kivanmaharaj.com

It would seem that most people are predicting that Google will control 90% of all search within the next 6 to 12 months. This is obviously going to lead Google to being labled a monopoly. The only difference between Microsoft and Google is that with Google users can move to other search engines and advertisers can go and find other companies to work with. They use Google by choice. This becomes difficult for governments to slap Google with huge fines as they have not shoved their tools and applications down users throats. Users want to use Google as it is the preferred place to find what you need.

Cuil came into being fairly recently and it is being touted as the Google killer. This is the wrong apporach to take as Google has been in the business for more then 10 years. They also have a revenue model to keep growth running at a furious pace.

If I was Cuil my strategy would have been to do low level marketing and get the guy on the ground to test the search quality. Universities are a great place to start. If they like it then they will be your viral marketing tool. A PR company will hype your product as they get paid to do so. A user has no financial reward so their recommendation is worth more.

Cuil has a long way to go and I think that they really need to think about the next steps carefully before jumping in. You can not have sporadic uptime either as a user will only come once then return to Google or any of the other engines they were using before.

It would be great to see a new search engine come and take a share of the Googles market share but you need to come up with something innovative. Browserank does not cut it for me (Hint hint) or any other type of rank. We would need to start thing out of the Google box if you are going to be anywhere near successful in this battle.

I would take some hot grads from university that have a passion for building the next Google , dump them in a house (big brother style except no cameras) for 1 year with pizza delivery and a credit card with $1 000 000 and see what they come up with.

I will be checking out Cuil from time to time to see if there are imporvements in their search quality. Good luck to them and any other search startup.

Captains Log: Thursday 31 July 2008

It seems we are back on track with development and have put planning together to move a rapid rate to get things done and dusted. Whew, what a relief. It is hard wearing so many caps at once, just the balancing act can tire you out.

I spent a good 1.5 hours discussing what needs to be done and how we are going to get it done. I am sure we would have made some really good progress by Friday night.

While wearing the developer cap, I decided that I need to put on the sales and marketing cap as the development is back on track and soon we will need to work out how to derive maximum revenue from the application. My credit cards are bleeding red ink and the bank is gladly nailing me with an assortment of charges. Hopefully in the next 12 months I can bring that under control.

It is always hard when you have to do alot at once, but I intend to get it right and make my mark.

So keeping on watching and hopefully soon you will see some progress.

Captains Log: July 30 2008

Well another day passed and not much work done on the product. It can be a bit demotivating when you are hyped about a project and it is not moving at the pace you would like it to. I am sure with the few days lost we will definitely catch up in the week ahead.

Hopefully we can get back on track soon.

There are many articles and blogs about the new search kid on the block stated by ex-googlers. Unfortunately many of the comments are not positive, but you cannot judge the product after using for an hour and it being up for a few hours. I have played around with Cuil and they have an interesting interface but I have to admit some searches don’t give any results ,that Google gives many results for. I would suggest we give it a chance and lets review it after 5 months. That would give them a fair chance to fix bugs and get user feedback.

Search is a tricky animal and you need to really look at it from all angles of the user expierence before going ahead and building the next search king. This is not the end and I think that there will be many more competitors coming to market and trying to unseat Google. I don’t think Google will be king in the next years as someone in some university dorm is building the next Google. Sometimes it takes a small team with fresh thinking then a seasoned team with in depth knowledge as the less you know the more broadly you tend to think about problems.

So let us monitor Cuil and see if they improve the search expierence.

Captains Log: Monday July 28 2008

Due to power failures we were unable to do anything  so another day gone by with little progress.

On a brighter note I see cuill has launched and the current hype around it is that it is a serious Google competitor. Will it actually chip away that market share is currently unknown but in order to get traction it needs to build a loyal user base. Technology is one thing but passionateusers are another. We have seen simple sites become giants in its own right. Take a look at craigslist as an example. Simple idea , not fancy technology but a loyal and passionate user base.

My suggestion is to build that base of users like Google has. With out that base no search engine will gain enough traction to chip that ever growing market share Google is gaining.

So good luck to Cuill, while I carry on with my venture.

Captains log closed.

Well I decided to change the title on my story a little bit. I was thinking I don’t want to end up with part 10999. So another day and another issue. Today has been relatively quite as most Fridays are. People generally don’t want to do much as the weekend is already on their minds. I have decided to not do too much , just catch up on a few things and get ready for monday.

Maybe I will do some reading on the weekend on certain areas of technical topics that are relevant to the current project at hand ,which could assist the team in increasing the speed and progress of the project.

I have  also decided to post everyday from now on.

Well everyone enjoy the weekend.

Cheers

According to Nielsen mobile internet usage is on the rise. This actually makes perfect sense as there are more mobile phones in the world then PC’s. Most handsets today have some sort of mobile browser capabilities. This allows people across the planet to connect and surf.

Most sites these days are also built for the mobile phone. I think the next phase of thinking is how do we assist micro business to connect to the internet via a mobile phone and increase their revenue.

Here are some graphs from Nielsen

I have been doing some research on web 3.0 and started looking at the advertising side of it. The biggest question is what will web 3.0 advertising be like and how will it work. Relevancy is the most important part ,but how do we balance relevancy and privacy. We can look at Facebook as an example of how not to try web3.0 advertising.

My biggest question is how will that type of advertising work on mobile users. I will exapnd on this further later on as I get more information. Should you have some ideas please post a comment.

Well my project is kinda running behind schedule and obviously I am getting a little worried as competition in the space heats up. I think for anyone starting a company where time moves at a speed of light, it can be a little worry some when you see things slipping. As an startup guy you have at least 20 things on your mind which you need to run through.

The question is what do you prioritize as in most cases all are important. The main thing is that you should never let everything overwhelm you as then you are just asking for your dream to fail.

What I have decided to do is take the slip in time and focus on the other matters as the guys finish with development. There is no use sitting and worrying about it as that will not make it go any faster. I am sure for those expierenced with what I am saying you fully understand the process of maximising your time.

I would like more views on this and how you handle these type of situations.

Well life on the startup road is always interesting and we learn so much each day. One of the most important thing for a startup is to read read read. Make sure you keep in touch with who is coming online to compete. If you don’t keep in touch with your competition and what they are doing and how much they are getting funded , you stand to lose alot more as a heads up allows you to keep a fluid startup flowing.

There is so much to do that one has to wonder when a person gets to sleep. 24 hours is just not enough. I think alot has to do with the thrill of not knowing what is coming ,yet excited about what you could encounter.

I feel that with any startup especially a startup  in the web space you have to move 10 times faster just to keep up.We all know that there are some startups working 24/7 to build a super product and eat your lunch. If you have a small team getting this across is so important as people do get demotivated when you have worked hard and see your lunch being eaten with out you even getting a bite.

Many companies are currently bootstrapping so every penny wisely spent will help in building the business. Keeping in mind that if you have a small team motivating them in small ways always help like a team lunch even if it is pizza and coke.

This is just some of my thoughts on my journey through the maze.