Blekko - the new Google killer launched

DPA
London, November 06, 2010

First Published: 13:37 IST(6/11/2010)
Last Updated: 14:11 IST(6/11/2010)

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A new Internet search engine called Blekko which relies on recommendations from other users, has been launched and hailed as a ‘Google killer’. It filters out poor quality and irrelevant websites, which its founders claim have overrun the web and dominate search engine results, reports the Daily Mail.

It works by using humans to pre-select the most useful sites on key topics and then limit searches to those alone.

So-called 'content farm' websites, which are manufactured to score highly on searches but have little real information will be weeded out, as will pornography and spam.

According to Blekko’s founder Rich Skrenta to goal is no less than to ‘clean up web search and get all the spam out of it’.

On Blekko users can search using a word such as ‘global warming’ and come up with results as per usual.

Where it differs is with the use of ‘slashtags’, or different words separated by a slash.

If a user searches ‘global warming / green’ it would bring up only environmental websites to do with green groups or issues.

Similarly a search for ‘Paris Hilton /noporn’ would avoid any pornographic websites associated with the Hilton heiress.

Blekko has also taken steps to be more open than Google.

Next to every single search result is a small button marked ‘spam’ which allows the user to remove that website from their searches forever.

And unlike Google, the search rankings are completely transparent and can be accessed by simply adding ‘rank’ as a slashtag.

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