Search Challengers Are in Hot Pursuit of Google

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Another startup, Mahalo.com, uses a staff of people instead of computer algorithms to organize search results for the most popular search terms. That helps eliminate unhelpful sites and save time.

Then there's Microsoft, which has tried unsuccessfully for five years to slow Google. When the software giant relaunches its search engine later this spring, it's likely to focus on giving people all the tools and sites they need to accomplish a given task, such as booking a hotel room in the city they're flying to. "[Users are] looking for insight and knowledge rather than just links that navigate you to a Web site," says Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice-president of Microsoft's Online Audience Business Group.

Google isn't standing still. Already, its searches usually return not just text links to Web sites but also photos, maps, and other information. On Mar. 24, Google unveiled a technology that helps it understand the meaning of words and their associations with similar words. For instance, if you search "Star Trek," you get videos, news on the new movie, and a list of related searches at the bottom of the page, such as "spock star trek." "You should expect to see great new things in the next few years," says Udi Manber, Google's vice-president of engineering for core search. "We should just solve your problem."

But the main reason the new services face steep odds is that they're not yet businesses—or not lucrative ones. Google's huge impact was not so much in search technology but in perfecting a way to make a lot of money by matching relevant ads to search results. Wolfram says his company can profit in several ways, including by posting advertising alongside search results and by licensing WolframAlpha technology to companies to help them crunch internal data. He says he may yet turn to an established Internet company, such as Google or Yahoo! (YHOO), to develop the advertising business. "There are certainly discussions along those lines," Wolfram says. "We're open to all sorts of partnerships."

Hof is BusinessWeek's Silicon Valley bureau chief.

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