquires Teoma [searchenginewatch.com] from Ovtober, 2001.

The good folks [teoma.com] at Teoma [teoma.com] were even nice enough to excerpt the following:

"Ask Jeeves has purchased the Teoma search engine, which has attracted interest over recent months as a potential relevancy challenger to Google."

You may even notice that Ask Jeeves [ask.com] is plastered all over the contact page [teoma.com]. I don't think they're hiding the connection between the two brands from anyone.

Has the use of search engines [google.com] impaired our ability to follow links from one document to the next?

Heck, a Google search of your exact question [google.com] led to the NewsTrove tracking of the assimilation [newstrove.com]. Then again, the other results were a little iffy. ;)

It lookes nice and all...

[dotgod]

but Teoma doesn't have a h4x0r mode [google.com] like Google.

Trying it out...

[Pathwalker]

When it all comes down to a final reckoning, there is only one search engine attribute that we all care about:

How well we show up when doing a vanity search.

Let's see how the search engines stack up:

1. Searching on my real name.

When I search on my real name on both Google [google.com] and Teoma [teoma.com], my personal web page [ofdoom.com] comes up as the first hit. Furthermore, on both google and teoma, 70% of the hits on the first page directly relate to me, although tenoma has a duplicate link.

Both engines preform well in this test.

2. Searching for a handle.

I have used the handle Pathwalker for years - let's see how well it shows up:

On this test, Google [google.com] Lists my webpage [ofdoom.com] on the first screen of hits. Teoma [teoma.com] on the other hand lists a lot of mystical mumbo-jumbo about finding your path in life; none of the info on ME which I am looking for and care about.

Google wins this test hands down.

3. Email searching

Many of my e-mail addresses have contained the string hungerf3 - let's see how many times each search engine can find this:

Google finds 1470 [google.com] hits of that string, all of which appear to relate to me, and of which it considers 21 [google.com] important.
Teoma, on the other hand finds only 13 [teoma.com], but they all appear to be of generally high quality.

Still, google wins this test as well through the sheer amount of information related to me which it can dig up!

Overall, one test was tied, and Google won the others. While Teoma appears to be a good search engine, it just doesn't have enough information about me in it. If they fix this, then I might start using it more...

Here's an even better search engine

[KlomDark]

Try FindItNow [servebeer.com]

Still under development, but seems to work well. Sometimes it even finds what you are looking for before you ask!

Teoma went down to 'frisco...

[Yo Grark]

Teoma went down to 'frisco. They was lookin' for eyes & minds to steal. They were in a bind 'cause they were way behind, and they was willin' to make a deal, when they came across this engine servin' up those webpages nice and hot. Teoma jumped up on a silicon stump and said, "Boy, let me tell you what. I guess you didn't know it but I'm a search engine, too. And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you. Now, you return a pretty good search, boy, but give Teoma their due. I'll bet a RAM Disk of gold against your soul, 'cause I think I'm better than you." The engine said, "My name's Google, and it might be a sin, but I'll take your bet, and you're gonna regret, 'cause I'm the best that's ever been."

Comon'Google, raise up your cache and kick some ass, 'cause hell's broke loose in searches.

Teomahe deals the terms of agreement. "And if you win you get this shiny RAM Disk made of gold. But if you lose, Teoma gets your archive whole."

Teoma opened up their HD case and said, "I'll start this show." And seached "fire flew from his fingertips" and returned "The Path of The Arcane.". boy they indexed slow. Their ram made an evil hiss, a new seach missed and by the phrase resulted this: "The Path of The Arcane."

When Teoma finished, Google said, "Well, you're pretty good, you face-lifted son, but sit down in that chair right there and let me show you how it's done.

Seachin for releavance, go chache go. Returned "The Devil Went Down to Georgia - Charlie Daniels Band" oh oh oh , Feelin Lucky in the first search just go. Google, does your site bite? No, man, no.

Teoma bowed their head because they knew they'd been beat. And they laid that golden RAM on the ground at Google's feet. Google said, "Teoma, just come on back if you ever want to try again. 'Cause I told you once, you son of a gun, I'm the best that's ever been."

- Moral of the story? It takes a second rate search engine to bring doubt, before we fully appreciate the term: "In google we trust", which, surprisingly was found on google, but not Teoma.

-YoGrark

If it's slashdotted...

[Warped-Reality]

Here's a Google Cache [google.com] of the site

:)

Re:Let's Talk About This Tomorrow

[ShoeHead]

We can't wait.

5:00 Pacific Time: Teoma begins to learn at a geometric rate.
It becomes self aware at 2:14 Eastern Time.
In a panic (and because someone asked), Jeeves tries to pull the plug.

Teoma fights back.

+1 Funny?

[great throwdini]

I wrote the above, but I don't understand the mod.

Asking Jeeves [ask.com] the question posed by the OP ["Did ask.com buy out teoma?"] would have been funny. If only because it prominently returns this helpful link:

Where can I learn about Ask Jeeves' acquisition of Teoma Technologies? [ask.com]

This result might also be viewed as funny, in that it partly refutes this claim [slashdot.org] that Ask Jeeves [ask.com] is considered by most an "inferior search engine." Looks to me like it can handle hasty questions [slashdot.org] from five-digit Slashbots [slashdot.org] just fine.

Re:Reasons to use Teoma over Google

[cymen]

Well one of the two adverts or whatever they are called was to rotten.com [rotten.com]... Maybe it slipped through?

Re:Where's Teoma's caching?

[grytpype]

Maybe Teoma could just link to the Google cache.

Re:It lookes nice and all...

[dotslash]

...and Google uses Pigeon Clusters (PCs) to rank using it's proprietary PigeonRank (TM)system. I kid you not. Check this page [google.com] out.

/. Crowd

[sean23007]

I think this will be taken up by the Slashdot crowd, if only for one reason. A simple search for the word "Microsoft." On Google, the first link is to Microsoft's corporate website, the second is to the Internet Explorer Home Page, the third is to Microsoft Help and Support, etc. Teoma yields the same first result, www.microsoft.com, but the second result says Boycott Microsoft and the third is a link to information about the US vs. Microsoft court case.

Now which one of these is more geek friendly? (By the way, I used this Google [google.com].)

Re:For newbies its ok

[Grue]

Yeah, Google is a fucking bitch to use.. All that confusing text.

Where are the ads? I feel so disoriented without advertisements bombarding me.

Jesus, I'm getting defensive about a frickin' search engine. I guess it does have a cult following.

Josh