Show Mamma Health Where it Hurts
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Written By Reprise Media | June 21, 2005 | Share This
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Fast on the heels of Yahoo’s subscription-based search comes search small fry Mamma.com’s “Me too!” launch of the first of several deep web search verticals.
Outfitted with a clean interface and a cartoon nurse that makes even Nurse Ratchet look comely in comparison, Mamma’s Health Search promises a “search experience unlike any other” according to Guy Faure, CEO.
As Dan Farber says in this post on the Between the Lines blog, we’re a bit skeptical of Mamma’s claim to ‘deep web search’. It seems this could easily become one of those buzzwords that’s tossed about with little regard to what it actually means.
Searching the deep web is about more than crawling deep into highly relevant, hand-picked sites (not a bad tactic, mind you). It’s about accessing content that’s otherwise not linked to, only available via database query, password-protected, etc. Not sure if Mamma’s doing that here. Wikipedia has an expanded definition.
While we like Mamma’s current lack of sponsored links and results relatively untouched by the major drug companies, it’s still got a ways to go. With a new study saying it’s harder than ever for Americans to access credible medical information, it’s time is due.
Topics: Search: Innovations |
As a veteran watcher of Canadian penny stocks, mostly in the mining industry, it’s clear to me that Mamma.com is a “press release company.”
A press release that says “Blackjack Resources is staking a potential new uranium deposit in Lithuania” costs nearly nothing. But it gets the players trading the stock, and allows the stock to stay liquid. Mamma is the same thing, nothing more. They are serious about none of this.
To put it more simply: it’s a pump and dump. Always has been.