Death of a Search Engine
May 1 -- In the Internet shakedown, jobs aren’t the only things that hang in the balance. Web sites with unique technologies and approaches are also falling by the wayside — despite cadres of loyal users. One of the latest: InFind.com
InFind was one of many meta-search Web sites — search engines that explore other search engines, such as Excite, Lycos, and Yahoo!, and group the results in one easy-to-read list. Many favored InFind’s technique because it saved the time and effort of doing multiple searches. And usually, users found just what they were looking for.
But that was then.
Unceremonious End
Go to the site now, and the only message posted — as concise as InFind.com had been efficient — says: “Attention: This website is out of service.”
What initially worked as a public service experiment failed as a commercial venture, when InFind was spun off from its parent, Inference Corp., in February 2000.
At the time of the transition, there was reason to be optimistic. Company officials said the site was attracting “more than 500,000 hits and 35,000 visitors per day, strictly based on word-of-mouth promotion from loyal users.” A news release touted a core of interested investors.
Allan Kaplan, president of InFind, now explains from his offices in San Francisco that the site simply “ran out of capital” and ceased operations in March. While he declines to divulge further specifics about InFind’s performance or the fate of its employees, he says, alluding to the recent economic downturn, “the world has changed” and “investors simply have not been swayed.”
Meta-search engines don’t appear to have the same costs as traditional search engines because they have no database to maintain. And unlike other search engine sites, InFind didn’t hobble their search pages with online advertisements. But as the demise of InFind indicates, there’s no guarantee of survival.
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