With the effluence of Tweets over Michael Jackson's death and the Iranian presidential election, Twitter was once again vaulted to the spotlight as the communications medium unmatched by no other. Its search engine has spawned a number of real-time search engine copycats, trying to solve the problem of how to find what's happening about you and your interests now! Scoopler, backed by Y Combinator, is one such real-time search engine. In this segment, we offer our views on Scoopler, its opportunities, challenges and the market overall. Once again, Jeff Smith, CEO and co-founder of Smule, was our guest host.
We're excited to have Smith once again.
Smith is one of those rare breeds who can deliver substantive comments and out-of-the-box insights with a bit of dry wit and sense of humor. Importantly, he's had a couple successful exits. He founded and took Tumbleweed public and he founded Envoy, which he sold to Novell. So, we figured he'd know a thing or two about advising young startups.
I won't list the observations here. Suffice it to say, we love the category. But to become a big success in search requires significant volume, and significant financing. And, finding the business model will be tricky. Even Twitter hasn't figured that one out yet. We suggested that Scoopler founder AJ Asver talk to David Sifry, who founded Technorati, a search engine for the long-tail, which eventually became an advertising network.
We also discuss competition. Real-time search - which was barely understood a year ago - is all the rage today. There's just-released Collecta, OneRiot, Topsy.com, Almost.at, Crowd-eye and FriendFeed, which recently integrated a search feature. In many ways, Scoopler is also Kosmix writ small.
All this said, Asver did a nice job delivering his pitch. Short and sweet and succinct. He seems to understand the company's value proposition. So, Scoopler is worth keeping an eye on.
As Smith said: "Have at it, AJ."
Founder and CEO of Vator, a media and research firm for entrepreneurs and investors; Managing Director of Vator Health Fund; Co-Founder of Invent Health; Author and award-winning journalist.
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Kosmix was acquired by Walmart in May of 2011 to create @WalmartLabs.
Through the innovative fusion of retail, social and mobile, @WalmartLabs is redefining Commerce for the largest retailer worldwide. We are a group comprised of the brightest technologists and businesspeople in the industry, excited about the limitless opportunities that this next generation of Commerce will bring to billions of people around the globe, all in an effort to help them save money and live better.
Kosmix was funded by Time Warner Investments, Accel Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Dag Ventures, private investor Ed Zander and Jeff Bezos' personal investment company, Bezos Expeditions.
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WalmartLabs is hiring.
http://www.walmartlabs.com/open-positions/
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Scoopler is a real-time search engine. We aggregate and organize content being shared on the internet as it happens, like eye-witness reports of breaking news, photos and videos from big events, and links to the hottest memes of the day. We do this by constantly indexing live updates from services including Twitter, Flickr, Digg, Delicious and more. When you search for a topic on Scoopler, we give you the most relevant results, updated in real-time. Scoopler was created by AJ Asver & Dilan Jayawardane, and launched in Private Beta in April 2009. You can usually find us in San Francisco or London. We are a Y-Combinator funded company.About the Company
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Smule develops interactive sonic applications for the iPhone and other technology platforms. Smule is developing the new sonic network, connecting users across the globe through expressive audio. Smule's Ocarina, I Am T-Pain, and Leaf Trombone have set the standard for iPhone applications, combining innovative uses of the hardware with compelling social experiences.
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FriendFeed makes it fun and easy to share and discuss web pages, photos, and videos with your friends and family.
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The recognized authority inthe blogosphere, Technorati collects, organizes, highlights and distributes theonline global conversation, surfacing this content to millions of consumers.Founded as the first blog search engine, Technorati has become the definitivesource for the top stories, opinions, photos and videos emerging across news,entertainment, technology, lifestyle, sports, politics and business. Technoratitracks not only the authority and influence of blogs, but also the mostcomprehensive and current index of who and what is most popular in the blogosphere. The Technorati Media network matches bloggers and social media creators with marketers who want to join the conversation www.technorati.com
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