You know, if someone told me that MC Hammer started a search engine, I wouldn’t think they were being too legit with me. I would be like, “Alright, STOP…”
Bad MC Hammer puns aside, it seems he (with a team) has created a legit offering for the search space! Labelled “WIREDoo,” this new search engine appears to be serious business and looks geared to take on search engines like Google by offering a completely different set of results based on an algorithm that cares not about keywords, but rather, relationships and locale.
To be honest, it’s really weird to hear MC Hammer speak so intelligently about the search space, user experience, relationships, etc. Not that he seems like an unintelligent person or anything; it’s just such a contrasting role from his roots as a musician. Imagine Larry Page or Sergey Brin (co-founders of Google) all of a sudden cutting tracks like Eminem. It would be a bit odd, right?
Anyway, check out the video below and just listen to MC Hammer’s clear vision for WIREDoo, what it will offer, and how he became involved with search in the first place:
As MC Hammer notes in the video, WIREDoo has yet to go public, but they’re expecting to open the doors sometime in December. From my understanding, this is solely due to WIREDoo’s UI not yet being complete. The algorithm appears to be ready to roll with the queries.
The whole idea of relationship-based search (or social search; whichever you prefer) is fascinating to me, and many of the thought leaders and figureheads within the search space seem to think it is the future of search. But the juggernauts of the search and social spaces (Google, Facebook, etc.) are already gearing up to not only prepare for such a shift, but to make it happen in the first place.
Will MC Hammer find himself in the right place at the right time with WIREDoo, or will it just be one of many left in the wake of 800-pound gorillas like Google? Take MC Hammer’s celebrity status out of the equation (which, let’s face it, is the only reason anyone is talking about WIREDoo right now) and what’s the product we have? That’s the premise I will be testing WIREDoo under once it goes public. In the mean time, you can sign up here and they will inform you when they’re ready for your search queries to hit their servers.
For you hacker types, there appears to be some interesting things indexed in Google where WIREDoo is concerned, so don’t miss that.
I’m really interested in what you, the readers, think about this. The last thing many of us need is another search engine, but could you be swayed to search in a manner differently than what a search engine like Google currently provides? Would you rather make a purchase based on the recommendations of friends and family over a keyword-based search algorithm?
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!
-Stephen Chapman
Related Content:
- How to Become a Search Ninja: Harnessing the True Power of Google - Part 1
- Search ninja part 2: How to find older versions of software (and much more)
- Porn, piracy, and personal data: Universities providing more than just education
- Harvard.edu: An Ivy League pornographic playground
- Beware: Social Security numbers available online via indexed tax documents
