A Tale of Two Engines: Yokel, eBible
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Written By Reprise Media | May 10, 2006 | Share This
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News of a couple new vertical engines caught our eye today; one specializes in the earthly matter of shopping, the other with, well, the earthly matter of searching the bible on the internet.
Because ‘Yahoo’ was, um, kind of already taken We wouldn’t say we’re slack-jawed from our first look at Yokel, but the new local shopping engine (in beta) is off to a decent start (via Search Engine Watch). Using patent-pending tech (says the press release), Yokel delivers results from chain stores and smaller operations that are “tailored for local shopping.”
Already claiming national reach, Yokel is looking to develop sites specific to the U.S.’s ‘top cities;’ they already have one up and running for their hometown, Boston. Search for products by city or zip code, and Yokel points you to the sites of nearby brick-and-mortar businesses that carry such items in stock. One of the biggest obstacles facing local shopping engines (Yokel included) is the fact that they can’t yet realistically provide real-time inventory info, particularly because many mom-and-pop stores don’t even have internet presence yet. Greg Sterling examines the problem in SEW’s two-fisted coverage.
“Seek and ye shall…” etc., etc. Looking for a quick way to access the lineage of Methuselah? Pretty soon, eBible is going to be just the ticket. Techcrunch posted a review of the forthcoming biblical engine, currently in private beta.
eBible offers a number of different versions of the good book, which can be searched by keyword and compared side-by-side. It also returns relevant info from additional reference sources and includes “expert commentary;” Techcrunch calls it “a good one.”
We only wish we could get in to take a peek ourselves, but currently the site is ensconced within its own Holy of Holies. It suggests you “suck up to one of the current beta users for an invite” if you want a closer look - not your father’s bible search engine! By the way, we like the name…so simple, so easy to spell, so year 2000.
Topics: Search: Vertical |