Google has had several competitors over the years, but none have been able to overtake the search giant. Companies such as Bing, Yahoo!, and DuckDuckGo have all tried their hand, but Google still controls roughly 90% of the search market.
The success of the search engine can be attributed to its ability to provide quality, relevant results to searchers. It has consistently been at the forefront of developing an algorithm that can match the needs of searchers.
Former Google vice president of Ads and Commerce Sridhar Ramaswamy, on the other hand, believes the search giant has flaws. He left the company in 2018 after 15 years to launch his own search engine, Neeva.
What Is Neeva?
Neeva is a search engine that is ad-free and requires a subscription to use. It is compatible with personal accounts such as Microsoft Office, Dropbox, and Google. Users can search their personal documents, such as emails, presentations, and more, in addition to the web.
The search engine will rely on Bing search results rather than being built from the ground up. It will also pull data from various sources, including weather.com, Apple Maps, and Intrinio stocks.
Greylock Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Ramaswamy himself have invested $37.5 million in the company. There is a waiting list to subscribe to the search engine, and the first users get free access until the end of the year. Users can expect to pay less than $10 per month after the first year.
Advantages Of Neeva:
The idea behind being ad-free is that it will allow Neeva to focus solely on providing a high-quality user experience. Ultimately, the hope is that this will result in a better product in the long run.
Historically, the ad-free subscription model has disrupted large, established industries. Subscription-based streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu, for example, have sparked the cord-cutting revolution that is obviating the need for cable television. Streaming services are now more popular than cable or satellite television.
There are obvious drawbacks to the paid subscription model, especially when compared to free ad-based models. According to Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of search engine DuckDuckGo, this is the case. He claims, "... you have to be free because Google will always be free."
DuckDuckGo is an ad-supported search engine that respects users' privacy by not selling data to advertisers. Between 2015 and 2019, the search engine's total queries increased nearly 400%. The search engine's meteoric rise can be attributed in part to consumers' growing concern about data privacy.
Neeva will provide users with similar safeguards and even has a Digital Bill of Rights outlining their privacy principles. Neeva has no reason to store or mine user data because it is ad-free. Account linking and search history are examples of user behaviour that will be used to personalise their experience.
Closing Thoughts:
Google is a massive incumbent that will have to go to great lengths to compete. Having said that, Neeva's small stature and agility can work in her favour.
Google's $115 billion advertising division is under intense pressure from shareholders to continue profiting. As long as this is the case, they will continue to skew search results in favour of ads. This is especially true after they recently promoted Prabhakar Raghavan, the former head of advertising, to the position of head of search.
Neeva may prove to be a more trustworthy source of information by protecting user data and providing users with access to content not available on other search engines. This new model has the potential to change the way we search and navigate the internet. At the very least, the establishment of Neeva demonstrates that even the most powerful corporations have gaps to fill.
Keep up to date with new information regarding this reimagined search engine with ITsGuru.
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